Production of Ford Motor Company’s electric next-generation pickup truck at its new West Tennessee plant will be delayed until 2027, the company announced Wednesday.
Construction on the new campus continues, and the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center where the truck will be manufactured still plans to employ 3,000 workers, a Ford spokesperson confirmed. The campus’ battery plant — a joint venture between Ford and SK — will make up the remaining jobs needed to fulfill Ford’s promise that the campus would create 5,800 jobs. Tennessee lawmakers approved nearly $1 billion for the $5.6 billion project three years ago.
A spokesperson said Ford remains confident it will meet requirements set in that incentives deal.
“West Tennessee is a linchpin in our plan to create a strong and growing Ford in America. BlueOval City will be one of the most advanced manufacturing complexes anywhere in the world, and we are counting on the workforce in West Tennessee to produce advanced batteries starting next year, and then our most innovative pickup ever starting in 2027,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said in an emailed statement.
The postponement decision is part of a shift in the Michigan automaker’s electric vehicle strategy, which will scrap plans for an all-electric three-row SUV and prioritize hybrid vehicles. The company will reduce its yearly capital expenditures for pure electric vehicles from 40 percent to about 30 percent, according to a Wednesday news release.
When Ford announced its plans for the BlueOval City campus in Stanton in 2021, the company set an initial production goal in 2025.
But a down-shift in electric vehicle demand and swelling market competition pushed Ford to reassess, the company stated.
Ford will now focus its electric vehicle efforts “where it has competitive advantages,” with plans to roll out production on a new all-electric commercial van in 2026 in Ohio, followed by a mid-sized pickup truck designed by Ford’s California skunkworks team, and the next-generation pickup, to be assembled at BlueOval City’s Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center in 2027.
Talk of a delay at BlueOval has been swirling since early June amid slowing demand for electric vehicles, including the company’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. In late 2023, Ford CFO John Lawler said the company’s electric vehicle unit was on track to lose $1.3 billion that year.
Pushing back the timeline allows Ford to implement lower-cost battery technology in the next-generation pickup to make it more price-competitive, the release states.
Lower-cost battery production is a major underpinning of Ford’s revised strategy to make their new electric vehicles profitable within the first 12 months of launch. In Kentucky, BlueOval SK will begin manufacturing batteries for Ford’s E-Transit and F-150 Lightning in mid-2025.
BlueOval SK at BlueOval City in Tennessee will begin producing cells in late 2025 for the new electric commercial van slated for production at Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant. Those batteries will also be used in the next-generation electric truck when it production begins in 2027.
Ford also aims to move some Mustang Mach-E battery production from Poland to Michigan in 2025 to take advantage of Inflation Reduction Act benefits, according to the release. Plans are on track to produce Lithium iron-phosphate batteries at BlueOval Battery Park Michigan in 2026.
The shift toward hybrid technology for its planned three-row SUVs will mean a “special non-cash charge of about $400 million for the write-down of certain product-specific manufacturing assets” for the now-scrapped all-electric SUVs. Other expenses resulting from the shift could total up to $1.5 billion (which will be reflected as “special items” when they are incurred).
Ford stated the company will provide an update in the first half of 2025 on its electrification, technology, profitability, and capital requirements.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
The University of Memphis has been chosen to further explore transportation challenges for Stanton, Tennessee, as the city prepares to become the destination for Ford’s Blue Oval City.
An announcement from Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9) said the university, along with civil engineering professor Sabya Mishra, will receive $75,000 to “study the transportation challenges facing Ford’s future Blue Oval City employees.”
Blue Oval City is a project that was announced in 2021 by Ford Motor Company as a part of its investment in electric vehicles and sustainable manufacturing. The planned expenditure of $5.6 billion marks the largest investment in the company’s history, with the goal of creating the “next-generation electric truck” from Ford.
“The site spans six square miles and will be among the largest auto manufacturing facilities in U.S. history. It will encompass vehicle assembly, battery production, and a supplier park in a vertically integrated ecosystem,” the company said.
Ford said the project will create approximately 6,000 jobs for West Tennesseeans.
This grant comes from the National Science Foundation as a part of the Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Stage One project. Officials said the initiative provides a closer look at “efficient public transit systems” by examining things such as fixed-line buses, on-demand micro-transit, and more.
