DOJ finds Memphis police use excessive force: Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive exposes MPD historical racial violence
In December 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report stating the Memphis police department uses excessive force against Black people and “regularly violates” their civil rights.
The DOJ’s findings marked six months of federal investigation into the Memphis Police Department’s methods and practices, following the death of Tyre Nichols in 2023.
Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was restrained by five officers and beaten to death after he fled a traffic stop. He died three days later from his injuries. It is alleged that after the beating officers failed to ensure Nichols received adequate and timely medical care.
The DOJ’s investigation found that “Memphis police officers regularly violate the rights of the people they are sworn to serve.” City officials are currently considering the DOJ’s request to negotiate a consent decree, which would require reforms overseen by an independent monitor and approved by a federal judge.
But the history of racial discrimination, the denial of Black civil rights, and the use of excessive force within the Memphis Police Department can be traced far earlier than the death of Tyre Nichols. This most recent high-profile police killing is the outcome of decades of impunity enjoyed by police who have ended Black lives without suffering any legal consequences.
The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive is home to more than 1,000 cases of Jim Crow-era anti-Black violence, many involving law enforcement. There are several cases in which Black men and women were targeted by Memphis police officers, beaten or shot to death, often while fleeing or while in police custody. These cases demonstrate the entrenched nature of racial prejudice and racialized violence within the Memphis Police Department.
On February 9, 1946, Frank Allen, a taxi driver, was pulled over by two white Memphis police officers for a traffic infraction. Allen, 26, was asked to step out of the vehicle. He was frisked by police officers, who claimed to have felt a pistol in his pocket.
Details surrounding what happened next are unclear, but Allen was shot five times and killed. His death was later ruled a justifiable homicide. The officers’ accounts allege Allen shot at them. Other reports of the killing describe Allen, who was unarmed, being dragged from his cab and shot in a nearby, vacant field.
Almost 13 years prior, in February 1933, Levon Carlock was waiting to escort his wife home from the hotel where she worked as a maid when the 19-year-old Black man was approached by six Memphis police officers demanding to know what he was doing. Unbeknownst to Carlock, a white sex worker living across the street from the hotel had spotted him and contacted officers, alleging that Carlock had attacked her the day before.
The gang of officers brought Carlock across the street to see if the woman could identify him as her attacker. She was unable to as it had been dark when she was assaulted. After his killing, witnesses would come forward to say Carlock had been at home on the night of the attack.
The six Memphis police officers preceded to haul Carlock into an alley beside the hotel, beat and torture him, before shooting him several times. The officers claimed they shot Carlock as he was attempting to escape, but his wounds to the front of his body and head told another story.
Afterwards, one of the police officers reportedly bragged about the killing. The Daily Worker newspaper reported a witness to Carlock’s murder, Fannie Henderson, disappeared following a visit from local police officers. The International Labor Defense, who organized a response and represented Carlock’s widow in seeking justice for Carlock’s killing, had secured Henderson’s affidavit in their prosecution of the officers.
A subsequent coroner’s inquest called one witness, Carlock’s accuser, and the coroner took 10 minutes to determine his murder was justified.
On April 11, 1953, Earl Johnson, a 25-year-old postal worker, was approached in the street by two Memphis police officers. They suspected Johnson was involved in the murder of a white woman. Before an arrest could be made, lest any evidence be presented, Johnson, like Carlock, was dragged into an alley and beaten to death. The officers alleged Johnson fell and hit his head while fleeing. They were both cleared of all charges in connection to Johnson’s death.
The case of Benjamin Franklin Seldon, while not directly involving Memphis police officers, illustrates the systemic nature of racial prejudice, and how Black Memphians’ civil rights were violated by multiple law enforcement departments.
On April 20, 1947, Seldon a railroad laborer, was asleep in the colored waiting room at Central Station in Memphis, most likely after or before his shift. Seldon was awakened and ordered out of the station by an Illinois Central RR Special Agent. The agent alleged Seldon attacked him and tried to grab his blackjack. The agent then shot and killed Seldon. He was held to face a possible indictment for murder, but less than a month later he was cleared of all charges.
Although justice appears to be in motion and accountability sought in Nichols’ case — the officers were fired, charged with murder, indicted by a grand jury on civil rights and witness tampering charges, in some cases convicted and are awaiting sentencing — it is unlikely that any federal oversight of the Memphis Police Department will take place.
Last month, following the inauguration of President Trump, an internal memo was leaked to the press in which it stated that the DOJ will suspend all active litigation being done by its civil rights division. Although the DOJ concluded its investigation into the Memphis Police Department, this freeze makes it unlikely that the federal government will reach an agreement with the City of Memphis for federal oversight through a consent decree.
However, these cases from the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive show a throughline in the racial violence experienced by the Black residents of Memphis at the hands of their own police force, from the first half of the twentieth century to the present day. It remains unclear as to whether or not the City of Memphis can learn from the lessons of history that the Archive so clearly teaches.
Featured image: Memphis Police Dept. Homicide Report, from the case of Frank Allen. Courtesy of the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive.
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