When he was growing up, Caleb Suggs wanted to be a zoologist. “But when I went to Germantown High School, they have a TV station in their school, so I got involved with that and that kind of set me on my path to major in broadcast journalism and film. When I was at University of Memphis, I got my first film job through the journalism department. My teacher, Roxanne Koch was directing a documentary on the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. I got a producing gig, and I edited it and narrated the movie through the film department. I got to do my first film that I directed in 2020, and I have made films every single year since then with my brother. We started the film production company called Studio Suggs in 2021.”
Suggs’ film in Indie Memphis 2024 was the brain child of Debbie Robertson at WKNO-TV. “They came to me, because they knew about what I did in video and film, and pitched to me the idea, because they really wanted um to have something that showed up our local HBCU,” says Suggs. “They saw that other cities had some kind of documentary or program that highlighted their HBCUs, but Memphis didn’t have one. So they wanted them to put LeMoyne-Owen College on the map and raise more awareness.”
Suggs says making The Magic of LOC: LeMoyne-Owen at 160 was as much of a learning experience for him as it will be for the audience.. “I actually didn’t know much of anything about LeMoyne-Owen College at all until we started the project. … I had no idea that it was really the students who spearheaded the desegregation of Memphis, and how they were the main ones doing the sit-ins in town. I learned what the draw was for HBCUs. You know, I’ve never been to an HBCU. I went to the University of Memphis. So I got first-hand experience about the culture. The first thing we shot for the documentary was their homecoming week. It was their 160-year anniversary. Seeing how everybody down there was really a family, and seeing how tight the connections were was something that was just completely new to me.”
Suggs, who had directed indie comedies like “Homeboys Haunted”, was new to documentary helming. “I would say that documentaries are easier than narratives on the front end, but way harder on the back end,” he says. For narrative films “… you plan everything out — the lines, the camera movement, the lighting, everything — all the work at the front end. Then for me, because I typically edit everything, I direct, I know how everything has been shot and pieced together. It’s easier for me to get the skeleton of the film, and then really, editing just becomes putting on the finishing touches. For documentary, you’re showing up and you can’t really set too much stuff up, because you’re just kind of dropping in and following people or setting up interviews. The hard part becomes taking what everyone said and trying to build a skeleton from what you have, rather than from what you’ve planned out. Documentaries just take a lot more time, and a lot of playing around until you kinda get the feeling of the movie and the aesthetic from the words that people give you, not from something that you pre-plan. So especially for something like this, going in where it was my first experience with it. We just had to figure out the vibe of school before we could figure out the real tone and feeling of the movie, and the aesthetic that came with it. The movie is called The Magic of LOC, and it has this magical type of theme to it. We didn’t even know that until we walked in and started interviewing people.”
Suggs says he loves to show his work at Indie Memphis. “I think it’s cool that we have a film fest to go to in town! It gives a lot of people here in town something to do with their movie, once they make it. It gives them something exciting to put it in, instead of just on Youtube. It gives you an audience. It gives you a way to meet other filmmakers. It’s just an overall cool experience. When I was first graduating college, and I had my first movie, that was just like the goal. It is the holy grail of where my movie could end up. Now that I’m a bit older, I’ve gone to other festivals, I realize Indie Memphis is a lot better than a lot of other film festivals around the country.”
The Magic of LOC: LeMoyne-Owen College at 160 screens Saturday, November 16 at 3:15 pm at Studio on the Square. Tickets are available at the Indie Memphis website.
Students at LeMoyne-Owen College will have the opportunity to increase dialogue in Memphis regarding HIV prevention and care, and to also contribute to the nationwide fight for equity and wellness.
The Black AIDS Institute (BAI) has partnered with the school for the launch of its Black HIV Epidemic (BHIVE) program. LeMoyne-Owen was chosen along with Jarvis Christian University, Voorhees University, and Johnson C. Smith University for the Historically Black College and University (HBCU)-centered consortium.
BHIVE is funded by the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA). Officials said the goal helps in their mission to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by engaging with students at these universities through education and internship programs.
Grazell Howard, board chair at BAI said they have the challenge and the opportunity to “revolutionize how we prevent and care for persons living with HIV.” She noted that these people are “thriving and living,” but that they also face the same morbidities that Black people do.
“We can no longer just talk about HIV,” Howard said. “ We have to speak about HIV and Black wellness in ways that our entire Black community can hear them.”
Shelby County has historically had one of the highest new infection rates for HIV in the nation. The Shelby County Health Department posted a notice on its website in May saying it had noted an “alarming increase in newly diagnosed cases of HIV in our community. Officials said the highest increase affected people aged 14 to 45, and was not “spread evenly throughout the county.”
According to AIDSVu , Black people accounted for 84.1 percent of new diagnoses in Shelby County in 2021, while accounting for 49.8 percent of the population.
The Black community is sometimes thought of as “diseased-burdened,” said, Howard. The prevalence of such problems as infant mortality and maternal child health is not because Black people “are so sick,” she said, but rather because these communities have been historically and systemically neglected in diagnoses, treatment, and care.
The HIV virus affects those in minority populations more than others, but advocates and community leaders say that the “problem has never been strictly medical.” In 2023, James E.K. Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical College, said a broader approach is required, specifically honing in on community leaders and organizations and the role they play in ending the virus.
“To truly end the epidemic, we need community solutions that work in the context of those communities,” Hildreth said. “We also need to have communities work hand in hand — scientific community and healthcare providers.”
Howard said that being unapologetically Black and practicing activism every day has always been at the center of the work, but now they are adding revolutionizing treatment, prevention, and intergenerational care to their mission and message.
“We must be multi-generational in the message, and we must be true to ourselves,” Howard said. “We have to sterilize stigma within the race. What do I mean by that? We cannot have homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia.”
Howard said BAI is “radically partnering” and that this is where engaging students at colleges like LeMoyne-Owen proves to be both important and intentional, because HBCUs have long been bases of the Black community. The partnership allows them to bring communication and curriculum that can engage the Black community culturally.