The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) said CIVIC’s purpose is to bridge the gap between “essential resources and services and community needs.”
“By addressing priorities at the local scale that are relevant across the U.S., CIVIC is laying the foundation for a broader and more fluid exchange of research and technology capabilities and civic priorities through joint partnerships involving civic partners and the research community,” NSF said. “CIVIC funds projects that pilot state-of-the-art solutions to community challenges over 12 months.”
According to the abstract for the project, researchers plan on developing a “multi-modal transit system for Blue Oval City..”
Researchers said they will improve public transportation for prospective workers by using a mix of regular-sized buses and smaller ones. They will utilize on-demand transit to ensure on-time performance.
The university said it will create models using artificial intelligence (AI) to address the “high volumes of employee trips and create service zones with optimal pick-up and drop-off locations.” They will also work to make sure this initiative “incentivizes ridership and ensures social equity.”
Cohen said the project is crucial for the future success of Blue Oval City and it’s workforce. “I congratulate the University and Dr. Mishra for being awarded this prestigious grant for such forward-thinking and innovative research. Benefiting our entire region,” Cohen said.
According to NSF, the program will begin October 1, with an estimated end date of March 31, 2025.
Multiple agencies are working together to empower entrepreneurs to find solutions to transportation issues in Memphis.
The “Memphis Challenge Explore Report” was released today by Ford Motor Company, the Greater Memphis Chamber, Start Co., and Christian Brothers University. The report emphasizes multiple areas of improvement for “community-center mobility.”
“We launched this initiative to transform cities by helping solve mobility problems via the inclusion of community input,” the Memphis Challenge team said. “ Our framework zooms down to one person, one solution at a time to provide an intimate view of a city’s needs and how they may be addressed with new innovative solutions.”
Findings from the report highlight four areas the agencies are hoping to find solutions to in late 2024 through an initiative called the Memphis Challenge, led by Ford’s Urbanite program “with support from 12 local collaborators.” These four areas include: creating safe access to transportation, safety through the entire mobility journey, personal vehicle reliability, and understanding the total cost of car and mobility ownership.
This will allow local and national entrepreneurs to propose ideas to remedy these issues.
“Memphis Challenge winners are expected to receive up to $150,000 in pilot grant funding through the challenge program, with an additional $450,000 available to challenge finalists in seed funding, technical support, legal assistance, and startup business resources.”
The companies are urging entrepreneurs to find solutions that will improve accessibility to jobs, education, and healthcare. Past winners included community mobility hubs, pick-up/drop-off services for school children, farm-to-door food delivery, and more.
One of the key findings of the report found that citizens are concerned about their safety when using any mode of transportation.
“Regardless of time of day, gender, age, ability or mode of transportation, Memphians are concerned about their personal wellbeing and safety when walking out their front door,” the report said.
It also stated public transportation is not always the preferred method, as many found Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) to be “unable to get them to their destination at a time that works for them.” This resulted in many reporting they only use MATA for non-time-sensitive trips.
Citizens also told the team many of their options for jobs, food, education, and healthcare in their immediate neighborhoods have left them “dissatisfied” causing them to travel to locations that may be “ 20-30 minutes away by car.” According to the report, this makes alternative modes of transportation such as walking and biking “infeasible.”
Another aspect of the report showed many Memphians rely on relatives and extended family for multiple mobility purposes such as pickup and organizing rideshare.
“These family networks felt unique asset to Memphis and something to be considered when developing new mobility solutions,” the report said.
The report added that the median household income of the city is $50,622 with a poverty rate of 18 percent for adults. From these findings, the team concluded “Memphis residents don’t have much extra to spend on transportation.”
These areas represent multiple opportunities for change, and the Memphis Challenge Team is urging entrepreneurs to submit proposals to consider these things along with intentional equity, environmental sustainability, replicability and scalability among others.
“These Explore Report findings complement other transit and mobility initiatives throughout the greater Memphis area – however, it does highlight some recent trends that tie into the public safety concerns Memphis has been experiencing,” the team said in a statement. “The Ford Urbanite Memphis Challenge is a spark to provide support, spread awareness and rally additional resources to an area that is ripe for innovation in, and around, Memphis.”
