Tennessee state Senate Democrats are urging officials to “finish the job” to remove the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee State Capitol.
Friday marks the first day the statue can legally be removed, following a 120-day waiting period from the Tennessee Historical Commission vote to remove the bust in March. Friday also marks the one-year anniversary of the vote by the Tennessee Capitol Commission to recommend its removal.
“Our state capitol should be a place that celebrates the values and causes that unite us as Tennesseans,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis). “It was never a place for Nathan Bedford Forrest and now the day has come for us to finally remove his bust from these hallowed halls — and it should be done without delay.”
Sen. Brenda Gilmore (D-Nashville), who has called for removing the bust for decades in the legislature, said state law has been followed and it’s time for the bust to go.
“I have dedicated years of my life to racial justice and one fact I have learned time and time again: To overcome inequality, we must confront our history,” Sen. Gilmore said. “No figure in the modern history of Tennessee better encapsulates this lesson than the bust of KKK grand wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest.
“If we cannot remove a memorial to an enslaver from our state capitol, how can we begin to make progress on equitable school funding, fair policing, and adequate healthcare for all people?” she said. “Removing this bust today does not usher in racial equality, but it shows progress can be made. And the work of justice will continue.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee visited the country’s southern border Friday reviewing “the most severe border crisis we’ve seen in 20 years,” though many called the visit political grandstanding.
Lee visited with 300 Tennessee National Guard members at the Texas border and “evaluat[ing] needs in securing the border.” Lee and other Republican governors sent guard troops to the border at the behest of Texas Governor Greg Abbott who claims, “open-border policies have led to a humanitarian crisis at our southern border as record levels of illegal immigrants, drugs, and contraband pour into Texas.”
Here’s how Lee responded in a tweet before his visit:
The men & women of the Tennessee National Guard are playing a significant role in quelling the most severe border crisis we’ve seen in 20 years. I want to personally commend the more than 300 Tennesseans who are serving our country & on the front lines of this crisis.
But Lee is really only using the trip “to score political points” and using “time and resources for a photo op,” according to Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights (TIRRC) executive director Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus. She said Lee’s priories are unfocused as the trip comes after ending federal unemployment benefits for thousands of Tennesseans and then giving public money “from working families” for airline tickets for people out-of-state to go on a vacation.
“As Tennessee recovers from the pandemic, we need our governor focused on schools fully re-opening, the economy bouncing back, and sustaining our public healthcare,” Sherman-Nikolaus said in a statement. “We urge the governor to not use time and resources for a photo op, and instead focus on improving the lives of all Tennesseans.
What the governor is doing is playing on the fear of his constituents to further feed into the narrative of there being a crisis at the border.
Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus
“What the governor is doing is playing on the fear of his constituents to further feed into the narrative of there being a crisis at the border, when in reality there is a greater need for logistics for processing people who are seeking refuge.”
Responses to the governor’s tweet echoed much of this sentiment:
The real crisis is still preventing Covid from resurging in TN. But you don't actually care about protecting the people of your state. You care about yourself.
Meanwhile, the most vulnerable Tennesseans have been kicked off of pandemic unemployment and have no way to protect themselves.
— Kitty – 🍎🦉🥣♿ 🏳️⚧️ (@district12kitty) July 8, 2021
Why is our national guard at the southern border? What's the crisis? We have a lot of Tennessee citizens who are in crisis, what are you doing for them? Besides having @BradPaisley give you a plug for spreading #DeltaVariant on the taxpayers dime. #WealthTax
Sir, I have booked a two night stay at Dollywood. I would like to know when and where I will receive my free Tennessee money and scratch-off lottery tickets.
It is amazing to me to see the 2 governors of the states i live in doing the job our federal govt should be doing. How does the Fed justify this? and during covid as well? Good for you Gov Lee
When will it be publicly acknowledged that it's an invasion?
— Mary Lou Wells – Novelist (@MaryWel90936372) July 9, 2021
The 300 Tennessee National Guard members are stationed at multiple sites on the Texas border to support Customs and Border Protection. They are from the 269th Military Police Company, 913th Engineer Company, and the 2-151 Aviation Battalion.