“Historically Black colleges are hubs and nuclei in Black communities, whether you’re a college degree person or not,” Hildreth said. “Long before you and I were born, people would come to that campus, because that’s where the Black brilliant minds were. That’s where we could go to speak and think and create.”
BHIVE offers an approach that Howard said is “unapologetically Black.” The curriculum seeks to dismantle stigma in the race with a six-module course with components to be completed online and with practicum and internship opportunities available in the community.
“The community is friends to a campus and campus is friends to a community,” Howard said. “That will be this kind of symbiotic relationship which can go beyond HIV. If we do well in HIV, we’re going straight to wellness. If we can tackle HIV in our community and bend the tide of the virus, we can bend the tide for everything else. If we have a lot of pastors and university presidents — as they have at the schools I have named — we will be better off, because those leaders are courageous enough to know an HBCU campus is the hub for everything that impacts a community.”
(left to right) Stephanie Wade, Carrie Tippet-Herron, and Sheryl Wallace are the women behind the Griggs Legacy Project, which will renovate the site of the former Black college. (Photos: Justin Fox Burks)
Near the corner of Vance Avenue and Danny Thomas Boulevard, you can’t miss the faded blue sign that extends toward the sky. Among the vacant lots and graffitied abandoned buildings on the block, that sign, in its art deco style, is one of the few surviving hints at what once was a vibrant neighborhood and community. Its letters don’t light up in neon anymore, but it once read Griggs Business College.
Griggs Business and Practical Arts College, to be precise, would be the white Italianate building behind that sign at 492 Vance. Chartered in 1944 by Emma Griggs, the college was initially one of three Black colleges in Memphis, the others being the now-demolished Henderson Business College and LeMoyne College, which later merged with what would become Owen College. More than 1,000 Black men and women received their education at Griggs. In 1971, though, with declining enrollment numbers and under financial hardship, the college closed its doors. In 1974, the 492 Vance property was sold to the Bluff City Elks Lodge, who remained there for close to 10 years, but it’s changed hands multiple times since then, remaining empty since the late 1980s.
And yet, even as the building itself has become a shell of its old grandeur, its front steps cracking, tree rot taking over the grounds, the inside losing semblance of a once livable space, the college and its legacy hasn’t been forgotten. Over the years, Carrie Tippett-Herron, who graduated from Griggs in 1967, sometimes would drive by the school, curious to see if anything had happened to her old stomping grounds. “Not only me, but a lot of other [alumni] would come down, drive down through here sometimes,” she says.
But alumni weren’t the only ones paying attention to the property. In 2016, Stephanie Wade, a native of Memphis, discovered Griggs, not knowing anything about its history. “I think a lot of people have seen it but don’t know anything about it,” she says. “It’s hard to miss because it’s on a hill. It has a presence. And that’s what happened to me. I was living Downtown and I wanted to get into real estate. And I began paying more attention to the community and the buildings and such. And this one just always stood out to me. It just called to me. It felt like it refused to be forgotten.”
By 2020, Wade found out the property was set for demolition to make way for a gas station. “I’m not the kind of person that’s like, someone should do something,” she says. “I’m always like, if I feel something should be done, then what am I doing about it? So from there, it just kind of snowballed. … At that point, my heart was in it, and, no matter if it made sense or not, something had to be done.”
So Wade bought 492 Vance as her first development project, with plans to turn the building into one that is multi-use and that can serve the community as it stands today. For this, the Griggs Legacy Project, she’s engaged the help of alumna Tippet-Herron; Sheryl Wallace, president of the relatively new Property, Power, and Preservation (P3); and others. It’s a community effort, she recognizes.
“I feel like we, as the Black and Brown community, need more representation in the built environment,” she says, “to be able to see different places that we were a part of, that are a part of our communities. And when you see something like this, you begin to think, ‘What is that? What happened?’ And it’s just by happenstance. You didn’t go to a museum or you didn’t go to some place to learn more about your own culture. You were just walking up the street, going down the street, and realized or saw something that piqued your curiosity. And so I feel like that’s where I want to make a difference. This is one of the ways to do it.”
A Brief History
It’s fitting that the Griggs Legacy Project, which is spearheaded by women, finds its origins in the little-known history of Emma J. Griggs (1873-1948). “Emma is a figure in her own right,” Wallace says. “And that’s something to say for a woman in that time.”
A lifelong student and educator, Emma grew up in Virginia and, writes Antoinette G. van Zelm in Emma J. Griggs: A Lifelong Commitment to African American Education in Nashville and Memphis, “it is likely that her parents [who were probably born into slavery] instilled in her a deep love of education, no doubt sharing the reverence for learning that has been documented among Civil War-era African Americans, especially those formerly enslaved, in the South.”
Emma would go on to marry Sutton E. Griggs, a well-known Baptist minister, writer, orator, and civil rights leader, in 1897. In 1889, the couple relocated from Emma’s Virginian hometown to Nashville, Tennessee, where Sutton served as pastor of the First Baptist Church and Emma founded a small school.
In 1913, they moved to Memphis for Sutton to take over leadership of the Tabernacle Baptist Church. Emma, for her part, ran a “practical arts school” out of their home and later out of the church, teaching cooking, stenography, personal services, and performance arts to classes of women. Its first commencement ceremony was held in May of 1916; this would be the beginning of what would become Griggs Business and Practical Arts College.
At the onset of the Great Depression, the couple moved to Texas, and just three years later, in 1933, Sutton died at the age of 61. Emma returned to Memphis, and she came with a goal: to establish a school in his honor.
Soon after, she opened a small school at 741 Walker, later moving the facility to a few other addresses. She added business classes and launched a funding campaign, and by 1944 she’d chartered the school as the Griggs Business and Practical Arts College. The following year, Griggs established its campus at 303 South Lauderdale, where it would be until Emma’s death in 1948.
