Tennessee attempted to put Tony Carruthers to death on May 21. He was subjected to multiple punctures to access his veins for the lethal injection, before Tennessee's executioners declared they could not execute him.

On this day in 1921, white mobs in Oklahoma—outraged that Black residents had organized to protect a Black man from lynching—violently destroyed a prosperous Black community. As many as 300 Black people are estimated to have been killed in the Tulsa Massacre.

On this day in 1930, a white mob stormed the Grady County jail in Oklahoma and lynched Henry Argo, a Black 19-year-old, despite the presence of the National Guard who were ordered to protect him.

On this day in 1943, white sailors and soldiers in Los Angeles attacked Latino youth wearing zoot suits, beating them with belt buckles and ropes and stripping them of their clothes.

On this day in 1930, the U.S. Department of War forced the grieving families of Black veterans killed abroad to travel separately from white families to visit their loved ones’ graves.

On this day in 1830, President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, forcing Indigenous people who had lived in the southeastern U.S. for centuries to migrate west in brutal and dangerous conditions.

On this day in 1892, a white mob destroyed Ida B. Wells's newspaper office while she was away and threatened bodily harm if she returned because she challenged the myth of Black criminality.

On this day in 1924, Congress passed an act completely prohibiting immigration from Asia. While signing the act, President Coolidge remarked, “America must remain American.”

On this day in 2020, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin forcefully pinned George Floyd to the ground and held his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes until he died.

On this day in 1911, a white lynch mob in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma, abducted Laura Nelson, a Black woman, and her young son, L.D., from a jail and hanged them from a bridge.

On this day in 1796, a newspaper ad was placed seeking the return of an enslaved Black woman, Ms. Judge, who fled George Washington's household while in Pennsylvania.

With the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy, the U.S. continues to incarcerate more people than any other country. Nearly 2 million people are locked up in the U.S., according to @prisonpolicy.org’s 2026 report.

On this day in 1917, a mob of thousands of white people brutally lynched a Black man named Ell Persons in Memphis, Tennessee.

On this day in 1961, a white mob terrorized 1,000 Black residents supporting civil rights inside Montgomery's First Baptist Church.

On this day in 1961, a white mob in Montgomery, Alabama, ambushed the Freedom Riders after the city's Public Safety Commissioner offered the Ku Klux Klan time to attack the group without police interference.

On this day in 1918, a white mob from Brooks County, Georgia, lynched Mary Turner, a Black woman who was eight months pregnant, for speaking out against the lynching of her husband the day before.

On this day in 1896, the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Plessy v. Ferguson establishing the 'separate but equal' doctrine as national law and authorizing discrimination in public accommodations.

Visit Montgomery Square, EJI's newest Legacy Site that tells the story of the Montgomery decade that changed the world, 1955-1965. Montgomery Square is open from 9am to 6pm, find more information here: montgomerysquare.eji.org/about/

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation in public education was unconstitutional under Brown v. Board of Education. The decision sparked massive resistance among white segregationists and leaders across the South.

“We have come too far to turn around now.” Bryan Stevenson at the dedication of Montgomery Square. EJI's newest Legacy Site, Montgomery Square, tells the story of the Montgomery decade that changed the world, 1955-1965. Learn more and visit: montgomerysquare.eji.org/

On this day in 1956, white residents of Delray Beach, Florida, burned a cross to terrorize Black residents and prevent them from accessing the city’s segregated public beach.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott launched the modern civil rights movement in America. It is widely regarded as one of the most influential organized campaigns in world history.

Visiting Montgomery, Alabama? Montgomery Square is a must-see. EJI's newest Legacy Site tells the story of the Montgomery decade that changed the world. Plan your visit: montgomerysquare.eji.org/about/

On this day in 1970, police opened fire on a crowd of students at Jackson State College in Mississippi, killing two students and injuring dozens more.

New details have emerged about the horrifying death of Kenneth Gilchrist, 31, who died after being stabbed at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Alabama "after he was not given medical care for an extended period of time.”

