Our Story

About Us

The Alabama Memory Project is a different kind of lynching project. Most studies focus on where and why a person was lynched. This project does as well, but also asks – who were they when they lived?

Who did they love? Who did they leave behind? 

Based at the University of Alabama and inspired by the work of Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. DuBois, and the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, the Alabama Memory Project (AMP) is an ongoing attempt to recapture the lives of the lynching victims and attempted lynching victims in Alabama. 

AMP launched in January 2017 with an initial dataset composed of documented lynching victims between 1877 and 1945 as published by Equal Justice Initiative, the Tuskegee Institute, the CSDE Lynching Database, and Monroe Work Today. Since then, AMP has gathered preliminary data suggesting more than 600 previously undocumented victims between 1865 and 1981. To learn more, click here. 

AMP hosts a yearly research seminar in which undergraduates and graduate students collaborate with community leaders and historians to research victims’ lives. They dedicate their semester to working in local archives, libraries, museums, and published databases to understand the world of the victims and build a testimony to their lives. In many cases, students continue their research for years after completing the course. 

We regularly update the initial dataset with lynchings and attempted lynchings newly uncovered by our project. Please see the counter on the site’s homepage for the most up to date information on our findings. 

Meet the Team

Dr. John Giggie

Dr. Giggie is Associate Professor of History and African American Studies and Director of the Summersell Center for the Study of the South at the University of Alabama. He is the founder and director of the Alabama Memory project.

Isabella Garrison 

Research Director (Raleigh, NC, AMP class of 2017) 

Isabella is a first year Ph.D. student at the University and is the Vivian Malone Fellow in community history. She supervises all undergraduate researchers and manages all existing and new research. As a member of the inaugural Alabama Memory class, she researched victims in Tuscaloosa County. 

Nick Daria 

Technical Director (Tuscaloosa, AL, AMP class of 2019) 

Nick is a senior business major who created the only research management tool of its kind, specific to lynching research. Nick is currently developing an analytical tool for the project that will track changes in lynching narratives across thousands of sources. As a student, he researched victims in Bibb County. 

Alumni and Contributors

Margaret Lawson

Callie Rhodes Outlaw

Brett Bretanowski

Kelsey Bridgeforth

Jacob Crewes

Austin Foss

Alex Hattaway

Danielle Leonardi

John Pace

Mattie Parham

Mariska Perdick

Brynna Snyder

Jana Venable

Faith Walker