Tag: Mid-South Peace & Justice Center

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The Resistance: Memphis Activism Sprouts Everywhere

CREDIT: Joey Miller

We’ve planned this cover for a couple of weeks, calling on sources, digging through social media, and going to rallies and marches to find the faces of Memphis resistance. Turns out, all we really had to do was check with City Hall. The city of Memphis has a list. 

The Commercial Appeal‘s Ryan Poe uncovered the Memphis Police Department’s “escort list” through an open records request and revealed it in a story Friday. The list features the names of dozens of Memphis activists, organizers, disgruntled former employees, and others. Those on the list “have to be escorted inside City Hall at all times,” according to a note on the list signed by MPD Lieutenant Albert Bonner. 

Mayor Jim Strickland said he hadn’t seen the list before Poe’s story surfaced and said he will review it with MPD director Michael Rallings to discuss its future. 

“It is the professional assessment of the Memphis Police Department’s Homeland Security Bureau that individuals on the list pose a potential security risk,” Strickland said in a statement, Saturday. “It’s important to note that these individuals have not been banned from City Hall. They simply require an escort.”

Citing ignorance of the City Hall security list is one thing, but we do have insight into how Strickland handles protests. When Greensward supporters took to the grassy field in Overton Park last April (armed with protest signs, streamers, guitars, and kids in costumes), Strickland ordered 88 security staffers (including MPD, Memphis Fire Services, Memphis Animal Services, and more) to the site. The show of force included clandestine surveillance units, mounted police, a fleet of police cruisers, and a cop chopper circling overhead. All of this cost taxpayers around $37,000.

A few months later, about 1,000 protestors shut down the Hernando de Soto Bridge in an action aimed at drawing attention to the deaths of several black men at the hands of police across the country. MPD officers, and Rallings, himself, ensured that protestors marched peacefully and safely through downtown streets and onto the bridge. Once there, they were met with a sea of blue lights, a squad of cops clad in black riot gear, and a police helicopter. 

Both protests ended peacefully, and the overwhelming police presence may have had something to do with it. The City Hall list, though, feels like overreach — targeted and possibly aimed at intimidation. 

The original introduction to this piece described a city that lauds the efforts of its resistors. We paint their faces 15 feet high on the sides of buildings and call them “Upstanders.” We turned the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final moments into the iconic National Civil Rights Museum, which helps visitors and locals alike learn about what King and other civil rights leaders fought and died for. Through that lens, we’ve watched with some pride as grassroots efforts in Memphis have sprouted and grown since the inauguration of President Donald Trump. If any city is going to respect those who rise up and resist, it should be Memphis. 

Maybe future generations will paint visages of the new resistance on another Upstanders Mural, like the one in South Main. Though the spectrum of resistance and activist groups in Memphis is wide and diverse, we’ve selected a few to highlight. Memphis, meet (some of) the resistance. — Toby Sells

Black Lives Matter, Memphis Chapter

Perhaps the most recognizable of the social justice-oriented groups, Black Lives Matter faces ample scrutiny from law-enforcement supporters and, well, white people, though there has never been an “Only” in front of the group’s name. 

BLM as a national organization formed after the death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teenager stalked and killed by George Zimmerman, a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch vigilante. BLM has grown in size and reach, often in conjunction with protests against police killings of unarmed African Americans.

Shahidah Jones, a Memphis chapter representative, says that people’s involvement in the Memphis chapter tends to rise and recede. “It’s not a growing trend, necessarily, but people will be motivated by a particular incident and come out,” Jones says, adding that “it really depends on public traction, but also accessibility.”

Joey Miller

with Black Lives Matter

In this case, accessibility refers to how much time someone is able to commit to BLM, which is why the chapter is comprised of regular members who stay steadily involved, like Jones, and volunteers who can help organize around a specific event. 

“The basic core of what we’re doing is we are fighting for the liberation and equality of all black people,” said Jones.