In January 2020, Alex Greene, joined by his jazz band The Rolling Head Orchestra and members of the Blueshift Ensemble, did something extraordinary: They performed original live scores to the silent films A Trip to the Moon and Aelita: Queen of Mars. Back in the first decades of the 20th century, people did it all the time, mostly organists in movie palaces, but occasionally with full ensembles. In the days before sound recording, some more elaborate film productions even came with their own sheet music for the score.
These days, it’s pretty rare, except for groups like the Alloy Orchestra, who have made a career out of performing live scores for films like Metropolis and Phantom of the Opera at film festivals. Just before the pandemic started, Crosstown Arts had commissioned a series of live scores in their new Crosstown Theater, where Greene was artist in residence at the time. “It was kind of the culmination of my residency at Crosstown Arts, and it was great, because they made everything very easy.”
“Very easy” is relative when you’re talking about writing original music for a 12-piece ensemble, including a theremin, that’s designed to sync up perfectly with a moving image. “It’s very different from recording a soundtrack,” says Greene. “You have the whole process of editing to make sure it all syncs up, but in this case, you’re just ‘Once more unto the breach!’ You’re launched into it and by the seat of your pants, hoping you can keep up with the movie, because there’s no pausing … I really wanted it to sync up with the emotional cues of the movie in a very precise way, as if you were watching a film with a pre-recorded soundtrack. That ambition made for a lot more work for all of us.”
Greene and the orchestra’s performance drew raves from the Crosstown audience, and the musician-turned-composer really wanted to jump into the breach again when COVID shut down the theater. He saw a new opportunity at Germantown Performing Arts Center’s new outdoor venue, The Grove, which features a massive video screen behind the stage. “I pitched to them back in January, and we went back and forth a lot about the best time to do it. At the time it seemed like summer was the best bet in terms of COVID, partly because the virus supposedly recedes in the heat somewhat, but also just we assumed once a vaccine became available everyone would be vaccinated by now. In any case, it is an outdoor venue, so even as early as January, we felt pretty safe in moving forward with a big concert like this.”
Greene says when it came time to choose a film, he wanted to “find something dark.” But GPAC director Paul Chandler disagreed. “People are emerging from a very dark year and a half, so let’s do something lighthearted,” Greene says. “I’ve always loved Buster Keaton, so I immediately saw what Buster Keaton films were being distributed by GPAC’s distributor, and the only one was The Cameraman, which I had never seen,” says Greene. “I looked it over and I loved it. I was like ‘Wow, why don’t more people know about this one?’ People know about The General, or Our Hospitality, or Steamboat Bill Jr., but this one is lesser-known, and in a way, that’s better for this kind of project. You’re seeing the film and the music in a very fresh way.”
The Cameraman is considered to be the last film of Keaton’s golden age, where he made incredible strides in big screen comedy and action in the mid-1920s. Keaton, who was used to total creative control, had just gotten a lucrative contract with MGM when he directed and starred in the comedy about a newsreel cameraman trying to impress a female co-worker — and failing spectacularly. It would be the last film Keaton fully controlled. Afterwards, MGM executives clamped down on the auteur’s perceived excesses; later, Keaton would say signing with MGM was the biggest mistake he ever made.
Green wrote the new score for the same band who played in January 2020: Carl Caspersen on bass, Mark Franklin on trumpet, Tom Lonardo on drums, Jim Spake on reed instruments, John Whittemore on pedal steel, and Jenny Davis and Delara Hashemi of the Blueshift Ensemble on flute, Jonathan Kirkscey on cello, Jessica Munson on violin, and Susanna Whitney on bassoon. “Once again, I have this wonderful theremin player from Florence, Alabama, Kate Tayler Hunt, who used to be the concertmaster at the Shoals Symphony. An injury prevented her from continuing as a violinist, so she pivoted and put all her conservatory training into the theremin. She has a very precise ear, and unlike a lot of people who play theremin for texture or sound effects, she can play melodies very accurately, and that just takes it to a whole other level.”