Ford BlueOval City, photographed while under construction in April 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)
A high-stakes battle over the future of Tennessee’s wetlands has been playing out behind closed doors in recent weeks, with developers and environmental groups furiously lobbying on opposite sides of a bill to drastically roll back regulations.
The bill by Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville) would limit state oversight over more than 430,000 acres of Tennessee wetlands. That’s more than half of the state’s critical ecosystems, which serve as a bulwark against floods and droughts, replenish aquifers and are prized by hunters, anglers and nature lovers.
Environmental groups warn that the proposed bill, if enacted by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee, could inflict irreparable harm on future generations.
“The proposed legislation favors the interests of developers over the safety of future flood victims and pocketbooks of Tennessee taxpayers,” said George Nolan, senior attorney and director of the Southern Environmental Law Center in Tennessee.
“Once a developer fills and paves over a wetland, it is gone forever. This is no time to repeal laws that have protected our wetlands for the last 50 years,” he said.
Vaughan called the measure an overdue check on red tape that costs developers time and money; he has denied weakened wetland regulation could lead to increased flooding.
The proposed legislation favors the interests of developers over the safety of future flood victims and pocketbooks of Tennessee taxpayers.
– George Nolan, Southern Environmental Law Center
He has accused state environmental regulators of “bureaucratic overreach” and “unnecessary inflation on the cost of construction” and pointed to the urgent need for relief from regulation given a building boom in the region he represents, where a new Ford plant is going up in Stanton just 40 miles from the offices of Township Properties, Vaughan’s real estate and development company.
“My district is one that is different from a lot of other people’s districts. We’re in the path of growth,” Vaughan told lawmakers.
Lee’s office did not respond to a question about whether he supports the bill.
West Tennessee Where Wetlands Abound.
There is perhaps nowhere else in the state where tensions between fast-tracking development and protecting wetlands are higher than West Tennessee.
BlueOval City, Ford Motor Co.’s $5.6 billion electric truck plant, has spurred a land rush in the region, with developers buying up properties, designing subdivisions and erecting apartment complexes at a fast clip ahead of its 2025 planned opening.
Restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores are springing up to accommodate an expected 11 percent increase in population by 2045 in the 21-county region surrounding the plant — making it the fastest-growing area in Tennessee.
West Tennessee counties also have some of the largest shares of wetlands that would lose protections under Vaughan’s bill.
The bill targets so-called “isolated wetlands” that have no obvious surface connection to a river or lake. Wetlands, however, rarely stand alone, often containing hidden underground connections to aquifers or waterways.
The 10 Tennessee counties with the largest share of at-risk “isolated” wetlands are located in West Tennessee, within commuting distance of the Ford plant.
Haywood County, where the plant is located, has more than 57,319 acres of wetlands that could lose protections under Vaughan’s bill — nearly 17 percent of all land area in the county, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife National Wetlands Inventory compiled by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The region also lies atop the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the primary water supply for urban and rural communities, and farmers in west Tennessee. Wetlands serve to recharge and filter water that supplies the aquifer.
“This is such a unique moment in west Tennessee history,” said Sarah Houston, executive director of the Memphis advocacy group Protect Our Aquifers, noting projected growth data that shows population increases of 200,000 or more in the next two decades.
“But when you’re removing protections for wetlands, you’re cutting out that deep recharge potential for all the water supply West Tennessee relies on,” she said.
Vaughn’s business among those to profit from building boom.
Developers who wish to fill in, build on or otherwise disturb wetlands must first apply for a permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, or TDEC, which can approve or reject the plans.
The process can prove costly; companies must hire lawyers, hydrologists and other experts before filing a permit. And if they get one, TDEC can require developers to pay expensive mitigation fees for disturbing wetlands — potentially adding tens- or hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to construction costs. The fees are used to preserve wetlands elsewhere, balancing out what is lost by a single project. The process can add months, or more, to construction timelines.
Vaughan has spoken openly about ongoing frustrations in his own business to comply with the state rules, describing TDEC regulators as overzealous in defining marshy or muddy lands that are created by tractor ruts or runoff as wetlands.
State records show that Vaughan as recently as December received state notice that a project he is spearheading contains two wetlands: one at 1.42 acres and another at 1.51 acres.
Given the presence of wetlands, “any alterations to jurisdictional streams, wetlands, or open water features may only be performed under coverage of, and conformance to, a valid aquatic resource alteration permit,” the Dec. 8 letter from TDEC to Vaughan said.