Like most social justice groups organizing under a national presence, the local group adheres to national guiding principles. For BLM locally, the economic equality they are pursuing has many components. This year, the chapter decided that pursuing transformative justice in Memphis means working on bail reform and decriminalizing marijuana — two components of the criminal justice system that disproportionately work against people of color. 

Jones advises anyone wanting to get involved with BLM Memphis to send an email and let organizers know how they would be able to contribute in terms of time and skill set. — Micaela Watts

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) 

As more and more community activism takes aim at dismantling long-standing institutional structures — and centuries-old repercussions — on people of color, there’s a call for white individuals to join in efforts to fight racism. 

For many whites, answering that call is not always a clear-cut process, particularly when it comes to grassroots movements. How to combat racism without being, well, kinda racist isn’t always clear to the race that has been at the top in this country since its founding. 

SURJ exists to engage white people who want to dismantle racism. Like Black Lives Matter, SURJ is a national organization, and the Memphis chapter formed in the latter half of 2016. 

Micaela Watts

of SURJ

Allison Glass, one of the representatives of the group, said the catalyst to the Memphis chapter’s formation came in July, shortly after more than 1,000 people shut down traffic on the I-40 bridge. 

“It was such a powerful moment in Memphis that I think people felt really inspired,” says Glass. “If these folks are going to commit such a courageous act, then we as white people need to organize other white people to join this effort.”

In September, SURJ members dispersed through the crowds of the Cooper-Young Festival in their first action and signed up people interested in learning how to combat racism. They also sold Black Lives Matter yard signs, with the proceeds going to the national BLM organization. 

“One of the core principles of SURJ is about accountability, specifically to people-of-color-led organizations. So, SURJ signed on as an organizational partner to BLM,” says Glass.

Like many community organizing groups, the interest in SURJ has risen following the election of President Trump. The organization will host its next direct training action on March 4th at Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Midtown. — MW

Comunidades Unidas en Una Voz

Though the Memphis chapter of Comunidades Unidas en Una Voz (United Communities in One Voice) formed in 2010, it made local headlines after organizing the 3,000 strong Memphis We Belong Here march on February 1st, in downtown Memphis. 

“We never imagined the magnitude that this march would have and all the support we have received from people,” says CUUV organizer, Christina Condori.”The actions are a response to the erroneous measures being implemented that hurt our families,” she adds.

The erroneous measures Condori refers to may have come into the spotlight after President Trump’s travel ban, but CUUV has been rallying against the lesser-known immigration practices that have been dividing families in the Mid-South for years. 

Christina Condori, an organizer with CUUV

They’ve called upon Shelby County officials to not work with ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in executing raids in Spanish-speaking communities, where individuals often do not know their rights as undocumented residents in Memphis.

“When there was a raid and people did not know their rights, we started attending TIRRC (Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition) workshops and would then transfer the learned information regarding our rights,” Condori says. CUUV has started hosting “Know Your Rights” workshops in churches, schools, and businesses within vulnerable communities. 

CUUV has aligned with multiple organizations on the local and national level, including Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ-focused groups, and Fight for $15, the national living wage reform group. The diversity among their affiliated causes is linked to a core tenet, “No to xenophobia.” 

CUUV plans to continue organizing against policies that harm minority communities and will strive to make Memphis a place that welcomes immigrants and refugees. “We know we are not alone,” says Condori. “We have many allies who are willing to support us.” — MW

Protect Our Aquifer

Ward Archer is no stranger to matters of the environment and public interest. Several years back, he helped raise $4 million to buy endangered property along the Wolf River from would-be loggers on behalf of the Wolf River Conservancy.

In the process, Archer ended up well grounded (in every sense of that term) with the fact that the headwaters of the Wolf — the Baker’s Pond area in northern Mississippi — served as a recharge area for the Memphis Sand aquifer, the source of Memphis’ unusually pristine drinking water. Fascinated, Archer learned everything he could about the subject of ground water in general and the Sand aquifer in particular.