On this day in 1961, a mob of 50 white men in Anniston, Alabama, attacked the Freedom Riders with pipes, chains, and bats. The Riders had taken a Greyhound bus to Anniston during a desegregation campaign.

On this day in 1960, six years after Brown v. Board of Education, South Carolina’s legislature passed a bill to stall the integration of racially segregated public schools.

On this day in 1898, Louisiana adopted a new constitution that excluded Black voters and jurors using restrictions like a poll tax and discriminatory literacy and property requirements.

We are proud to announce 37 winners of the 2026 Montgomery Public Schools Legacy Scholarship. Now in its fourth year, the Legacy Scholarship program was created to support students who have demonstrated a commitment to their communities.

On this day in 1926, a white mob in LaBelle, Florida, lynched a young Black man named Henry Patterson for stopping at the home of a white woman to ask for a drink of water.

On this day in 1740, South Carolina barred enslaved Black people from learning to read, earning money, and gathering, and authorized white enslavers to whip and kill them for being "rebellious."

On this day in 1961, 21-year-old John Lewis and two other civil rights activists were severely beaten by a mob at the Rock Hill, South Carolina, Greyhound bus terminal while protesting segregation.

On this day in 2009, members of the Ku Klux Klan in Ozark, Alabama, burned a cross in a residential neighborhood to intimidate Black families living in the area.

Pope Leo XIV recently stated his support for abolishing capital punishment on the 15th anniversary of its abolition in Illinois. "Life is not defined solely by one’s mistakes, which are often the result of difficult and complex circumstances."

On this day in 1955, the Rev. George Lee, the first Black man to register to vote in Humphreys County since Reconstruction, was shot and killed.

On this day in 1882, President Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The first major law restricting voluntary immigration to the U.S., it banned all immigrants from China for 10 years and prohibited them from becoming American citizens.

EJI gathered with civil rights leaders and community members to dedicate Montgomery Square, our newest addition to the Legacy Sites, which tells the story of the Montgomery decade that changed the world.

On this day in 1943, California enacted a statute requiring all marriage licenses to indicate each party’s race so that “no license may be issued authorizing the marriage of a white person with a Negro, mulatto, Mongolian, or member of the Malay race.”

Three black men—James Carroll, John Biggus, and James Bowens—were lynched in Frederick County, Maryland, between 1879 and 1895. On April 18, community leaders and descendants working with EJI dedicated a historical marker in their honor.

On this day in 1921, the Chicago Real Estate Board vowed to maintain residential segregation and voted to expel any member who sold property to Black people where white people lived.

On May 3, 1913, California enacted the Alien Land Law, designed to deny Japanese families their foothold in America by denying them the right to own land.

On this day in 1963, hundreds of Black children began a movement peacefully protesting racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the Children's Crusade and faced intense police brutality, sparking nationwide outrage.

On this day in 1863, the Confederacy declared that all "negroes or mulattoes, slave or free taken in arms" would be returned to authorities in the state and either re-enslaved or executed.

“We have come too far to turn around now.” Bryan Stevenson at the dedication of Montgomery Square on March 31, 2026.

The Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais gutted the Voting Rights Act and, as Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent, “threatens a half-century’s worth of gains in voting equality.”

On this day in 1866, white police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, assaulted Black soldiers, setting off a wave of horrific violence against Black people that lasted several days.

We are thrilled to be welcoming visionary jazz artists Nate Smith and Lizz Wright to Montgomery for a one-night-only concert in Montgomery on Juneteenth. Get your tickets today!

On this day in 1992, an all-white jury in California chose to acquit three of the four officers who violently beat Rodney King during a videotaped arrest. The jury could not agree on a verdict for the fourth officer.

On this day in 1936, a mob of 40 white men in Colbert, Georgia, lynched a Black farmer named Lint Shaw—just eight hours before he was scheduled to go on trial.

On this day in 1899, a white mob in Lee County, Georgia, lynched a Black man named Mitchell Daniel for “talking too much” about the brutal lynching of another Black man days earlier.