CRP In the News
We are excited to announce that Urban League of the Upstate will partner with Community Remembrance Project as Program Collaborators and our new Fiscal Agent!
The Urban League of the Upstate (ULUS) and the Community Remembrance Project (CRP) of Greenville County, SC are excited to announce a new partnership to work collaboratively on programming that will strengthen our community. The Urban League will also serve as the new fiscal agent for the CRP.
The CRP was formed in the spring of 2019 in collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative’s work to bring the discussion of race and racial injustice to the forefront of our society. “Since our inception, the CRP has engaged in an ongoing process of restorative truth-telling through facilitated community conversations about Greenville’s history of racial violence and injustice,” said CRP Co-Chair Dr. Feliccia Smith. “We are grateful to Mill Village Ministries for serving as our fiscal sponsor for the last three years, and we are grateful to the Urban League for taking up the mantle for the future.”
Mill Village Ministries’ Village Engage has served as a coalition partner to the CRP.
“We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the coalition to present thought-provoking programs,” said Village Engage Program Director Susan Stall. “It has been an honor to serve as CRP’s fiscal agent for the last three years.”
Urban League President & CEO Gail Wilson Awan welcomes this new partnership with the CRP. “The National Urban League is a historic civil rights organization and as an affiliate, we remain dedicated to economic empowerment, equality, and social justice. There is an ever-growing need to address the lack of culturally relevant and historically accurate information on the African American experience. Our signature programs and strategic partnerships take this responsibility seriously. The partnership with CRP is a natural fit. I have great respect for the challenging, necessary work of CRP and we enthusiastically support their efforts to build a future for Greenville County that is first and foremost, rooted in justice.”
The CRP will continue discussion efforts around Greenville County’s history of racial injustice through educational events, erecting historical markers commemorating victims of racial terror, and collecting/exhibiting soil from lynching sites. “We look forward to working with the Urban League because of our shared passion to impact the community we serve.” said Smith.
Learn more about the work of the CRP at remembranceprojectgvlsc.org. More information about the Urban League of the Upstate can be found at urbanleagueupstate.org
About the Urban League of the Upstate:
The Urban League is the oldest and largest community-based organization of its kind in the nation. It is dedicated to the principle of economic empowerment for individuals by providing the tools they need to achieve success. As the leading champion of empowerment for the black community, the Urban League of the Upstate envisions a region where all people are valued members of the community, can adequately support themselves and their families and live in vibrant and thriving neighborhoods.
More News:
Community Remembrance Project exhibit shines light on history of lynchings:
A new, permanent exhibit at the Upcountry History Museum that seeks to shine a light on one of the nation’s darkest periods of racial conflict, was unveiled June 21 .
The exhibit is the culmination of years of work by the Community Remembrance Project of Greenville County to document the four confirmed lynchings that happened in the county between 1881 and 1933.
The new exhibit consists of four containers of soil taken from the sites of the lynchings with details about the events and the men who lost their lives.
The work is in collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative based in Montgomery, Alabama, and seeks to foster racial justice and reconciliation, in part, through a frank appraisal of the nation’s history of racial violence.
Read the rest of the story here
Watch Arthur Mondale’s Interview below:
Watch the Judicial Complicity Video below:
Congratulations to our 2022 CRP Essay Contest Winners!
Press Release written by Ann Green:
Senior at Greenville Tech Charter High School wins essay contest
Alice Madola won the first-place award of $2,500 in an essay contest sponsored by the Equal Justice Initiative and the Community Remembrance Project of Greenville County, SC.
The senior at Greenville Technical Charter High School wrote the essay “Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Black Mental Health.”
Madola, who hopes to become a psychiatrist, plans to attend New York University and study global public health/applied psychology.
“Learning more about the disparities within mental health care was important to me,” she said of the research she did in preparing her essay. “It will make me a better psychiatrist.”
The second-place award ($1,250) went to Blake Sands, a senior at Mauldin High; third-place ($1,000) to Youjaye Daniels, a senior at the SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities; fourth-place ($750) to Lanyah Blueford, a ninth grader at J.L. Mann High, and fifth-place ($500) to Jamari Young, a senior at the SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities.
