The Ed Johnson Conversations, Part I: From St. Elmo To The Trial

In our premiere conversation, Mariann Martin and Judge Neil Thomas take us back to 1906 Chattanooga - and talk about the crime that leads to the arrest of Ed Johnson, his trial and its verdict.

In this conversation, Katharine McCallie Gardner and Ardena Garth Hicks follow the case of Ed Johnson through the appeal process, a legal journey that leads to Knoxville - and then Washington, DC.

In this conversation, the Rev. Paul McDaniel, Eleanor McCallie Cooper and Donivan Brown talk about the members of the St. James Baptist Church who came to the Hamilton County Jail and baptized Ed Johnson in a bathtub filled with water on the last Sunday of his life.

In this conversation, LaFrederick Thirkill and Kevin Bate discuss the violent mob that took Ed Johnson from his cell in the Hamilton County Jail on the night of March 19th, 1906 - and took his life on the Walnut St. Bridge.

In this conversation, Judge Curtis Collier and Eric Atikins discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s intervention in the Ed Johnson case after his lynching on Chattanooga’s Walnut St. Bridge.

In this final conversation in our series, Mariann Martin, Eric Atkins and Steve Derthick of The Ed Johnson Project talk about the memorial in this century for remembrance, reconciliation and healing at the south end of Chattanooga’s Walnut St. Bridge.

In 1906, Ed Johnson was dragged from his jail cell and lynched on the Walnut Street Bridge here in Chattanooga.

A memorial at the bridge is expected to be complete next year.

Construction began recently here in Chattanooga on The Ed Johnson Memorial at the Walnut Street Bridge.

In 1906, Johnson - a 24-year-old Black man - was lynched on that bridge.