But before the players can bring the magic to The Grove, Greene has to write it down. “I’m scoring as we speak!” he says. “It’s really incredible, it’s a new thing to me. I started doing it in earnest with last year’s live score. Sure, I would write chord changes and lead sheets for my jazz group, but to actually score every note that everyone plays in a 12-piece group, and then to hear them execute it almost perfectly in the first rehearsal … it’s breathtaking!”
The audience will get to see Alex Greene and the Rolling Head Orchestra with the Blueshift Ensemble and Kate Tayler Hunt’s live score of Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman at The Grove at GPAC on Saturday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m. Greene says he hopes there are many other opportunities in the future to breathe new life into silent classics.
Health officials here are urging residents to get COVID-19 vaccinations, as they suspect the Delta variant has caused cases to spike recently.
In a statement issued Thursday, the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) said the Delta variant is 50 to 60 percent more transmissible than the original COVID-19 strain. It said a list of evidence points to increased Delta activity in Shelby County:
• The seven-day COVID-19 case average has more than doubled in the last six days, increasing from 26 on July 1st to 59 on July 6th.
• The reproductive rate of the virus is currently 1.22, the highest it has been since June 25, 2020.
• The seven-day average positivity rate is now 4.5 percent, increasing from 2.9 percent on July 1st.
• A total of 58 Delta variant cases have been identified in Shelby County as of July 7th, while another 26 cases are suspected to be Delta variant cases. SCHD has projected that the Delta variant could become the dominant strain in Shelby County by the end of July.
“All of the COVID-19 vaccines that have received emergency use authorization in the United States, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, provide a high degree of protection against the Delta variant, as well as the other COVID-19 strains,” said Shelby County Health Officer Dr. Bruce Randolph. “Even the so-called ‘breakthrough cases’ that have occurred in fully vaccinated individuals are usually mild and rarely require hospitalization. The unvaccinated are the most at risk for serious illness from the Delta variant.”
COVID-19 vaccines are free and available at pharmacies, clinics, and public vaccination sites. The full list of vaccination sites is available here.
The health department will also offer COVID-19 vaccinations to adults and children 12 and older at 814 Jefferson Avenue on Saturday, July 10th, and Saturday, July 17th, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
It’s not only a week with Goner TV, it’s a week when they’re showcasing a band live. Though the gonzo variety show features both pre-recorded and live music performances, this time around they’re choosing the edgier option and live-streaming. The Flow celebrates such daredevil behavior: out there online for all to see, with no pauses and no second takes. That’s what you’ll find at all the links below. And don’t sleep on the music venues that are hardwired for live-streaming. They set up for COVID-19 and never looked back. Toss some coinage to all the performers below and settle in for some stay-at-home fun!
ALL TIMES CDT
Thursday, July 8 7 p.m. Velvetina’s Blue Moon Revue — at Hernando’s Hide-a-way Website
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery is leading an effort by 20 U.S. state attorneys general against new anti-discrimination guidelines created by the Biden administration. The group claim the new regulations were created unfairly and go too far in giving leeway to the LGBTQ+ community.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, the attorneys general criticize an executive order that implements a U.S. Supreme Court anti-discrimination ruling that went unheeded by the Trump administration.
Biden’s order states “all persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.” The Human Rights Council (HRC) called it the “most substantive, wide-ranging LGBTQ executive order in U.S. history.”
The order prohibits discrimination in the workplace, including hiring, termination, promotion, conditions of employment, benefits, and harassment. The HRC explained “for example: a bisexual woman cannot be fired from her job just because her employer learned of her sexual orientation, and a transgender man cannot be forced to wear a women’s uniform at his place of employment.”
The ruling prohibits discrimination at all federally funded educational programs, including K-12, vocational programs, and higher education programs. The HRC explained, “for example: a gay student can’t be prohibited from going to his public high school’s prom just because his date is also a boy, and a transgender girl cannot be harassed by a teacher who refuses to use her correct name because it is a feminine name.”
The order also prohibits discrimination in housing, federally funded healthcare programs (like the Affordable Care Act), and in the issuance of credit, including loans and credit cards.