The awards ceremony was held May 15 at the Governor’s School in Greenville.
The contest was open to Greenville County public school students in grades 9-12. Personnel from the EJI, based in Montgomery, Ala, judged the entries.
To watch the awards ceremony and to see Alice Madola read her essay, go to https://youtu.be/nq3MabxDpVQ.
The essay contest is one component of an ongoing project of the Equal Justice Initiative/Community Remembrance Project. The local CRP group is in the process of recognizing and memorializing four Greenville County victims of lynching identified by EJI: George Green, Tom Keith, Ira Johnson and Robert Williams.
Unveiling of the first of four markers commemorating Greenville lynching victims done by the Community Remembrance Project, Saturday, November 20, 2021. The narrative marker commemorates Tom Keith who was lynched in 1899 after being accused of falling asleep in he same room as white children, according to CRP. The marker was installed in an area where Keith was lynched, a site now owned by Furman University, near Roe Ford Road. (Photograph by Jessica Gallagher, Greenville News Staff)
“Community Remembrance Project explores effect of 'judicial complicity' in Greenville”
The Greenville News by Lillia Callum-Penso
Ruth Richburg, a member of the Community Remembrance Project, places soil from the location that Tom Keith was lynched into a jar during a ceremony honoring Keith at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church Saturday, June 19, 2021 (Photograph by Hannah Wade, Greenville News Staff)
“Greenville Lynching victim Tom Keith memorialized on Juneteenth.”
The Greenville News story by Angelia L. Davis
image from unsplash
“Opinion: Congress must act to ensure voting rights”
The Greenville News story by Jalen Elrod
“Nations first lynching memorial confront legacy of racial terror” USA Today
“4 Black lives ended in lynchings. Here are their stories in Greenville County's history.”
The Greenville News story by Angelia L. Davis
“Greenville lynching victims: Tom Keith "riddled with bullets" in 1899”
The Greenville News story by Angelia L. Davis on Feb 22, 2021
A plaque at the national lynching memorial bears the names of four men lynched in Greenville County between 1881 and 1933. photo by Greenville News staff member Katrice Hardy.
“Black History Month: A look at Greenville lynching victim Ira Johnson”
The Greenville News story by Angelia L. Davis on Feb 8, 2021
Dr. Feliccia Smith speaks at a ceremony for George Green, Saturday November 7, 2020.
“Black History Month: Who are Greenville's lynching victims?”
The Greenville News story by Angelia L. Davis on Feb 1, 2021
“Greenville lynching to be memorialized in virtual community event”
The Greenville News story by Angelia L. Davis on March 22, 2021.
“The Pressure of Guilt” zoom recording Tom Keith Education Event.
A candlelight vigil, followed by prayer, was held in honor of the Tulsa Race Massacre victims, during the Centennial Commemoration event, hosted by the Community Remembrance Project of Greenville County. Photo by Greenville News staff Angelia Davis.
“Through songs and poetry, Greenville community gathers to remember Tulsa Race Massacre”
The Greenville News story by Angelia L. Davis on June 1, 2021
“Racial Truth and Reconciliation through Community Remembrance”
by State of Inclusion Podcast
“Feliccia Smith Leads Effort To Remember 'Uncomfortable Truths'“
The Greenville News story by Kathy Laughlin, June 10, 2021.
This segment from WYFF features Ellen Stevenson, Co-Chair of the Community Remembrance Project of Greenville County.
Ceremonial jars of soil, honoring George Green, were collected to be permanently displayed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama and a location in Greenville County. (Photo by Matt Burkhartt, Greenville News Staff)
“Community Remembrance project remembers Greenville's George Green, murdered 87 years ago.”
The Greenville News story by Tamia Boyd and Angelia L. Davis
“Moving from a 'moment' of confronting racism to real social change.”
Guest opinion column in The Greenville News by Efia Nwangaza and Lynne Lucas, Community Remembrance Project leadership team members
“It could have been me. It’s time for change.”
Guest opinion column in The Greenville News by Jalen Elrod, Community Remembrance Project leadership team member
Coverage of the George Green story from WSPA in 2019.
The Community Remembrance Project story was covered by The Greenville News.
Please visit the Contact page for all media/press inquiries.