A Stone of Remembrance

George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Like any place, Jackson, Tennessee, has its fair share of history, some things worth celebrating and others worth mourning, but all are worth remembering so that we can move forward in hope for change. One of those historically significant events for our community (and hundreds of others across the U.S.) is the brutal lynching of African Americans—not just one, but three. Jacksonians Jesse and Mary Chandler Wooten gave birth to a daughter in 1883.

StoriesGuest ContributorMarch 8, 2019Jackson TN, Tennessee, Cindy Boyles, Jackson-Madison County Community Remembrance Project, racism, reconciliation, George Santayana, lynching, murder, African American, Eliza Woods, Jesse Wooten, Mary Chandler Wooten, Rev. George Hinkle, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Civil War, slavery, poison, Sheriff B.A. Person, Hu Anderson, Robert Cartmell, white supremacy, The Tennessean, New York Times, Ida B. Wells, J.R. Rushing, Eastside Cemetery, Centennial Park, John Brown, Frank Ballard, Equal Justice Initiative, EJI, justice, equality, Indivisible Jackson, Jackson State Community College, Legacy Museum, Montgomery AL, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Maya Angelou, memorial, Mayor Jerry Gist, courthouse, Black History Month, Lauren Kirk, Women's History Month, Melanie Taylor, Mike Booth, A Night of Storytelling, A Night of Storytelling Spring 2019

Winds of Change

The Wizard of Oz. That’s my earliest memory of the power of a tornado. From the time I saw that witch riding a bicycle in the air with that house spinning out of control, the power of a tornado had me under its thumb. As a five-year-old, I had no idea how close I would come to that dominance that struck so much fear in me as a child. West Tennessee, and Jackson in particular, is no stranger to tornadoes. As much as we think tornadoes are an indiscriminate act of nature, they’re not.