Archer, who is also a board member of Contemporary Media, Inc., the Flyer‘s parent company, remains sensitive to any news regarding the aquifer and responded to the alarm raised last year by Scott Banbury of the Sierra Club about what had been a virtually unpublicized plan by the Tennessee Valley Authority to do some massive drilling into the aquifer to acquire coolant water for TVA’s forthcoming natural-gas power plant.

Banbury and experts like Brian Waldron, of the University of Memphis, made a compelling case that the drilling — five wells, three of them already approved and some of them arguably ill-placed — could result in possible contamination of the aquifer’s water supply.

Archer formed an ad hoc non-profit citizen’s group, Protect Our Aquifer, which has held numerous public meetings to raise awareness of the issue and has participated in various actions to halt the TVA drilling. The group has joined the Sierra Club in an ongoing legal appeal, now in Chancery Court,  to reverse the preliminary approval of the TVA drilling by the Shelby County Groundwater Control Board.

Protect Our Aquifier has a governing board of 10 and, perhaps more important, has an informal membership core of 1,800, communicating full-time via Facebook and fully able, as circumstances have demonstrated more than once, to mount an organized public presence. — Jackson Baker

The Leftist Comedy Show

It was the one-year anniversary of the Leftist Comedy Show, and show host Stan Polson thought he had one more joke — but, just to be sure, he checked an index card tucked in his breast pocket. “I’m really good at this,” he mumbled. “Oh yeah, yeah,” he said, reading deadpan from the card: “Men and women are really different. [laughter] Like, if you look on the internet, you can really see a lot of that. [laughter] Women are like, ‘Quit harassing me!’ And men are like, ‘Nobody’s harassing you, whore! Shut up! Kill yourself!’ [pause] That seems different.” 

Resistance can be funny. At least, that’s the take of those involved with the Leftist Comedy Show. It was born in the backyard of the Lamplighter Lounge and was supposed to be a one-off event, created by a group of friends with similar political interests. Turned out, the idea had legs, and the crowds are getting bigger.

The first events were planned with the goal of creating “safe space” comedy for audiences who might not feel comfortable at regular shows and open mics.

“A lot of people think we get offended by offensive material,” he says. “But that’s not really the case so much as we believe people when they tell us why they don’t come to comedy shows. At a leftist show, you’re not going to hear any rape jokes. You’re not going to hear any racial slurs. We heard women didn’t feel safe at open mics, comedy in Memphis was too segregated, and a lot of our transgender friends wouldn’t go because they’d hear jokes that made them uncomfortable.” The result is a comedy showcase with a lot of familiar faces on stage, but a unique audience.  

The next Leftist Show is slated for April 15th at Midtown Crossing. It will be hosted by the Living Room Leftists, a local pro-union folk band. — Chris Davis

Mid-South Peace and Justice Center

“It’s all about poverty at the end of the day,” says Brad Watkins, executive director of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (MPJC). “Our organization was founded on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because our founders believed, as Memphians, we have a special responsibility, as this was the city in which King was murdered. [They wanted to build] on the work of Dorothy Day, of Chavez, of King. This organization stands to push that vision forward.” 

MPJC launched in 1982 and originally had a wide-ranging, four-pronged mission: opposing apartheid; targeting industrial polluters; calling for nuclear disarmament; and opposing U.S. military involvement in Central America. Some 20 years later, the focus was narrowed to local issues when Jacob Flowers, whose parents were active at the center in the 1980s, became executive director. The center has now become a mother ship, of sorts, for other fledgling organizations, including the Memphis Bus Riders Union, Memphis United, and H.O.P.E. (Homeless Organizing for Power & Equality). 

Watkins became executive director in 2014. “If you look at homelessness,” he says, “if you look at public transit, if you look at our work with low-income tenants or immigrants or criminal-justice reform — all of that has its roots in poverty. And not just poverty like it’s just something that happens, like the weather. 