Notably, Emma did all this while living within a segregated city systematically set against her. Jim Crow reigned, and the threat of racial violence cast a shadow over Black people’s livelihoods. Just one year after seeing the first class graduate from her practical arts school in 1916, Memphis succumbed to extreme violence in the lynching of Ell Persons, one of the most vicious lynchings in history, which led to the creation of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP. The site of the lynching would be approved for the National Register of Historic Places the same day as Griggs in 2023.
“I must say it hit me hard during the national register process to get it listed [as a historic site],” Wade says. “We went to Nashville when the state approved it [last spring], and it hit me hard to hear them talk about Emma because I believe during her time she didn’t get the credit she deserved. So to finally hear someone else say her name out loud for her contributions — and not Mrs. Sutton Griggs or Mrs. Griggs, kind of always behind his shadow — she was getting recognition on her own of what she was able to achieve. To hear them say that, I almost came to tears.”
Today, a portrait of Emma by David Yancy III is spray-painted across the front door, a reminder to all who cross the threshold of the woman who started it all.
The School
Tippet-Herron, who once walked those halls as a student when the building was in its full glory, says she learned about Emma and Sutton Griggs through word of mouth from her teachers. “I never got any books until [Wade and Wallace] came here to teach us. See how it works? Things are beginning to come full circle now, with what [the Griggs Legacy Project is] doing.”
Each morning before classes at Griggs, Tippet-Herron’s father and sons would help her up the steps before they went off to their construction job and she went off to learn; her stepmother would make all of their lunches. “When we got out of school, [my father] would be right down at the steps, him and the boys waiting on me to come out, his station wagon full of paint cans,” she says.
Tippet-Herron had enrolled in the college after earning a scholarship through the Urban League and her church. Among her classes were English, business law, accounting, mimeograph, and personality. “The worst thing I did was the shorthand. I could write it out, but I couldn’t read it,” she says. “They laughed at me.”
There was also that one accounting problem. “I worked and worked and worked and every time I came out a penny short. And one day Reverend Gaston [director of the school] got up and told me at church, ‘Miss Carrie,’ he said. ‘Come here. Come to the office, and we’re going to pray for you.’ He said, ‘Why are you always crying?’ He said, ‘Nobody that I have ever known has ever solved [that professor’s] problems.’ He said, ‘You stop that crying.’”
Even with that one problem and shorthand, Tippet-Herron describes her experience at Griggs as “great.” “It was a blessing,” she says. “Because the math, the law part, and everything helped me deal with the job that I had at Levi Strauss. … My business law professors would say, ‘You gotta really know what you’re doing. You gotta understand the things that come before you. You gotta know what to do, how to handle it.’ … So Griggs helped me; Griggs helped me to set my life on a wonderful path.”
Hundreds of alumni, a number of them veterans, can surely say the same. A few notable graduates include Kathryn Bowers, who served as a Tennessee state representative from 1994 to 2006; MaryAnn Johnson, the first Black woman to head the music administration department at Twentieth Century Fox; J.P. Murrell, a local music promoter, co-owner of the Harlem House restaurant chain, and 1975 Urban League “Man of the Year”; Rev. Lee Rogers Pruitt, for 40 years the pastor of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church (the same congregation that Sutton Griggs had served decades earlier); and Julian C. Benson, who was appointed assistant Shelby County jury commissioner in 1973 and in 1980 became the commission’s first African-American chairman.
When the school closed, Tippet-Herron says, “We were all sad. The whole church was sad.”
492 Vance
Emma Griggs never saw Griggs College at 492 Vance, where Tippet-Herron attended school. Emma’s successors purchased the property in 1949, a year after her death. The building was originally built in 1858 as a private residence for attorney Joseph Gregory, whose family lived there for some 50 years in what was the mostly white and affluent neighborhood of Vance-Pontotoc at the time. By the 20th century when Griggs College moved in, the neighborhood had become a hub for African Americans after most of its white residents moved eastward as the city grew.
According to Tippet-Herron, who grew up in the area, it was a thriving community, full of residential businesses like Bodden & Company School of Tailoring, Little John’s Cabs, and Leon’s Supermarket. “There was a florist, too,” she says. “She taught floral arranging. She didn’t have a school, but she had a flower shop and taught the young girls how to do flowers.
“There’s a lot of history here,” she says. “This man would go through the neighborhood and pick up old shoes that were thrown away — the brown-and-white, black-and-white saddle oxfords. He would fix them up, cut the soles, and give them away to children. He was so talented. That’s the kind of history that people don’t know about. And it was in this area around here.”
As the years went on, and as white flight led to the deconcentration of wealth within historic African American communities and urban renewal displaced middle-class African-American neighborhoods, the neighborhood lost its vibrancy. Indeed, the Vance-Pontotoc Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 for the architectural significance of buildings like 492 Vance, but was delisted in 1987 as fires and demolition scourged the area.
Be it fate or happenstance, the Griggs College building remained through it all, and now thanks to the work of the Griggs Legacy Project, it will remain for years to come. “There’s a need not to let our legacies go,” says Wallace. “We need to hold on to our history as much as possible. Henderson no longer stands.”
Henderson, one of the two other Black colleges at the time, faced many of the same struggles as Griggs and was demolished after its closure in 1971. LeMoyne-Owen College is the only historically black college and university (HBCU) remaining in the city.
“But we lucked out with Griggs because the building is here [even though the college is not],” Wallace says. “It’s like, whoa, this is a hidden treasure that we need to let the people know about again. Let’s get excited about it again. Memphis has grown so much. This area has grown as well, so we feel like this is a perfect place to start again.”
Wallace, for her part, has always been interested in history, but, like Wade, did not know much about the school prior to working on this project, despite being a lifelong Memphian. She’s now the president of Property, Power, and Preservation (P3), a nonprofit founded last year with a focus on historical preservation. Working on the Griggs Legacy Project has been their first endeavor.
“One of the challenges that we face is collecting the history,” Wallace says, pointing out that a lot of what they do know about Griggs has been piecemealed together through archival research. “There’s not that much documentation that you can really find. It would be great if we could get more dialogue about it.”