Guidance on how to enforce the order came from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Education in mid-June. Slattery and the other AGs say the new guidelines “attempt to force radical changes on nearly every employer and school across the nation.”
Slatery
The AGs criticize Biden for ”unilaterally plunging ahead with these sweeping dictates.” No public hearings were held and the guidance document “simply appeared.” This subverted democracy as ”the states and other affected institutions and individuals have been excluded from any discussion.”
No longer, according to the Department of Education, will schools be allowed to preserve the privacy of middle school and high school students by ensuring they can use sex-specific showers, locker rooms, and restrooms.
Statement from Slatery’s office
Further, they claim the guidance goes further than the Supreme Court’s ruling, which, according to the AGs, “explicitly refrained from addressing ‘sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes” at school or work.
The administration’s order says “children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” (Slatery once sued the Obama Administration after it issued guidance on transgender students and bathrooms.)
”No longer, according to the Department of Education, will schools be allowed to preserve the privacy of middle school and high school students by ensuring they can use sex-specific showers, locker rooms, and restrooms,” reads the statement form Slatery’s office.
The new guidelines also warn that using incorrect pronouns for a person may be discriminatory and have legal implications.
“If an employer fires an employee because that person was identified as male at birth, but uses feminine pronouns and identifies as a female, the employer is taking action against the individual because of sex since the action would not have been taken but for the fact the employee was originally identified as male,” reads the guidelines.
The AGs took aim at this, too, claiming the ”First Amendment protects the right to ascribe pronouns to others based on their sex.”
They claim the “First Amendment protects the right to ascribe pronouns to others based on their sex.”
“With respect to pronouns, the EEOC’s guidance comes across as an effort to leverage the authority of the federal government to chill protected speech disfavored by [the Biden] administration,” they wrote.
Alphonso David, president of the HRC, said the ruling has been “transformative.”
“The Bostock ruling was a landmark moment in the on-going fight for LGBTQ equality — no one should be denied a job, excluded from benefits, harassed or fired simply because of who they are or whom they love,” he said in statement in June. “It has been transformative for the LGBTQ community to know we have the right to be ourselves in the workplace.”
The letter was led by Slatery and signed by the AGs of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia.
There’s just something about Memphis that inspires creativity, making it a national center for innovative cultural production. Dixon’s outgoing exhibition, “Memphis 2021,” boasts more than 50 original works by 20 diverse artists.
In the exhibition, you’ll find examples of fiber art by Paula Kovarik, Sharon Havelka, Jennifer Sargent, and Johana Moscoso. Also featured are colorful paintings by some familiar artists, including Alex Paulus, Roger Allan Cleaves, Juan Rojo, Debbie Likley Pacheco, Katherine George, and Danny Broadway. Creative work incorporating ink by Meredith Olinger and Rick Nitsche, plus an unusual integration of charcoal by Frances Berry and Jonah Westbrook, add depth to varied mixed media pieces.
“The artists in ‘Memphis 2021’ are talented, hugely creative, sometimes hilarious, and always hard-working, but they are also some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet,” says Kevin Sharp, Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director at the Dixon. “Their show is amazing and I am very proud of them all.”
Sharp might be referring to exciting detours from traditional mediums when he touts the artists as “hugely creative.” Mae Aur works with hand-cut wood and incorporates sound. Nick Hewlett showcases digital illustrations. Mary Jo Karimnia incorporates seed beads into works highlighting feminine imagery. Justin Bowles utilizes the entire Crump gallery for a sculptural installation. And Carrol McTyre and Mary K VanGieson use found objects in sculpture.
All of the artists give an exciting look at what’s to come in Memphis in the 2020s. See the exhibition, a feast for the senses, before it leaves the gallery this weekend.
Closing weekend for “Memphis 2021,” Dixon Gallery & Gardens, 4339 Park, Friday-Sunday, July 9-11, free.
Plains All American Pipeline announced last Friday that the company would abandon plans for the proposed Byhalia Connection oil pipeline, which would have linked two existing oil arteries, the Diamond Pipeline and the Capline Pipeline, to pump oil from southwestern Tennessee to Marshall County, Mississippi.