“Low income people pay all the late fees; they pay all the reactivation fees,” Watkins continues. “The system bleeds people dry and keeps them trapped in poverty. If you wanted to sum up all of the issues we work on, it comes from a place of liberation from oppression, and poverty is the means to oppression.” 

Watkins says the center’s role in the current spate of activism is a supportive one. He says activism works best when a movement is led by the people most affected by an issue.  

“Here’s what I want to say,” says Watkins. “It’s never too late for someone to get involved. None of us were here at the beginning of the movement, and none of us are too late to be a part of it.” — Susan Ellis

Activist Grassroots Groups in Memphis (partial list):
M.A.R.C.H. (Memphis Advocates for Radical Childcare)
Fight for $15
Healthy and Free Tennessee
Memphis Bus Riders Union
Memphis Feminist Collective
Comunidades Unidas en Una Voz
Home Health Care Workers
Memphis Voices for Palestine
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Official Memphis Chapter of Black Lives Matter
Sister Reach
Save the Greensward
OurRevolution 901
Preserve Our Aquifer
Mid-South Peace & Justice Center

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Group Protests Poor Living Conditions at HUD-Subsidized Apartments

Holding signs that read “Hold Slumlords Accountable” or signs calling for inspections of various HUD-subsidized apartments, members of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (MSPJC) protested outside Serenity Towers on Highland Wednesday afternoon to bring awareness to the plight of Memphians living in substandard housing.

Serenity Towers, a senior living apartment complex, is owned by Global Ministries Foundation (GMF), a religious nonprofit that operates several apartment complexes subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Since last year, several of GMF’s properties have been found to contain black mold, bed bugs, plumbing leaks, and structural issues.

The nonprofit lost its HUD funding for two of those properties — Warren Apartments and Tulane Apartments — earlier this year for failing to correct violations. Those residents are supposed to be receiving HUD vouchers to move into new housing, but one Warren Apartments resident — Cynthia Crawford — at the protest on Wednesday said the residents are at a “standstill,” still living in mold-infested apartments, as they await those vouchers.

Serenity Towers has received several code enforcement violations for issues with bed bugs, and the property is being inspected again this week. GMF purchased the Serenity property in March 2014, and a spokesperson for the nonprofit, who asked to remain anonymous, said the group has spent more than $200,000 on efforts to eradicate bed bugs at Serenity. She says roughly 95 units there still have bed bug issues, but GMF has ordered new mattresses, box springs, and bed frames and will be replacing residents’ beds at no charge. The beds should arrive this week.

But MSPJC executive director Brad Watkins said, with only 50 city code inspectors on the force, the department is stretched too thin. Watkins suggested that the city renew its reserve code enforcement officers program, which allows volunteer citizens to assist with code inspections. Watkins said MSPJC could oversee the formation of tenant-based associations at all HUD-subsidized properties, and each of those associations could have a few volunteer reserve code inspectors to hold landlords accountable.

“This would be a godsend to code enforcement. They would have more eyes and ears on the ground,” Watkins said.

He said the center has reached out to code enforcement, but the department hasn’t responded to their request for the program’s renewal. The Memphis City Council passed an ordinance allowing for reserve code officers more than a year ago.

Watkins said other GMF-owned properties and HUD-subsidized properties across the city should be inspected, and if code enforcement is stretched too thin, volunteer tenant inspectors could assist.

“We have seen the living conditions that tenants have been made to live in by Rev. Richard Hamlet [of GMF] at Warren,Tulane, and now here at Serenity Towers, but what of the tenants at his other properties like Madison Tower and Bend Tree? What of the other HUD-subsidized properties owned by other companies like Peppertree or Tillman Cove? We are on the verge of a housing crisis and the Peace and Justice Center stands ready to aid in the solutions,” Watkins said.

