Several members of African American families recently bereaved because of police actions came to Memphis on Martin Luther King weekend. One feature of their visit was a luncheon in their honor Monday with Shelby Countians at the Paramount Restaurant Downtown.
On the left side of the table in the top picture (l to r): Paris Stevens, Mahalia Jones, Angela Harrison, County Commissioner Reginald Milton. Facing them are Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris (foreground) and former Commissioner Steve Mulroy. The women, representatives of the George Floyd Global Memorial, are aunts of the late George Floyd, infamously strangled to death by a Minneapolis police officer in a 2020 incident that convulsed the nation and galvanized world attention to the still-present specter of racism.
Also honored and attending the luncheon were Bianca Austin, aunt of Breonna Taylor who was inadvertently killed during a Louisville police raid meant to target her boyfriend, and Jacob Blake Sr., whose son was shot in the back and seriously wounded by arresting police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The senior Blake stated the focus of the Memphis visit and a series of organized public appearances in various cities by the group of bereaved family members: “We turn tragedy into triumph. We try to support the families that are in need. We give them a part of us. Sometimes we go to five different cities in a month.”
The group also appeared Sunday at Oak Grove AME Church, in an event, “Let Our Children Live,” aimed at gun violence and sponsored by state Representative Joe Towns Jr.; Mike Dockery, CEO of Telecast Inc.; and the Stomp the City organization.