In a scenario occasioned by the tragic shooting death this past week of revered pastor Ricky Floyd, two prominent members of the Memphis political community found themselves at loggerheads.
The two were Javier “Jay” Bailey, CAO in the office of Assessor Melvin Burgess and newly announced candidate for assessor to succeed his term-limited boss, and Antonio “Two-Shay” Parkinson, influential state representative from District 98 in North Memphis and longtime chair of the legislature’s Black Caucus.
There was already a certain amount of bad blood between the two as a result of what Parkinson felt was an innuendo from Bailey that he had sided with the Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) board in the firing of former schools Superintendent Marie Feagins. But the dispute rose to incendiary dimensions when Bailey chose to comment on the Floyd killing on his Facebook page.
His commentary began with a seemingly uncontroversial sentiment: “Pastor Ricky Floyd was my friend. I am absolutely saddened by his death and this community will suffer the loss of a great man concerned about more than himself.”
Bailey would continue with an admonition for people to avoid passing judgment on Floyd’s accused slayer Samantha Marion, who was arrested for shooting Floyd after the two quarreled outside a South Memphis restaurant and bar in the early hours of Wednesday, March 12th.
“[L]et us take caution and not turn this sister into a villain or a demon,” Bailey wrote. “There are facts that most of you have not heard.” Although Bailey did not go on to divulge any “facts” per se, he seemed to Parkinson to be implying that the quarrel and the shooting stemmed from the existence of a prior relationship between Floyd and Marion, who was charged with manslaughter in his death.
That was enough to enrage Parkinson, well-known to be close to the deceased minister and his partner in many a public activism. In a Facebook post of his own, Parkinson noted that follow-up investigation appeared to show that Floyd and Marion had not known each other and wrote: “Many people who claimed to be Ricky Floyd[’s] friend, like Javier Bailey and others, that was posting for clout, comments and likes are about to feel real stupid now.”
Between the two of them, these Facebook posts generated several hundred responses from Facebook perusers, who exploded with expletives, high emotion, and every conceivable surmise as to the fatal confrontation between Floyd and Marion — the cause of which remains mysterious as of this writing.
The killing of Floyd was mourned among every social stratum of his home city, and especially among the members of Memphis’ African-American population, where the reverend was increasingly regarded as someone between a hero and a saint.
Nor were the denizens of the state’s General Assembly unaffected when the late pastor was honored with a moment of silence on the House floor.
The heated interchange between Parkinson and Bailey was in a sense just another symptom of the toll and human dimensions of the drama.
A commemoration of the Reverend Floyd, under the heading “Celebration Service,” will be held at Greater Imani Church on Austin Peay on the morning of Friday, March 28th, with visitation on the preceding date at R.S. Lewis & Sons Funeral Home.
• The aforementioned Marie Feagins affair and this week’s showdown in the General Assembly on a proposed state takeover of the MSCS school board were footnoted during Monday’s meeting of the Shelby County Commission in a suggestion by Commissioner Shante Avant that the commission’s vote several weeks ago of “no confidence” in the board had been an influence in the introduction of the takeover legislation.