Serenity Towers resident Gail Clark was standing outside the complex, waiting on a ride, while the protest was ongoing. She said her experience with management at Serenity had been largely positive, and she feels they’ve been responsive to residents’ concerns. She said they’d recently formed a tenants’ association to assist with critical needs.

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Memphis United Demands More Accountability for Police Officers

Driving under the influence, aggravated assault, rape, and murder are among the offenses law enforcement are paid to police. Ironically, these very crimes are amid the illegal acts some Memphis officers have been arrested for since last year.

In 2014, 18 officers from the Memphis Police Department (MPD) were arrested. As of April 2nd, there have been four officers apprehended this year for offenses such as sexual exploitation of a minor and driving under the influence.

“We are held to a higher standard because we took an oath to protect and serve, but, by the same token, our officers are treated just like any other citizen who breaks the law,” said MPD spokeswoman Alyssa Macon-Moore. “We’re no different. When we do things that are outside of the perimeters of the law, we must suffer the consequences.”

Memphis United, a coalition of local grassroots organizations and residents against structural and institutional racism, organized the “Bad Apples? FixTheBarrel” rally last Wednesday at the intersection of Lamar and Airways. People waved signs and protested in support of efforts to hold law enforcement more accountable.

The primary approach to help accomplish this goal would be through an amendment of the city’s Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) ordinance. The revision would provide CLERB with the power to subpoena documents and police witnesses, investigate complaints concurrently with the Memphis Police Internal Affairs department, and make disciplinary recommendations to the Memphis Police director, among other authoritative acts. The Memphis City Council’s Personnel Committee will discuss the amendment at its next meeting on April 21st.

Paul Garner led the rally at the intersection of Lamar and Airways. He spoke through a bullhorn at passersby about the importance of police accountability and the need to reinstate CLERB.

“There needs to be a system in place where when people file complaints, it’s tracked and available to the public, and we catch these things before something serious happens,” said Garner, organizing coordinator for the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (MSPJC). “Some of these guys have multiple complaints filed against them, and if there was a civilian oversight body that had the power to gather that information at the time those complaints were filed, red flags would have gone up and something could have been done before we had a case of rape or sexual assault or domestic violence.”

Last Tuesday, a day before the “Bad Apples” rally, a panel was held at Christian Brothers University to inform the public of CLERB’s origin and how its modification would benefit the city. The panelists included members of CLERB and MSPJC.

During the event, an attendee asked if CLERB would have the ability to demand punishment of officers who unlawfully shoot and kill civilians.

Brad Watkins, executive director of the MSPJC, informed the questioner that CLERB would not investigate criminal matters and “is not the answer to our problems.”

For significant progress to be made, Watkins said, in addition to CLERB, there needs to be a confidential counseling program for Memphis Police officers as well as replacement of leadership in the MPD and at City Hall.

“We have to have a complete change in the culture of MPD,” Watkins said. “Not only the culture of MPD and how it relates to its citizens, but the institution of MPD and its relationship to the psychological health of the officers themselves. Without these things, we’ll only have further harassment and violence in our community. The MPD has to be accountable, open to the public, and [responsive] before there’s a murder and a protest — not constantly playing catch-up afterwards with token gestures that don’t change the reality of people’s lives.”

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Youth Discuss Juvenile Justice Reform

The Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County (JCMSC) has been under scrutiny in recent years, following findings of racial discrimination and other problems in a 2012 investigation of the court by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).

Last weekend, a group of about 40 young people ranging from 13 to 18 gathered at LeMoyne-Owen College to discuss issues surrounding juvenile justice reform.

Some of them were concerned teens; others had court-ordered community service. But by the end of the day, the People’s Conference on Juvenile Justice brought forth a wave of youth-facilitated discussion — full of opinions, suggestions, and complaints.

LeMoyne-Owen College.

The conference, a joint effort by Memphis United and BRIDGES, was designed not only to give a platform for these discussions but to give young people the nudge they needed to mobilize in favor of reducing youth crime and negative depictions of teenagers in media, said Bradley Watkins, the executive director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.