Wallace hopes more alumni like Tippet-Herron and their families will reach out with stories; she dreams of getting her hands on a yearbook, a diploma, or a graduation gown. “You never know what you’ll find when you start going through attics,” she says.
“And a lot of its history is passing,” Wade adds. “It’s a sign of the aging population. Capturing as much as we can before it’s all gone would be great.”
Keeping a Purpose
While much of historical preservation is about the past, it’s also geared toward the present and the future. The women behind the Griggs Legacy Project see its history not as stagnant but as a sustaining, life-giving foundation for them to build upon.
“My hope for the project is that it’s not just a building, but it serves the community,” Wallace says. “It’s something that’s needed.”
They plan to preserve the historical integrity of the 4,200-square-foot building, keeping as many of its Italianate features as they can, but also reimagining its purpose. It’ll be a multi-use building of some kind, though what exactly is unknown. It could see some apartments on the second floor; it could house a technology incubator. “I would like to see maybe a store with a focus on health,” Wallace says. “Being that we are in this particular neighborhood, you have to think about all the issues faced with not being able to have healthy foods [readily accessible].”
Whatever form the building will take, Wallace and Wade know the space will be for the community. “It’s always been a community effort,” Wade says. “The community has always been a part of it, every step, every piece, and that’s why we have this partnership. When Sheryl [Wallace] and I talk, it’s always, ‘How can we do this collectively?’ There are so many different organizations doing things in the neighborhood. There’s Steve Nash at Advance Memphis. There’s MIFA a couple of blocks east. There’s Streets Ministries a couple of blocks west. There’s the [Historic] Clayborn Temple.
“I think there’s such a negative connotation around the word ‘developers,’” Wade adds. “I understand why, and I’m just trying to paint a different narrative because it doesn’t always have to be that way. I think development can be great.”
For Wade, whose background is in urban planning and community programming, this is her first development project; it’s her baby. (As Tippet-Herron jokes in good nature, it’s in the crawling stages right now, set to start construction possibly next year.) But Wade wants to do it right. That means making sure the project is, yes, community-driven, but also environmentally sustainable. “This project is definitely not your regular real estate development,” Wade says. “It’s so much more meaningful and purposeful in every aspect of it, in the use of what’s going to be here, in the construction, how we make sure we’re paying attention to the history of it, but then also making it sustainable, environmentally-friendly, both the in construction materials and in the process.”
Needless to say, an initiative of this caliber will cost a lot. So far, the Griggs project has secured $750,000 in funding from the African American Civil Rights grant program through the Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the Department of Interior’s National Park Service, as well as a $300,000 Tennessee Historic Development Grant from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
These grants have made a huge difference when it comes to financing the Griggs project, Wade says. “You don’t have to cut costs. You could just go the cheapest route, but, no, we were able to get a grant for this, so we can really be intentional about how we do this. When you take on debt where you’re like, ‘We’ve only have so much money, and we need to get this thing going,’ you start cutting corners because you’ve have to start paying back the debt.
“This work is not easy,” she adds, “and for me, if I’m putting that much time and energy into something, it has to be purposeful. And, of course, I don’t want to go into debt with any of it, but I mean, there’s a way, right?”
Wallace and Wade hope to secure more funding and they hope the community shows up, too. “We may need pro bono services at first, until we can get up on our feet and get additional funds and then start paying out,” Wallace says. That may look like someone providing lawn-care or helping with the documentary they plan to make.
“I would love to get back to what it was as we were hearing from Ms. Carrie [Tippet-Herron],” Wade adds. “It was really a community. You had neighbors and businesses and churches working together, supporting each other.”
When asked about her hopes for the project, Tippet-Herron beams. “I’ll tell you my beliefs. I believe it’s going to be successful and it’s gonna help revitalize not just this little area but the whole area of this section of the city of Memphis,” she says. “When I feel like it, I’m gonna call my buddies, my prayer warriors. It’s gonna come to fruition.”
For more information on the Griggs Legacy Project or to find out how you can help, email griggslegacyproject@gmail.com.
LeMoyne-Owen College (LOC) is “The Source” of all things. The source of Black culture, pride, excellence, and, of course — magic.
This is the newest tagline for the school now in the midst of a brand change that claims its own narrative and marks its own way forward. The new effort is led by interim president Christopher Davis, inspired by new heights he believes the school can reach. The school has already been a source, having given so much to Black thought, civil rights, and political action. Davis thinks LOC — as The Source — has a lot more to give from a wealth of untapped potential.
Davis’ involvement with LOC goes beyond his tenure as interim president, dating back to 1999 when he served as senior pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church, which has been a “longtime financial supporter” of LOC. He has served in a number of representative capacities for the school and was appointed interim president in 2023, following the resignation of then-president Vernell Bennett-Fairs.
Christopher Davis (Photo: KQ Communications)
At its core, the school has been a source of educational enrichment, fulfillment, and opportunity — staying true to its original vision. But, Davis says, the school gets lost in larger conversations about historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as a whole. “Our new tagline is this idea of being ‘The Source,’” Davis says. “As I looked at that, I really began to think about what that means given the fact that we’re the fifth oldest HBCU in the nation.”
The college is the only HBCU in Memphis, with its history dating back to 1862 when Lucinda Humphrey opened an elementary school, which became known as Lincoln Chapel, at Tennessee’s Camp Shiloh for “freedmen and runaway slaves” during the Civil War. The school was destroyed in 1866 due to fire in race riots three years after being relocated to Memphis.
“The school was rebuilt and reopened in 1867 with 150 students and six teachers,” say school officials. “In 1914, the school was moved to its present site on Walker Avenue, and the first building, Steele Hall, was erected on the new LeMoyne campus. LeMoyne became a junior college in 1924 and a four-year college in 1930.”
Owen College, founded in 1947 after the Tennessee Baptist Missionary Educational Convention, built a junior college on Vance Avenue. It opened its doors officially in 1954, and was then known as S.A. Owen Junior College. Students at Owen College became known for their tenacity and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, including sit-ins in 1960 to desegregate city facilities. But the school began to face a number of financial challenges and losses, and entered a merger with LeMoyne college in 1968.
