Salt Lake County Community Remembrance Project

Equal Justice Initiative

Located in Montgomery, Alabama, the EJI is a leading voice in the pursuit of racial justice and remembrance. EJI hosts this nationwide initiative to bolster the chance of success of communities on the county level. The objective is to remember and discuss the history of racial terror in this country in the form of lynchings. The initiative also hopes to address other forms of racial inequities that have existed and still exist in communities of color throughout the United States. These inequities have come in the form of terror, an unfair criminal justice system, housing discrimination, biased historical narratives, limited educational and business opportunities, and health and employment access.

Racial Terror

“During the period between the Civil War and World War II, thousands of African Americans were lynched in the United States. Lynchings were violent and public acts of torture that traumatized Black people throughout the country and were largely tolerated by state and federal officials. These lynchings were terrorism. “Terror lynchings” peaked between 1880 and 1940 and claimed the lives of African American men, women, and children who were forced to endure the fear, humiliation, and barbarity of this widespread phenomenon unaided.”

- EJI

Salt Lake County Community Remembrance Coalition

The Salt Lake County CRP is a coalition of community individuals and organizations with the shared goals of addressing the problems described by the EJI.

The Salt Lake County Coalition’s objectives are:

To publicly remember the victims of racial terror (lynching);
To memorialize the victims and locations of these terror events;
To facilitate ongoing community discussion around racial terror, justice inequities, and other social inequities; and
To help establish legislative and municipal policies that address inequities and cure them.

Bringing Together the Salt Lake Community

The Community Remembrance Project (CRP) is an opportunity for community members to join efforts in making Salt Lake County and the state of Utah a better place to live for everyone. The conversations are difficult but necessary to bring about the unity and peace we all desire. We will do that through a series of "community conversations" and events. These are conversations we hope will enlighten and inform participants.

Community Effort

*Photo from the film “Visit the Museum” by The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). 3 March 2022*

SOIL COLLECTION CEREMONY

Saturday, June 11, 2022, AT 10 AM – 1 PM

2 Locations - See Event Posting

Event by Salt Lake County Community Remembrance Coalition, Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation, UTAH Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society and Ask Mama Alice

2 Locations - See Event Posting

Duration: 3 hr

Public Event

The Salt Lake County Community Remembrance Coalition of Sema Hadithi African American Heritage & Culture Foundation in collaboration and partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama will be hosting a SOIL COLLECTION CEREMONY at the sites of two racial lynchings that occurred in Salt Lake City.

On June 11th, 2022, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, local African American leaders and Utah elected officials will gather at the locations of the horrific murders of Mr. Thomas Coleman (1866) and Mr. William ("Sam Joe") Harvey (1883) to hold a Memorial Ceremony and collect soil from the sites.

*Bessemer, Alabama soil collection event*

The soil will be put into jars which will be sent to The National Memorial for Peace & Justice in Montgomery, Alabama to be displayed alongside the soil of other lynching victims.

We will gather at 10:00 am on Capitol Hill at 300 North and Main Street, near where Mr. Tom was murdered. After a Memorial Ceremony and Soil Collection Ceremony, we will march down the hill and congregate at the site where Mr. William was murdered at the corner of 100 South and State Street. There we will hold a second Soil Collection Ceremony and brief Memorial Ceremony.

The event is FREE and open to the public. Please join us and PARTICIPATE IN THE RESTORATIVE POWER OF TRUTH-TELLING.

Social issues