“When we set off doing this event, we wanted to make sure that, as much as possible, it was youth-facilitated, youth-led, and youth-crafted,” Watkins said. “We say, ‘Youth are the solution, not the problem,’ but we never allow them to be a part of the solution. The fact that adults weren’t really engaging in that conversation — that it was more youth with youth — the conversation was more fruitful.”

Youth leadership program members from Bridge Builders and other young people led workshops, which included a “Know Your Rights” training seminar that set out to educate attendees about the rights they are guaranteed despite being below the voting age.

In the 2012 DOJ report, the department found that the JCMSC failed to provide adequate protection for juveniles in regard to self-incrimination, in particular “[advising] juveniles of their Miranda rights prior to questioning” in probation conferences. That report also found the JCMSC failed to “provide constitutionally required due process to children of all races” on top of charges of administration discrimination against black children and unsafe conditions while in confinement.

Since then, the DOJ and the JCMSC came to an agreement in terms of reformation, providing timelines and goals in order to reduce the presence of black juveniles within the system in Shelby County as well as “ensuring greater equality for all youth,” according to compliance reports.

In 2014, those reports reiterated a “minority youth over-representation at almost every stage in the proceedings and evidence of discriminatory treatment of black youth.” With the JCMSC’s progress so far, the community outreach branch of the court has worked with BRIDGES and Memphis United to change the conversation from punishment to prevention.

“I worked for a juvenile detention facility 16 years ago,” Watkins said. “I was working there, all those years, thinking I was a counselor until I realized, ‘This is just a private jail.’ This model that we have for our juvenile justice system doesn’t incentivize reforming or ending recidivism. It profits off the recidivism because most of the juvenile detention centers make their money based on how many bunks they fill each night, not how many kids leave their program and never engage with the criminal justice system again.”

BRIDGES and Memphis United are planning a second conference to take place in late August at LeMoyne-Owen College.

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Mid-South Peace & Justice Center To Celebrate 33 Years

Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou

The Mid-South Peace & Justice Center’s (MSPJC) 33rd anniversary gala will feature the Rev.Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, an author, documentary filmmaker, and pastor who, most recently, worked on the ground in Ferguson on behalf of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the country’s oldest interfaith peace organization.

“Living the Legacy of Nonviolence” is scheduled for Saturday, January 17th at 5:30 p.m. at First Congreg
ational Church, where the MSPJC’s offices were located for years until their recent move to a space on Southern Avenue. Besides keynote speaker Sekou, the program will also feature entertainment by Barbara J Lester, the Memphis Drum Tribe, JazzEcclecticFolk featuring legendary recording artists Carla Thomas and Khari Wynn, and dance performances by Chris Reeder, Abigail Little, and hoopers from Co-Motion Studio.

A meal made with locally grown food will be provided by Just for Lunch. Tickets are $30 for the banquet. Or those who only want to come for the program can skip the meal and come at 7 p.m. There is a $10 suggested donation for that, but no one will be turned away if they can’t pay. 

“We want this night to not only be a night of reflection for all of us in the movement but also to celebrate how far we have come and set the course for the future,” said Brad Watkins, MSPJC executive director.

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Homeless Women Find Power with H.O.P.E.

Domestic violence, sexual assault, and other issues that pertain to women are hard to deal with alone, especially if reporting the abuse could lead to homelessness. But there’s power in numbers.

That’s the reason for the existence of the women’s caucus within the H.O.P.E. organization, which stands for Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality. They’re currently assembling care packages for homeless women, and they’ve begun fund-raising to pay for self-defense classes for women on the streets.

The caucus bills itself as a safe space for homeless women to work together on issues that disproportionately affect them, such as domestic violence, reproductive health, and other issues.

And it’s much needed since services for homeless women in Memphis are few and far between. According to the women’s caucus, only 25 beds are available to homeless single women without children. The lack of resources may force some women to stay with abusive partners or, alternatively, stay on the streets.