With such historical richness of the school, Davis began to wonder, “How is it that we don’t have the same public profile as some of the other HBCUs that you hear about all the time?” He explains that when more prominent HBCUs such as Morehouse, Spelman, and Hampton “were still a hope in somebody’s heart,” LeMoyne-Owen’s doors were already open — and the school had been reactive as opposed to proactive in terms of “shaking the narrative.”
“We’re going to take control of the narrative,” Davis says. “No longer are we going to react to what people say about LeMoyne-Owen, but we’re going to introduce them to [the] LeMoyne-Owen that we know, love, and support.”
Memphis Mayor Paul Young serves on the LOC board of trustees. He says the college impacts not only the city, but HBCU culture in general. “The importance of our only HBCU in the country’s largest minority-majority city cannot be overlooked,” Young says. “The institution offers a supportive community that fosters meaningful real-world connections and success. So many successful Memphians graduated from LOC, including my dad. It is a pillar in our city, and I believe it will be a catalyst for growth in the South Memphis community for years to come.”
(Photo: KQ Communications)
Stick and Stay
The school that so many revere has withstood a number of challenges, a testament to the persistence and doggedness ingrained in its foundation. Countless students have entered LOC’s doors and left as proud Magicians.
Everyone plays a role in shaping LeMoyne’s reputation, Davis explains. Both past and current students. “If you’re concerned about the long-term trajectory of Memphis, how do you invest in any place other than LeMoyne-Owen since we’ve demonstrated that our students stick and stay?”
Alumni play a pivotal role in the lasting impact of the school. LOC “can’t make it without their alumni,” Davis says. “We need more than just their check. We need their presence on campus. I need them walking around saying to students, ‘I was where you were, and this is what LeMoyne-Owen was able to do for me.’”
June Chinn-Jointer is a 1979 graduate of LeMoyne-Owen who’s known lovingly around campus and in the LOC community as a devoted alumna.
“[I was] a regular college student, had all the fun that any other college student would have,” Chinn-Jointer says. “You talk about having fun? I had a ball — I really did.”
Chinn-Jointer majored in social work and originally worked in the field after graduating, but a return to higher education kept beckoning. In October of 1980, she was hired as an alumni senior counselor in the career service center at LeMoyne-Owen, where she helped graduating seniors prepare to enter the job force. After displaying a vested interest in the lives of students, Chinn-Jointer was urged by mentors and school officials to move toward recruitment.
“That’s how I got into higher ed, and I’ve basically been here ever since,” she says. “I’ve had some good times here. I’ve worked at other higher-ed institutions, but I would always come back home. They would call and ask me to come back and I always came back — happily — to help my students at LeMoyne-Owen College.”
Chinn-Jointer has “worn many hats” at LOC. She has previously served as the dean of enrollment, dean of retention, and more. She currently serves as the director of alumni affairs, and as she talks about her time at the school, both as a student and in her career, it’s clear that she’s moved not only by her love for her alma mater but for the students as well.
She recalls how her own experience as a student was made better by previous alumni and mentors. As she lists the names of some who helped her along the way, she notes that their dedication wasn’t solely based on encouraging academic achievement. “Not only were they dads and moms, they kept us in line. They knew we were going to be traditional college students — playing cards, partying, and all that kind of good stuff — but they also made sure we stayed focused while we were here.”
A genuine interest in student retention and success is something that keeps many Magicians returning to the school long after they graduate, Chinn-Jointer explains. But she also speaks of a magic essence — one that is made stronger by the students who bring the campus to life, both on and off the school’s grounds.
Take, for example, the involvement of LOC students in the Civil Rights Movement. Their passionate engagement resounded through later generations of students as the need for more marches and activism opportunities grew. Chinn-Jointer explains it is a demonstration of the university’s lasting commitment to “dignity and respect.”
“Your experience as a student here is a lasting, fulfilling relationship that you have. You don’t ever lose it,” Chinn-Jointer says. “We always talk about the magic and the LeMoyne-Owen mystique — it’s wearing those LeMoyne-Owen colors, the purple and the gold, very proudly. Holding your head up, shoulders back when you walk into a room with anybody — you can stand toe-to-toe with them. That’s being a LeMoyne-Owen graduate.”
(Photo: KQ Communications)
There’s No Place Like LeMoyne
As president, Davis emphasizes the impact of alumni in helping the school reach new heights, but he also calls on current students to help tell LOC’s story. A crucial part of this, he says, is stressing that their decision to enroll there is one of intention. “You didn’t come to LeMoyne because you couldn’t go somewhere else. You came to LeMoyne because you were convinced there was no place better. We want to give them the tools and resources to, number one, live into their authentic selves, but most importantly, be positioned to be successful in life.”
For Danielle Jathan, attending LOC has been the coming-true of a seemingly unattainable dream. Jathan made LOC a home away from home as an international student hailing from an inner-city community in Jamaica called Waterhouse. “[In Waterhouse] there’s a lot of crime and violence, teenage pregnancy, gun violence — I actually never thought I would come out of that,” says Jathan. “The system makes it so hard to rise above it from a lower class.”
The idea of rising above wasn’t germane to her situation at home though. Jathan is the 2023-2024 Student Government Association (SGA) president, a peer tutor mentor, and a member of Collegiate 100 and the Rotary club, to name a few.
Jathan was also chosen to represent LOC at the White House as a 2023 White House Initiative HBCU scholar. There, she says, very few had heard of the college, so she embraced the opportunity to speak “more and more” about LeMoyne-Owen.
“It was nice for me to actually get the school’s name out there,” Jathan says. “We have this saying in Jamaica [that fits], ‘Wi likkle but wi tallawah,’ meaning people think we’re this small, private school and we don’t have much talent, but really we’re so rich with talent and prosperity.”