The project, a 130-acre site of the proposed new headquarters for Thompson Machinery, Vaughan’s client, will have to incur costly remediation fees should its permit to build atop wetlands be approved by TDEC.
It’s one of multiple development projects that Vaughan has been affiliated with that have butted into TDEC wetland regulations in recent years.
PAC money flows in from west Tennessee.
Vaughan also represented Memphis-based Crews Development in 2019 when the company received a notice of violation for draining and filling in a wetland without permission.
Vaughan did not respond to questions from the Lookout, including whether his sponsorship of the bill presents a conflict of interest.
He is not alone among developers in the region who are seeking favorable legislation during a period of rapid growth.
West Tennessee construction companies and real estate firms have spent big on a new political action committee formed in 2022 to influence legislative policy. The little-known Build Tennessee PAC spent $186,000 in the six months before the start of this year’s legislative session, the fourth largest spender over that period, according to campaign finance records analyzed by the Lookout.
Keith Grant, a prominent Collierville developer listed as Build Tennessee’s contact, did not respond to a request for comment.
The measure also has gained the backing of influential statewide groups, including the Tennessee Farm Bureau, the Home Builders Association of Tennessee, Associated Builders and Contractors and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce.
Bradley Jackson, president and CEO of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, said last week the legislation — which Vaughan recently amended to make distinctions between different types of wetlands — represents a fair and balanced approach.
Jackson said the chamber convened a working group of five trade organizations last summer that concluded Tennessee’s wetland regulations need adjustment. “We feel this deal strikes a really good middle group. It provides the business community with consistency and certainty. We can ensure we’re being compliant,” Jackson said.
Vaughan offers ‘compromise’ amendment; environmental groups say it leaves wetlands unprotected.
The legislation is scheduled to be heard Wednesday in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, with an amendendment that makes distinctions between wetlands.
The amendment would allow developers to build on “low-quality” wetlands and up to four acres of “moderate” isolated wetlands without seeking state permission.
Environmental groups say the proposal continues to place large pieces of Tennessee wetlands at risk.
Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville. (Photo: John Partipilo)
“Vaughan’s current amendment is not a compromise as it requires no mitigation for low-quality wetlands regardless of size and no mitigation for large swaths of moderate-quality wetlands,” Grace Stranch, chief executive officer of the Harpeth Conservancy said. “The development resulting from those huge carveouts will likely cause increased flooding, a decline in water quality, higher water bills, and aquifer recharge problems.”
The measure has also drawn pushback from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
“We at TDEC fear the proposal could result in greater back-end costs,” Gregory Young, the agency’s deputy commissioner, told lawmakers earlier this month.
Alex Pellom, chief of staff for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, cautioned the bill could lead to more flooding; the state has already suffered its wettest years in history since 2019, leading to devastating floods, billions of dollars in property damage and loss of life.
“We continue to work with the sponsor to discuss potential solutions,” Eric Ward, a TDEC spokesperson, said last week.
A Supreme Court decision limits federal oversight.
Vaughan’s bill was introduced on the heels of a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that narrowed federal protections of wetlands, leaving it up to states to set their own rules.
The court concluded that only wetlands that have a surface water connection to rivers, lakes and oceans fall under federal oversight and are subject to Clean Water Act regulations.
There is little debate in the stormwater community about the value of wetlands as key instruments of maintaining water quality and mitigating damaging flooding.
– Aaron Rogge, Tennessee Storm Water Association
The majority of Tennessee’s wetlands — 432,850 out of the state’s 787,000 acres of wetlands in the state — do not have a surface connection to a water source, according to TDEC. It is these wetlands Vaughan is seeking to remove from state oversight and protection.
“This is going to be a major change to the way that the state manages its water resources, and likely one that we’ll look back on as a product of our current political climate,” said Aaron Rogge, a Nashville-based civil engineer who is also the current president of the Tennessee Stormwater Association.
“There is little debate in the stormwater community about the value of wetlands as key instruments of maintaining water quality and mitigating damaging flooding; in fact, many cities and counties choose to actively construct wetlands to manage their runoff,” he said.
Tennessee is not alone in targeting wetland regulation after the high court’s decision, according to Jim Murphy, director of legal advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation.
