Legal and community leaders gathered at the National Civil Rights Museum to discuss the connection between the 1866 Memphis Massacre and a constitutional amendment.
Sunday, a marker was placed at the corner of G.E. Patterson and Second Street.
46 people were killed in the massacre.
Many more were injured and black schools and churches were destroyed. It was an important event legally.
Experts said it influenced the passage of 14th amendment, which provides equal protection under the law.
“How the law protects people but also how people have to be engaged in processes. Because if people don’t really adhere to those things, we can retrench and we can go backwards and it shows what happens when the rule of law breaks down,” Sixth Circuit Court judge Bernice Donals said.
One of the speakers was attorney Bryan Stevenson, who is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