While Jathan plays a prominent role on campus, leadership is relatively new to her. Back at home she was known to lead from behind, she says, staying to herself and letting others take the reins. But this all changed when she came to LOC, where opportunities to lead appeared at every turn. “People kept calling me to things, saying, ‘Danielle can do this. Danielle can do that,’” says Jathan. “I realized students looked to me, and I realized I was actually good with [building] relationships with them.”
Jathan’s work is demonstrative not only of the Magician spirit, but of her devotion to motivate her fellow students to succeed. While Jathan’s involvement is marked by encouraging others, she is also able to pinpoint the ways that LOC has poured into her.
“[LOC] has equipped me with all of the leadership skills I need,” she says. “It actually brought out the leadership qualities that I already had that I didn’t know I had.”
This is a crucial element, especially for students who venture from their hometowns to study at LOC. Honesty Campbell and Kevin Bland are two out-of-state students, studying business management and special education, respectively, who both agree that the essence and life of the campus made their decision to enroll easy.
“From the moment I stepped on the campus, I felt a vibe,” Bland says. “It was a little different. Everyone seemed to operate on family time. I didn’t want to go to U of M — thought it was too big. I decided to sit down somewhere where the environment is small and where I get to learn everybody that I can.”
The more intimate setting of 463 students invokes a tight-knit bond that students adore. Campbell didn’t visit the college prior to enrolling, but through relationship-building with her peers she now knows she made the right decision.
“We are surrounded and based off family,” says Campbell. “This becomes your family.”
Community impacts every aspect of the student experience, Bland says. It’s as if the school is tailored to match the needs of each student individually, as he’s found he’s never quite alone through anything he’s faced.
“There’s someone always around who’s attended the school, that knows about the school,” Bland says. “When you meet that person for the first time, there’s already a connection there.”
(Photo: KQ Communications)
Magic at Work
A bulk of the magic of LeMoyne comes from alumni and current students keeping the legacy alive, but Davis says in order to continue this momentum, they have to give back to the community that helped them to become who they are today.
“One of the things I like to boast and brag about is that, regardless of where our students come from, 98 percent of our graduates stick and stay in Memphis when they graduate,” Davis says. “We have a direct impact on the economy, culture, and direction of this city.”
The school’s curriculum is constantly evolving to adapt to not only the needs of the workforce, but the city’s workforce specifically, Davis says, adding that the major markets in Memphis are education, healthcare, supply-chain logistics, and IT — and the school is responsible for supplying the needs of these markets.
For example, the school has a new partnership with MSCS as a pipeline for teachers. “We’re looking to be ‘The Source’ of teachers for Memphis-Shelby County Schools,” says Davis. “Not just any teachers, but teachers who have been trained and developed and nurtured to serve in urban school districts — specifically Memphis-Shelby County Schools.”
It’s important for students to not only stay in Memphis, but for them to be employed in the city as well. Davis hopes employers consider LOC graduates when vetting candidates for various jobs in the city, as the school has had the needs of Memphis in mind when preparing students.
“Not only do we want our students to stay here — we are training and upscaling our students so they can be employed here,” he says.
As the school continues to explore the source of what makes the school unique, it can’t be narrowed down to just one thing. The magic lives in its campus, its students, its alumni, and the legacy that has permeated the city of Memphis and beyond.
LeMoyne-Owen College president Vernell Bennett-Fairs. Credit: LeMoyne-Owen
Nzinga “Zing” Shaw, The Recording Academy’s chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer was chosen to be the keynote speaker for LeMoyne-Owen’s College 2023 spring commencement.
While Shaw currently leads the organization’s DEI Center of Excellence, which according to LOC aims to “enable a more engaged global workforce,” and creates “enhanced platforms to recognize the diverse array of artists and music professionals,” she has also served as the first chief inclusion and diversity officer for both Starbucks and the National Basketball Association, representing the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena franchise.
Vernell A. Bennett-Fairs, the 13th president of LOC, explained that when people think of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), they tend to think that because of this designation, they’re already “diverse.” However, she explained that diversity is not just “black and white,” but it’s access and equity.
“We hone in by finding support systems and resources that even the playing field and give our students an edge,” said Bennett-Fairs, “whether through corporate sponsorships, mentorship opportunities, identifying resources, and establishing collaborations of grants.”
When the Memphis Flyer spoke with Shaw about the opportunity to bestow her knowledge onto LOC’s graduating class, she explained that as a graduate from an HBCU herself, it was an honor and a pleasure, and that she knew the great value that these institutions bring to young, Black students.
“I have a lot of experience being a marginalized student, as well as a marginalized employee in corporate America,” said Shaw. “I also bring optimism for how these students can overcome some of these challenges that they may encounter as they begin their professional journeys.”
Shaw’s presence was timely not only because of the occasion of commencement, but as the college prepares to expand its music program.
“Music is universal,” said Shaw. “I am ecstatic that this college is continuing the tradition that a lot of HBCU’s have established from their inception, which is to bring people together through the love of gospel music, through the love of hymns, through the love of different genres of music so that the student body can feel united and showcase their talents in a way that inspires the world.”
Bennett-Fairs explained that they have always had a music program, however for the fall of 2023, the marching band has been expanded as a credit-bearing course, with hopes of being an instrumental major.
“Right now we’ve also expanded the curricular offerings to include sacred music, music production, piano pedagogy, and performance — both vocal and instrumental.”
She also added that the college will have a music studio as well as skilled faculty, including Ashley Davis, who serves as the assistant professor of music. Bennett-Fairs explained that Davis has a connection to Stax Academy, and will help students gain real world experience as well as meaningful connections.
The college will also offer arts programming for the community, and is currently seeking grant sponsorships. They are also currently seeking accreditation for their music program from the National Association of Schools of Music.
Dr. Vernell Bennett-Fairs will lead LeMoyne-Owen College (LOC) after a recent vote of the school’s board of trustees.
School officials reviewed a poll of 78 candidates in a six-month search process facilitated by the Association of Governing Boards (AGB). The search was also supported by a committee comprised of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners.
Bennet-Fairs will replace outgoing interim president Dr. Carol Johnson, who served in that role for nearly two years.
