Willie Herenton was back in the Hall of Mayors Thursday for the first time in more than two years.
Herenton, joined by his 90-year-old mother and hundreds of friends and past and present city employees, was there for the unveiling of his portrait. He served as mayor for 17 years, longer than anyone in Memphis history. Mayor A C Wharton introduced him with his usual graciousness. Herenton, who showed emotion and his famous feistiness, spoke for about 35 minutes, recalling his youth in segregated Memphis and his razor-thin election in 1991.
“History will be kind to me,” he said, “because it will reveal the truth.”
Herenton’s portrait hangs next to those of his predecessors Dick Hackett, Wyeth Chandler, and Henry Loeb, among others. His is the only black face in the group. It was painted by artist Larry Walker and is inside an ebony frame, at the former mayor’s request.
By coincidence, or perhaps not, the ceremony came during a momentous 24-hour period. Late Wednesday, federal judge Samuel Hardy Mays adopted the consent decree merging the city and county school systems, writing that “it prevents years of litigation and establishes the basis for cooperative solutions based on good public policy rather than legal solutions imposed by the court.” On Thursday, the transition team for the school systems merger held its first meeting and the seven-member Shelby County Board of Education held its last meeting. Trite as it sounds, it really was the end of one era and the dawn of a new one.
Herenton will play a minor part in the brave new world of public education if his application for a charter school is accepted, and how could it not be? He is a child of Memphis, a Booker T. Washington High School graduate, and former teacher, administrator, and school superintendent. The proliferation of charter schools, possibly including one led by Herenton, strongly suggests that enrollment in the combined city and county system will decline and that there will be even more school choices than there are now. Suburban municipalities could also start their own systems after September 2013.