Legislatures in Illinois, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado are considering expanding wetland protections in light of the court’s decision while Indiana is among states considering a developer-backed bill similar to Vaughan’s.
“It’s a very fluid situation,” Murphy said. “In a lot of ways, it mirrors the politics of a state. But as you get down to state-level realities of what’s being lost, people are seeing what unregulated development means and often that means that their special places get paved over.”
Reporter Adam Friedman contributed to this story.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
The large lake and surrounding wetlands at Lone Oaks farm are part of the Cub Creek watershed. (Credit: UTIA)
Beyond its BlueOval City megasite, Ford is teaming up with the University of Tennessee to invest heavily in both education and conservation efforts in West Tennessee.
At the 2022 Memphis International Auto Show, Ford Motor Company and the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) announced a partnership that would see the restoration of stream waters flowing through UT’s Lone Oaks Farm in Middleton, Tennessee, about 80 miles east of Memphis. Ford’s planned investment of $16.5 million into the project would boost UT’s plans to turn the Farm into a 1,200-acre, 4-H and STEM education center. Educational programs at Lone Oaks serve around 5,000 K-12 students annually, but Ford’s investment will allow UT to grow its offerings and provide more overnight STEM programs and camps.
“Every year, UTIA provides valuable life skills as well as STEM education opportunities to nearly 112,000 students across Tennessee,” said UT President Randy Boyd. “Ford’s investment in Lone Oaks will ensure our 4-H programs will be able to expand STEM education to Tennessee students for years to come.”
Development projects that have an impact on streams and wetlands must offset that by restoring and permanently protecting an equivalent amount of habitat in another location, per the Clean Water Act of 1972. UTIA and the property at Lone Oaks Farm provided Ford a local opportunity to meet its regulatory requirements while constructing the BlueOval City project. The $16.5 million will specifically target the restoration of 20,000 feet of streams at Lone Oaks and provide long-term financial support for the educational programs.
“At Ford, our goal is to create a positive impact on people and the planet,” said Bob Holycross, vice president of sustainability, environment, and safety engineering at Ford. “We’re proud to enter into this innovative partnership with the University of Tennessee that will help restore and protect the streams and wetlands at the Lone Oaks Farm and create educational opportunities that will inspire and benefit future generations. This is just one way we can fulfill our purpose to help build a better world.”
Other organizations involved with the restoration project are the Tennessee Wildlife Federation and the West Tennessee River Basin Authority.
The Memphis International Auto Show runs this weekend at the Renasant Convention Center Downtown.
Ford invited the Flyer for a ride-along in a brand new Ford Lightning F-150, its new all-electric truck. The truck has all the features its fans have come to know and love. But the pick up on this pickup will melt your face off.
Getting Back Out There is an occasional video series from the Memphis Flyer about getting back to life after Covid-19.
State lawmakers approved an $884 million incentive package to bring Ford Motor Co. to West Tennessee on Wednesday with votes wrapping up a special session in Nashville.
The incentive package will bring a $5.6 billion investment to Haywood County. The 4,100-acre site — now called the Memphis Regional Megasite — will be renamed Blue Oval City, a nod to Ford’s iconic logo. On 3,600-acres of the massive site, Ford will build its electric F-150 trucks and SK Innovation will build batteries and other electronic components.
The factories will bring 5,800 jobs to West Tennessee, the largest job announcement in Tennessee history. Tennessee officials competed with those in 15 other states for the project. State Sen. Ed Jackson (R-Jackson) was told Ford said Tennessee’s site and incentive package was “heads and shoulders above the rest.”
“This is the most important and life-changing bill,” Jackson told senators during a Wednesday floor speech. “It will be generational and positive change for. … all of West Tennessee.”
More than $383 million of the incentive package will be used by the state to build roads, infrastructure, and even a trade school on the site. The rest — $500 million — will be given to Ford as a grant.
However, Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) explained that “we’re not writing a $500 million check and giving it to them.” As Ford spends money to build its facility, the state will reimburse them for the costs, up to $500 million. The agreement includes clawbacks, too. So, if Ford does create the amount of jobs it promises, they’ll lose some of the money given to them. All of it, Watson said, was a way to ensure Ford completes its commitments to the state.