Bennet-Fairs most recently served as vice president of student affairs at Delta State University in Mississippi, a position she held for more than four years. There, she increased student enrollment, realigned the college’s scholarship budget, and helped attract students from over 50 countries, according to LOC. Bennett-Fairs served in a similar role at Kentucky State University.
“We selected Dr. Bennett-Fairs because of her vast experience in higher education and we are especially impressed with her student recruitment successes,” said Johnny Pitts, chairman of the school’s search committee. “LeMoyne-Owen College is poised to continue to advance with her at the helm.”
LeMoyne-Owen established a historic $40-million endowment in 2020 organized by the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. The school also secured a partnership with Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare to expand its health and wellness services for students.
Bennet-Fairs will begin work as LOC president in January 5, 2021.
The LeMoyne-Owen College professor who received backlash for his comments on the June officer-involved shooting of Brandon Webber is still teaching at the college, LeMoyne-Owen officials confirmed this week.
A week after Webber, 21, was shot and killed by U.S. Marshal officers in Frayser, Tom Graves, an author and tenured English professor at LeMoyne-Owen, responded to the incident in a Facebook post.
“So let me get this straight,” Graves wrote. “A wanted felon who shot a guy five times was found in Frayser by U.S. Marshals. So, the fucking idiot tries to run over the Marshals with his vehicle then exits the car with a gun. So, the war he starts with a whole gang of U.S. Marshals, everyone an expert shooter ends with him dead as Dillinger.”
In his post, Graves also commented that Webber’s Facebook post “attest to thuggery, with him holding up fistfuls of cash, as if he were the king daddy pimp. Defending this man is wrong. He should be condemned for what he was and represented and did.”
Graves’ controversial Facebook post
After Graves’ post spread around social media, many took issue with it and some even called for his dismissal. But, the college said this week that Graves will keep his position this school year.
“Professor Tom Graves, a member of the LeMoyne-Owen College faculty, returned to the classroom for the 2019-2020 academic year,” a statement from the college reads. “As an educational institution, we promote the free exchange of diverse viewpoints, even those with which some may disagree or take exception.”
The college’s decision to keep Graves “directly aligns with the college’s faculty handbook, policies, and procedures,” according to its statement.
LeMoyne-Owen officials would not detail what, if any, disciplinary actions were taken against Graves, as the college does not “publicly discuss details of personnel matters, including disciplinary decisions.”
Rev. Earle Fisher, a LeMoyne-Owen alumnus, pastor, and activist was also on the receiving end of Graves’ comments.
“Anyone like Tami Sawyer or the notorious Earle ‘Ain’t I pretty’ Fisher defending this street terrorist are part of why the streets of Memphis are not safe, especially for our black citizens who suffer the brunt of these crimes,” Graves wrote.
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Learning that Graves was allowed to keep his role, Fisher said he expected there to be a “more serious reprimand for such as egregious action. To know that someone who shares those views will still be in the classroom attempting to shape young black minds is far from what I think is the ideal context for higher education.”
Fisher said his hope is that Historically Black Colleges and Universities will “stand more firmly on the tradition of protecting and cultivating black dignity and pride.”
Facebook/Earler Fisher
Earle Fisher
“I expect more from our black institutions: to stand up against racist and bigoted ideologies, especially to those who have positions of influence and authority over black students,” Fisher said.
Shortly after Graves’ comments came to light, the college’s Student Government Association sent a letter to the professor, calling his comments “appalling.”
“While we agree that we do not have the facts of the case, we are in unanimous disagreement with your verbiage and disregard for the impact which your words would have on the community you serve,” the letter read. “As a professor at a historically black college, you are keenly aware of the challenges unique to the black/African-American community.”
Sainna Christian, the college’s 2019-2020 SGA president, declined to comment on Graves’ returning to the classroom this school year, saying that “at this time, I have no comments on the matter.”
A Memphis author and tenured professor at Lemoyne-Owen College is receiving backlash for comments about last week’s officer-involved shooting in Frayser.
Tom Graves teaches English at Lemoyne-Owen College, a historically-black college. In a Facebook post, he called Brandon Webber, the 21-year-old black man who was shot and killed by U.S. Marshal officers here last week, a “fucking idiot.”
“So let me get this straight,” Graves wrote. “A wanted felon who shot a guy five times was found in Frayser by U.S. Marshals. So, the fucking idiot tries to run over the Marshals with his vehicle then exits the car with a gun. So, the war he starts with a whole gang of U.S. Marshals, everyone an expert shooter ends with him dead as Dillinger.”
Graves then discusses the community uprising that ensued after the shooting, saying what happened next “makes me seethe.”
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“A riotous crowd gathers and begins to harass and intimidate law enforcement on the scene,” Graves said. “Mayhem ensues. People get arrested. Asshole thugs in the crowd fire their weapons. Tear gas. Batons. Shields.”
Graves continues, criticizing activists and leaders like Tami Sawyer, who Graves said defended Webber.
“Others relate what a wonderful student he was,” Graves wrote of Webber. “His Facebook posts attest to thuggery, with him holding up fistfuls of cash, as if he were the king daddy pimp. Defending this man is wrong. He should be condemned for what he was and represented and did.”
See Graves’ full post at the bottom of the page.
Many people took issue with Graves’s post. Some even called for his dismissal at the college:
In a comment on another one of his Facebook posts, Graves explained that his original post was only meant for his friends, but that it was screen-capped and shared around social media. Graves adds that he doesn’t “discuss this stuff with my students.”
“I don’t discuss this stuff with my students — I teach them writing,” Graves said. “And I love and respect my students. I did not want all this to get so out of hand. Lots of folks black and white agree with my take on the Frayser incident.”
Terrell Lamont Strayhorn, vice president of academic and student affairs at LOC said via Facebook that the college is aware of the incident and is working to resolve it.
“Please know that posts made by individuals do NOT reflect the collective values and commitments of LeMoyne-Owen College,” Strayhorn said.
