The horrific lynchings of Black men, women, and children are often thought to be a racist feature confined to the Deep South. In fact, thousands of lynchings occurred across the United States, and several occurred in Utah: Thomas Coleman was found murdered on what is now the state Capitol grounds in 1866; William Harvey was lynched by a mob of thousands in downtown Salt Lake City in 1883; and Robert Marshall was killed in Price, UT, in 1925. Professor Tabery is part of a team working with Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Cultural Foundation and alongside the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, AL, to memorialize the victims of these heinous acts and to document both the awful history and ongoing reality of racial violence in America. Soil was collected at the sites of the lynchings of Thomas Coleman and William Harvey on June 11, 2022.

For several years, Professor Tabery worked with Sema Hadithi to install a historical marker memorializing Thomas Coleman on the Capitol grounds; however, state political leaders refused permit the installation, claiming it would be too "divisive". On August 25, 2026, Salt Lake City responded by approving the installation of the historical marker just across the street from the Capitol grounds. The historical marker for Thomas Coleman can be found at 300 North and Main Street.    

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The University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library hosts an online, virtual exhibit dedicated to telling the stories of the lynching victims and the circumstances surrounding their violent deaths: Racial Lynching in Utah. The history can also be read in "Thomas Coleman, William Harvey, Robert Marshall: Black Men Lynched in Utah", published in the Utah Historical Quarterly, and authored by Professor Tabery and other members of the Sema Hadithi team.