All of the money will come from state surplus funds. Jackson explained the state now has about $2 billion in surplus finding and, thus, “has the money to finance this.” With that, he reminded anyone watching that no taxes will be raised to fund the project. Instead, he said, the project will generate far more in taxes than it will cost the state up front.
Lawmakers predict the project will add $22.4 million directly to state coffers each year. It is expected to grow the gross state product by $3.5 billion each year. In the two-to-three-year construction phase of building Blue Oval City, it is expected to yield $178 million in state taxes.
Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) said he found a recurring theme as he scrolled through the state economic development website. Wilson, Cumberland, Williamson, Davidson, Hamilton, Murray, Knox, and Sumner Counties were “coming up time and again” for new projects or expansions.
“West Tennessee, it’s your time,” Bell said.
No gathering of lawmakers in Nashville would be complete, however, without off-the-wall comments that border on bad taste. As senators gave congratulations after the vote, Sen. Frank Nicely (R-Strawberry Plains) rose to say once his grandson asked him if the South really lost what Nicely called the “the war between the states.” Nicely told his grandson, “it’s too early to tell,” he said.
“When I compare their Northern cities with our Southern cities, and their debt loads to our debt -free states and all these great companies like Ford and Smith & Wesson coming down South, I think I can tell my grandson the war between the states is going on and we’re winning.”
The incentive package got three “no” votes in the Senate and four in the House.
A House GOP bill on Covid precautions did not move past the committee stage, as no Senator sponsored the legislation in the upper house. Lawmakers will gather again next week in another special session to focus on Covid issues.
One of the great serendipities I’ve experienced as a
journalist was the decision by former Memphis Magazine
editor Tim Sampson back in 1993, on the 25th anniversary of
the death in Memphis of Dr. Martin Luther King, to use as the centerpiece
of an anniversary issue an archival piece of mine, along with pictures by the
great photographer Ernest Withers.
Uncannily often, Withers’ photographs directly illustrated
specific scenes of my narrative, which had been written originally on the day
after the assassination and concerned the events of that traumatic day. It was a
little like being partnered with Michelangelo, and I was more than grateful.
The publication of that issue led to an invitation from
Beale Street impresario John Elkington for Withers and me to collaborate
on a book having to do with the history of Beale Street, and the two of us
subsequently spent a good deal of time going through the treasure trove that was
Withers’ photographic inventory.
For various reasons, most of them having to do with
funding, the book as envisioned never came to pass (though years later Elkington
published a similar volume), but the experience led to an enduring friendship.
One day, when I was having car trouble, Ernest gave me a
ride home, from downtown to Parkway Village, the still predominantly white area
where I was living at the time, just beginning a demographic changeover. At the
time it appeared as though it might become a success of bi-racial living, and we
talked for some time about that prospect.
That very evening, Ernest was a panelist on the old WKNO
show, Informed Sources, and, instead of focusing on the subject at hand,
whatever it was, chose to discourse at length on the sociology of Parkway
Village. Watching at home, I was delighted – though the host and other
panelists, intent on discussing another subject, one of those pro-forma
public-affairs things, may not have been.
They should have been. This was the man, remember, who
documented the glory and the grief of our city and our land as both passed from
one age into another, which was required to be its diametrical opposite, no
less. Ernest saw what was happening in Parkway Village as a possible trope for
that, and whatever he had to say about it needed to be listened to.
Sadly, of course, the neighborhood in question was not able
to maintain the blissfully integrated status that Ernest Withers, an eternally
hopeful one despite his ever-realistic eye, imagined for it.
As various eulogists have noted, last week and this,
Withers not only chronicled the civil rights era but the local African-American
sportscape and the teeming music scene emanating from, an influenced by black
Memphians.
He was also, as we noted editorially last week, a family
man, and it had to be enormously difficult for him that, in the course of a
single calendar year while he was in his 70s (he was 85 at the time of his
death), he buried three of his own children.
Among my souvenirs is a photograph I arranged to have taken
of Ernest Withers with my youngest son Justin and my daughter-in-law
Ellen, both residents of Atlanta, on an occasion when they were visiting
Memphis a few years back. Happy as they were with the memento, the younger
Bakers expressed something of a reservation.
What they’d really wanted, explained Ellen, a museum
curator who was even then, in fact, planning for a forthcoming Withers exhibit
in Atlanta, was a picture of the two of them taken by the master.