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The LOC Student Government Associated sent a letter to Graves in response to his comments, calling them “appalling.” The students said they would like to “express our discontentment at the insincerity with which you commented on the Brandon Webber case.”
“While we agree that we do not have the facts of the case, we are in unanimous disagreement with your verbiage and disregard for the impact which your words would have on the community you serve,” the letter reads. “As a professor at a historically black college, you are keenly aware of the challenges unique to the black/African-American community.
Given the experiences of the students you teach, your implicit justification of the unfortunate events which happened have not been taken lightly.”
The students are calling for a public apology to the students and administration of the college and its stakeholders.
For years, the historic home of blues artist Memphis Slim, just a block away from the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, could have inspired a blues song itself.
A fallen tree leaned onto the wide porch, damaging part of the roof of the crumbling structure. Vegetation had begun growing on the inside. But after years of planning and months of construction, the house reopened last month as the Memphis Slim Collaboratory, a low-cost music studio and workshop space developed through a partnership between Community LIFT, the University of Memphis, LeMoyne-Owen College, the Memphis Music Foundation, the Hyde Family Foundations, and ArtPlace America.
Slim, best known for the blues standard “Every Day I Have the Blues,” lived in the two-story home at 1130 College in Soulsville before moving to Chicago in 1939. The original structure had to be demolished because it was in such poor condition.
Bianca Phillips
Memphis Slim Collaboratory
“The intent was to renovate, but the contractors spent about $25,000 looking into how to do that before they realized it wouldn’t be possible,” said Charlie Santo, a city and regional planning associate professor at the University of Memphis.
But the original bricks from the chimney and wood from the house frame were salvaged and reused in the new two-story construction.
Downstairs is now home to a full recording studio, and upstairs, there’s a computer lab, where musicians can work on promotional materials or upload music online. Workshops will be hosted in the computer lab space. Although the collaboratory held a grand opening at the end of April, they’re still hooking up equipment inside, and it may not be open for recording sessions for a few more weeks.
The Memphis Slim Collaboratory will be membership-based, and it’s open to anyone. Eight hours of recording time will run about $60. Leni Stoeva of Community LIFT said they’re aiming to attract emerging musicians.
“It’s for anyone who is pursuing a music career. They don’t have to be established professionals. We’re really targeting young people who are serious about music. But we’re also open to older people who just decided to pick it up and want to fine-tune their craft,” Stoeva said.
Stoeva said they’re not trying to compete with other music studios in town but rather act as a resource for artists who may not be able to afford a recording session elsewhere.
“If you go to Ardent [Studios], you’re working with somebody who is seasoned and knows what they’re doing. Here, you’re getting a discount rate, but you’re going to be working with someone who is learning the industry,” Santo said.
It was Santo’s class, over several years, that developed the concept for the collaboratory as part of a broader Memphis Music Magnet Plan. In 2008, his city planning students began brainstorming ways that the city could use its musical heritage as a catalyst for economic development.
“It’s about using music and art to tell stories and activate spaces and reclaim vacant properties and connect people,” Santo said. “We’re trying to build on this neighborhood and its existing assets. This neighborhood played a crucial role in establishing Memphis’ cultural identity.”
The Memphis Slim home was donated for the collaboratory project by LeMoyne-Owen College. The construction was funded through grants from ArtPlace America and other philanthropic organizations.
Stoeva hopes the collaboratory and the overall Memphis Music Magnet Plan will help spur development around Soulsville.
“A lot of people come to Stax. They get off the tour bus, and there’s nothing else around except for residential,” Stoeva said. “Redeveloping this area will help small businesses and other music-related projects.”
Last week, Howard University professor Dr. Ivory Toldson visited Lemoyne-Owen College, the only historically black college in Memphis, to discuss some of the barriers that hinder black male students from pursuing post-secondary education.
In his lecture, Toldson discussed the significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and revealed how they could help more black male students participate effectively in college.
Toldson spoke with the Flyer about some of the issues that black males encounter during high school that eventually affect their desire to pursue higher education. He also talked about how HBCUs can combat these challenges.
Flyer: What factors hinder black males from going to college?
Toldson: One is disproportionality in discipline. Young black males are suspended for various things at a much higher rate than other race groups. It’s not because they have worse behaviors, which is what people commonly think. It’s because they’re more likely to be in schools with zero-tolerance disciplinary policies.
Another issue is the availability of a rigorous curriculum in schools that have the highest percentage of black male students. Those are much less likely to offer algebra 2, calculus, and physics. Some of these classes aren’t actually required to get into college, but all of these classes are necessary so that students can compete effectively once they are in college.
How can HBCUs help combat these challenges?
A lot of HBCUs have law schools or criminal justice programs, so they could set up call lines or training resources for schools and parents. Perhaps a parent of some kid who’s been suspended for 10 days for fighting at school [doesn’t] believe the kid actually started it and thinks the kid needs to be given a second chance. There are experts at HBCUs that are well-equipped to help mediate some of those issues.
Another thing is teacher preparation at the schools that educate the largest percentage of black kids. Black kids are more likely to have a teacher [who has fewer] years of teaching experience, misses more days of school, and is paid less on average than public schools who have a large percentage of white kids. Some universities have been very effective at creating training programs for teachers and participating in the in-service training and continued education training of teachers. We want to see HBCUs take more leadership in that.
Why target black male students rather than females?
The data that we have shows that black males tend to be the most adversely affected by a lot of policies that exist. Specifically, with HBCUs, we see that black females participate in HBCUs a lot more. Also, black female students graduate at a higher rate than black males. We know that a lot of the reasons stem from things like discipline and the fact that some black males may be considered more threatening in their school environment because of biases.
Do you think it’s more beneficial for African Americans to attend HBCUs rather than other schools?
HBCUs offer some clear advantages over other universities for a lot of black students. When we look at the top producers of black students who go on to get advanced degrees in [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), we see that HBCUs top those lists.
I think having professors and faculty who understand your cultural background is an advantage of going to an HBCU. Faculty participates in the development of their students a lot more than what we would see in some of the big state universities.
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Bianca Phillips