Hands Across America Mid-Point

The chain was never quite unbroken, which is part of the story. Organizers from the team behind "We Are the World" asked $10 for a place in line to raise money against hunger and homelessness, and ran the route through state, mile and tenth-of-a-mile captains. Most people joined in cities, so gaps in remote stretches were filled with ribbons, ropes and banners. After costs the event raised about $15 million, well under what organizers hoped. Everyone held hands for fifteen minutes on May 25, 1986, while radios played the song along the route.

What the plaque says

Hands Across America Mid-Point Hands Across America was a public fundraising event when 5 million to 6.5 million people held hands for 15 minutes in an ostensible attempt to form a continuous human chain across the contiguous United States. On Sunday, May 25, 1986, at this location, Ripley was the mid-point of the unprecedented, continuous human chain across 16 states for 4,125 miles when more than five million people held hands for 15 minutes to raise money and awareness of programs to fight adversities, hunger, and homelessness, within the United States.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Alex Haley House Museum — 6.7 mi
  The 1919 bungalow in Henning where Alex Haley heard the family stories behind Roots, now a state historic site and museum with his grave in the front yard.
• Fort Pillow State Historic Park — 19 mi
  A National Historic Landmark on the Chickasaw Bluffs where, on April 12, 1864, Confederate troops massacred Black Union soldiers who were trying to surrender.
• Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School — 23 mi
  The one-room Black school Tina Turner attended in Nutbush, moved to Brownsville in 2012 and opened as a museum in 2014 beside Sleepy John Estes's house.

More markers nearby

• Dyersburg Army Airfield — 12 mi
• Frances Boyd Calhoun — 15 mi
• Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox — 15 mi
• Charles B. Simonton — 16 mi