Silly of me not to have realized that. To be in a picture
by Ernest Withers was to become part of history – a favor he bestowed on legions
of struggling ordinary folk as well on the high and mighty of our time.
Remembering Kenneth Whalum Sr.
There was a time, before Mayor Willie Herenton became the
acknowledged alternative within the black community to the Ford family’s
dominance, that councilman Kenneth Whalum was a recognized third force to reckon
with.
jb
The Rudy Williams Band led Ernest Withers’ funeral procession down Beale on Saturday.
Rev. Whalum was both the influential pastor of Olivet
Baptist Church in the sprawling mid-city community of Orange Mound and the
former personnel director of the U.S. Postal Service, locally. In effect, he had a foot planted
firmly in each of the two spheres that make up the Memphis political community.
That fact made him a natural for the city council during
the period of the late ’80s and early ’90s when the era of white dominance was
passing and that of African-American control was dawning.
During the 1991 council election, Whalum, along with Myron
Lowery, achieved milestones as important in their way as was Herenton’s mayoral
victory, taking out long-serving at-large white incumbents Oscar Edmunds and
Andy Alissandratos, respectively.
Whalum was uniquely able to serve both as a sounding board
for black aspirations and a bridge between races and factions on the council. He
was a moderate by nature, though sometimes his preacherly passions got the best
of him and he sounded otherwise. Something like that happened during a couple of
incendiary sermons he preached during the interregnum between the pivotal
mayor’s race of 1991 and Herenton’s taking the oath in January 1992 as Memphis’
first elected black mayor.
Word of that got to me, and I was able to acquire a
recording of one of the incriminating sermons. I had no choice but to report on
it, and – what to say? – it made a bit of a sensation at the time, no doubt
limiting Whalum’s immediate political horizons somewhat.
It certainly limited the contacts I would have, again in
the short term, with a political figure that I had previously had a good
confidential relationship with. Whalum’s sense of essential even-handedness
eventually prevailed, however, and we ultimately got back on an even keel.
To my mind, in any case, Whalum’s outspokenness never
obscured his essential fair-mindedness, and his occasional prickliness was more
than offset by his genuine – and sometimes robust – good humor.
There are many ways of judging someone’s impact on society,
and one might certainly be the prominence of one’s offspring. In Rev. Whalum’s
case they included the highly-regarded jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum and the
councilman-minister’s namesake son Kenneth Whalum Jr., a school board member and
an innovative pastor himself — so innovative in his wide-open 21st-century
style as to cause a generational schism involving Olivet church members. That
would result in two distinct churches, one led by the senior Whalum, one by
Whalum Jr.
Kenneth Whalum Sr. had been something of a forgotten man in
local politics since leaving the council at the end of 1995 (he would also run
losing races for both city and county mayor). But he got his hand back in
briefly during last year’s 9th District congressional race, making a
point of endorsing Democratic nominee Steve Cohen, who ultimately prevailed.
Appropriately, Rep. Cohen took the lead, along with Senator
Lamar Alexander, on behalf of a congressional resolution re-designating the
South 3rd Street Post Office in honor of Whalum, closing a cycle of
sorts and forever attaching the name of Kenneth T. Whalum Sr. to one of the
city’s landmarks.
Political Notes:
Kenneth Whalum Sr.
–Congressman Cohen was the target recently of what many local Memphians report on
as a “push” poll taken by random telephone calls to residents of the 9th
District. Purportedly the poll contained numerous statements casting Cohen in a
negative light before asking recipients who they might prefer in a 2008 race
between him and repeat challenger Nikki Tinker.
(At least one person called recalled that the name of
Cohen’s congressional predecessor, Harold Ford Jr., now head of the
Democratic Leadership Council, figured in a triad of potential candidates being
asked about.)
–Early voting is now underway in the four city council
runoffs that will be determined on November 8th.
Those involve Stephanie Gatewood vs. Bill
Morrison in District 1; Brian Stephens vs. Bill Boyd in
District 2; Harold Collins vs. Ike Griffith in District 3; and
Edmund Ford Jr. and James O. Catchings in District 6.
When Bruce Thompson, freshly charged with extortion and mail fraud, called a press conference last week to respond, the former county commissioner struck an unusual note of defiance, chastising My Harrison, the FBI’s local agent in charge, for the “same game, different name” remark with which she had characterized his place in the ever-burgeoning series of federal indictments of local officials.