As a reason for the move, the company cited low U.S. oil production resulting from the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. That sounds like half a reason to me, especially considering they dropped that piece of news near the end of business on the Friday before the Independence Day holiday weekend. A fuller version might be, “Given the current low oil production in the U.S., the pipeline just wasn’t worth the hassle.”
And there was hassle. The project received overwhelming opposition from a broad coalition of local and national parties. Local activists, members of local government, and even former Vice President Al Gore voiced their opposition to the proposed pipeline. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy opposed it, as did Protect Our Aquifer, and the Memphis Community Against the Pipeline group was created to do the same.
The reasons for the opposition were twofold — namely that the pipeline would have been built across the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the source of our famously pure drinking water, and that, in Memphis at least, it would have gone through a predominantly Black neighborhood, a move that some critics claimed was intentional and an example of environmental racism.
Earlier in the year, Memphis City Councilmen Dr. Jeff Warren and Edmund Ford submitted a resolution opposing the plan. To quote Flyer news editor Toby Sells, “The resolution says African Americans were and are 75 percent more likely to reside near ‘toxic’ oil and gas infrastructure. It points to data from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that living within 30 miles of this infrastructure increases the risk of developing cancers including lymphoma, lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer.”
It’s true the Byhalia Connection project would have brought some dollars to town. Someone’s got to be paid to build the thing, after all, but that would have been a one-time, temporary gain — paying off on a gamble against long-lasting consequences. There are no quick fixes for a community saddled with unfair health burdens — or for a tainted aquifer.
One million people get their clean drinking water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, and we all owe a debt of thanks to the activists, organizers, political figures, et al. who spoke up against the pipeline. Certainly, there may never have been a problem with it. I can’t claim to know the future. It’s worth noting, though, that Memphis is within the radius of the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Also, I can’t help but think of the short video that made the rounds on social media over the weekend. In the clip, shared by Manuel Lopez San Martin, a section of the Gulf of Mexico was ablaze due to the rupture in an underwater pipeline. I hope to never see the Mississippi River alight with flames. With that image in mind, in a zone with known seismic activity, an oil pipeline above some of the cleanest drinking water in the country does not sound like a recipe for success.
So yes, the risk was far too great for such a small reward — a reward to be reaped by a few. It takes time for water to filter through the aquifer — a long time — and that investment of time creates a shared resource to which we should all have an equal claim and responsibility to protect. But it’s those who organized and attended rallies, circulated and signed petitions, wrote letters to local leaders, started hashtags on Twitter, and generally refused to give up who took on that responsibility. To them, I offer my wholehearted thanks. I also can’t help but be impressed at the organization and determination on display. So I say that congratulations, too, are in order.
It’s no small thing to stand up to power, and I wonder what other activism might be inspired by this victory. Jesse Davis
jackson baker
Discussing their intentions to run for judge next year at a
“Drinks with Democrats” event were (l to r) Erim Sarinoglu,
Lisa Stanley, and Sanjeev Memula.
Among the races on next year’s local ballot expected to generate some heat is that for district attorney general, the position held by Republican incumbent Amy Weirich since 2011 via appointment and successfully defended by Weirich in the 2012 and 2014 election seasons.
Other candidates may yet file for the position, but at this point the race is shaping up as one between Weirich and announced Democratic challenger Linda Nettles Harris, a veteran of both prosecutorial and legal-defense ranks.
At a generously attended fundraiser on South Front Street last week, Harris offered a preview of her campaign, promising to work “the road less traveled” and to heed “the voices of people who have felt that they have been neglected by the criminal justice system … people who have felt marginalized, who have felt ostracized, who have been left out.”
Referring to herself as a “statistical-driven person,” Harris said, “FBI statistics show that crime has gone up and prisons have been built, but crime has steadily increased.”
Harris laid special emphasis on a pledge to maintain “integrity” in the office if elected. “And what does integrity look like? Honestly, it looks like disclosing evidence when it is helpful to people and when it is not. It looks like following the guidelines of the American Bar Association that teaches you how to be ethical prosecutors.”
