Soil collection ceremony in memory of Ted Smith planned for Friday
Jul. 20—This Friday at noon, something that should have never happened in Greenville will be solemnly remembered at the south lawn of the Hunt County Courthouse — the 1908 racial terror murder of Ted Smith — a black man who was burned to death in downtown Greenville by a mob after being accused of raping a white woman.
At the memorial event, Smith's death will be recognized with a soil collection as part of a project through the Equal Justice Initiative, in which jars of earth taken from sites of racial terror are displayed at the Legacy Museum (which is at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama) as well as at locations in Greenville and Hunt County.
Friday's commemoration will not be the only ceremony dedicated to Smith, though.
One week later, on Friday, July 28 at 11:30 a.m., a memorial of life ceremony will be held in his memory inside Judge Andy Bench's 196th District Courtroom.