His life was no game, Thompson said, making the issue personal, and since the distinguished defense attorney Leslie Ballin stood at his elbow when he said it, lending his considerable legal imprimatur to the statement, what Thompson said smacked less of pique than of considered strategy. Indeed, it seemed overtly political, the response of one contender to another in a heated public debate.
And make no mistake: Though both Thompson’s legal defenders and the prosecutorial team representing U.S. attorney David Kustoff will presumably offer abundant briefs, proofs, and exhibits in evidence as they join the issue, there is something political about not only this trial but the whole series of recent ones based on operations with catchy code names like Tennessee Waltz, Main Street Sweeper, and suchlike.
There had already been sporadic, mainly sub rosa efforts within the ranks of local Democrats to challenge the series of Justice Department prosecutions as partisan ones aimed at their party’s power structure. The presence of a nominal Republican, former East Tennessee legislator Chris Newton, among the Tennessee Waltz indictees, had done little to dispel the accusation, since Newton’s GOP colleagues had always considered him a fellow traveler with the General Assembly’s Democrats.
The conservative Thompson, a bona fide upscale Gucci-wearing Republican with strong connections in the local business community, would seem to be a different matter. Yet it can be argued, at no prejudice to the legal merits of either case, that both Thompson’s prosecution and that of former MLGW head Joseph Lee, currently under indictment for improper collusion with city councilman Edmund Ford Sr., are inherently political.
Rather than instances of out-and-out bribery, conveniently staged and videotaped by the government itself, these two cases are not stings but the results of real ex nihilo investigations of actions initiated by the principals themselves. What connects them to the prior cases is that they expressly target the freedom-of-action of public officials.
The prosecutions of Thompson and, even more obviously, Lee are aimed at what had previously been a no-man’s-land of politics, the domain where favors are done in return for favors, where one hand washes the other, and where if you scratch my back, I’ll sure as hell scratch yours.
Did MLGW president Lee choose to look the other way at Ford’s thousands of dollars’ worth of unpaid bills because the councilman changed his mind on Lee’s acceptability as the utility’s head, and because, even more crucially, Ford headed Lee’s oversight committee? It might once have been said: That’s just politics. But Harrison and Kustoff have now declared that statement inoperative, as chief prosecutor Tim DiScenza shortly will in court.
Thompson’s case is even more ambivalent. Before he went to work on getting the Memphis school board to approve a school-construction contract for a West Tennessee company (for an ultimate fee of $250,000 for himself), the then commissioner sought — and got — the formal sanction of county attorney Brian Kuhn.
No conflict of interest, said Kuhn, who reaffirmed again Monday his belief that Thompson, distanced by the state’s funding formula both from city-school spending per se and from oversight of specific school construction, was within his rights to act as an advocate for the company.
That was on pure conflict-of-interest grounds, stressed Kuhn, who eschewed any judgment about various potential illegalities associated with other aspects of the case. Asked whether the Thompson and Lee cases could be interpreted as incursions by federal authorities onto turf previously regarded as exclusively and flexibly political, Kuhn allowed — unofficially and informally, you understand — that he understood how somebody could see it that way.
In an interview with the Flyer back in 1994, when he was first running for the Senate, current presidential hopeful Fred Thompson mused on the then ongoing Whitewater investigation into President Bill Clinton‘s private finances and, at some passionate length, expressed regret at what he saw as the creeping criminalization of politics.
Locally as well as nationally, what Thompson then lamented seems now to be the very name of the game.
The former Mrs. John Ford may not boast the celebrity status of the recently “rehabilitated” Lindsay Lohan, but the two seem to share a penchant for getting into trouble again and again.
Mitchell-Ford is facing her third DUI this year after an accident last week at Poplar and Yates. She is charged with refusing a breath alcohol test and driving on a revoked license.
Lohan has had several run-ins with the law and pled guilty to a DUI earlier this year after crashing her Mercedes into a curb on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills. In a subsequent arrest, police found cocaine in Lohan’s pants pocket.
Police have not found cocaine in Mitchell-Ford’s possession, but she did have ravioli in her pocket when she was stopped for drunk driving last February.
jb 