That would appear to be an indirect allusion to a recommendation by the state Board of Professional Responsibility that Weirich be censured for appearing to withhold potentially exculpatory evidence while prosecuting a murder case. The charges against Weirich were later dismissed.
• The DA’s race will be on the ballot along with a lengthy list of state judicial races that, like it, will be subject to eight-year terms for the winner. Some measure of just how extensive the list of contested races might be was indicated by the turnout last week at a happy-hour affair for Democrats at the Mellow Mushroom pizzeria on Park. Several attendees at the event professed interest in races for General Sessions positions without specifying particular seats.
Jackson Baker Linda Harris
• Jerri Green, who ran a tight race last year as a Democrat for the District 97 state House race won by Republican Mark White, has been hired by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris as a policy adviser.
Join me today for a trip to Elaine, Arkansas. It’s a long drive, and I could use some company.
As Highway 61 winds its way down the bluffs to the big-sky alluvial plain of the Mississippi Delta, towering clumps of clouds drift on the western horizon, distant rainstorms visible in the morning light. We’ll probably get wet later.
In Tunica County, signs for casinos appear. Some are thriving, others are ghostly shells, losers on the gaming wheel of fortune that began spinning 30 years ago. The outlet mall south of town, once a thriving retail mecca, now features several empty storefronts, the formerly heady thrill of wandering through J.Crew, Victoria’s Secret, and Nautica having been replaced by porch-box fairies in FedEx trucks.
We turn onto Highway 49, a slim two-lane running string-straight to the Helena Bridge, a narrow and rusty looking structure with kudzu and trumpet vines adorning the side rails. It does not inspire confidence. Once across, we take the Great River Road 20 miles south to Elaine, where in 1919, the greatest race massacre in U.S. history occurred. But you knew that. Didn’t you?
Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden
Late winter through early autumn of 1919 has become known as “Red Summer,” a time when white supremacist terrorism and racial riots took place in more than three dozen cities across the U.S. — and in one small town, Elaine, Arkansas — where we are now parked in front of a vacant building with a sign that says “Birdhouse Capital of the World.” There are no people in sight. In 1919, thanks to Jim Crow election laws, Black Americans couldn’t vote, hold office, or serve on juries. At the same time, thousands of African-American soldiers were returning from World War I and were beginning to feel resentment at the racism they came home to. The nascent NAACP had begun to speak out for racial justice.
The reaction to Black activism was swift and brutal. The KKK and other groups began ginning up violence and hate against the “negroes” for “spreading socialism.” Jingoistic newspapers around the country fed the fire with articles about “armed negroes in revolt.” Racial violence soon broke out in Chicago, Omaha, Tulsa, Washington, D.C., and more than 30 other cities. Black communities were destroyed. Hundreds were killed. Lynchings were common.
In Phillips County, Arkansas, 100 residents of Elaine held a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America in a church north of town on September 30, 1919. Three white men monitored the gathering. Shots were fired and returned. A white security officer was killed; a deputy sheriff wounded. The word went out in Helena that there was an “armed negro revolt” underway.
Over the next couple of days, as many as 1,000 vigilantes, soldiers, and police swarmed into Elaine and committed horrific acts of violence. From an eyewitness account:
“Soldiers in Elaine committed one murder after another with all the calm deliberation in the world, either too heartless to realize the enormity of their crimes, or too drunk on moonshine to give a continental darn. … several hundred of them began to hunt negroes and shotting [sic] them as they came to them.”
Accounts of how many Black men, women, and children were killed range from 150 to 800. No one knows for sure, but there is little doubt that it was the worst race massacre in U.S. history. The ensuing kangaroo court trial and imprisonment of 12 Black “rioters” changed U.S. civil rights history and is worth your time to learn about, because like most Americans, you’ve probably never heard about any of it.
Thanks to the folks at the Elaine Legacy Center, that’s changing. They are organized and pushing forward with presentations, lectures, and other programs to restore life to the area and tell its story. On September 30th, there will be a service to honor the victims of the massacre. I’m going to write more about Elaine and the Legacy Center later this summer. I hope you’ll join me for a return trip.