“When you talk to members, you can often hear in their stories all of the moments where, if things were set up better here in Memphis, they wouldn’t have ended up on the streets,” said Jamie Young, the new project coordinator for the women’s caucus.

“The world needs to embrace women with or without children,” Young said. “And, you know, some women on the streets had children, but gave [them] up out of love, believing the streets are no place to raise a child.”

Young also said that some women’s shelters dedicated to single women without children are so strict that they take away the women’s cell phones and prohibit visitors. Some rules are “dehumanizing” to those staying there, she said.

“A lot of our members are transgender, and … they have trouble finding employment. There aren’t any shelters that will accept them. They have to be born into a family that supports them,” Young said.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime reports that, nationally, 22 percent of homeless transgender women reported being abused in shelters.

In mid-October, H.O.P.E. women’s caucus member Alexia Taylor was in the process of finalizing her new home, but she was still sleeping behind the Sacred Heart Church on Cleveland Avenue. One night, while sleeping there, she was beaten, stabbed, and robbed.

Cynthia Crawford started visiting the caucus with a friend back in November 2012. What started as a belief that she could make a difference in her own life turned into one that she could make a difference within her community, too.

“We have grown,” Crawford said. “We’ve really bonded. I consider them my support system, and I’m theirs. We try to be there for each other.”

The caucus has been contributing regularly to a garden in Washington Bottoms that H.O.P.E. has helped to grow, figuratively and literally, as well as focusing on women-specific needs like self-defense classes for members.

“Women are particularly more likely to be victimized on the streets,” Young said. “So women in our group have gone through some really traumatic events. The caucus formed for us to huddle together, hug, and heal from all of this, to be able to stand up straight and make our voices heard.”

The women’s caucus is in need of donations to assemble care packages for women in need: feminine hygiene products, baby wipes, lip balm, soap, hair ties, and nail-hygiene kits, among other items, can be donated to the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center at 3573 Southern Ave. Donations for self-defense classes, for which H.O.P.E. is trying to raise $800, may also be made at the Peace and Justice Center.

H.O.P.E. hotline for meetings and times:

901-300-0006

Twitter updates on the women’s caucus via SMS: 40404, then @womenwhohope

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News The Fly-By

Cohen, Memphis Activists Turn Attention to Ferguson

CREDIT: Memphis United Facebook Page

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis signed on to a letter issued last week demanding a hearing on the use of force by local law enforcement officials during the protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

Cohen, and Reps. John Conyers and Robert Scott issued the letter to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, after Ferguson police broke up a protest last week with “brutal force: confronting demonstrators in riot gear and armored vehicles, arresting journalists, and firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd.”

The protests in Ferguson, a St. Louis suburb, were sparked when local police shot and killed an unarmed African-American teenager, Michael Brown, more than a week ago. 

Protests there briefly calmed after the initial show of force by police officers outfitted in riot gear and driving armored vehicles. Security of the protest was handed over to the Missouri state police last week, who shed the riot gear and walked among the protestors. Violence picked up again Sunday and Monday nights as some protesters threw Molotov cocktails at police and several people were shot. The National Guard was called in to Ferguson on Monday. Cohen and others want an investigation into the events “as soon as possible.”

“These incidents raise concerns that local law enforcement is out of control, and, instead of protecting the safety and civil liberties of the residents of Ferguson, is employing tactics that violate the rights of the citizens and hinder the ability of the press to report on their actions,” the letter reads. “This situation requires immediate congressional scrutiny.”

The congressmen want to discuss “what appears to be a pattern of the use of deadly force by police against unarmed African Americans in cities around the nation.” They also want an investigation into the arrest of two journalists — Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan J. Reilly of The Huffington Post. Finally, Cohen and the others said they want to address the “extensive militarization of state and local police.”

“In Ferguson, why do local police dress in military-style uniforms and body armor, carry short-barreled 5.56-mm rifles based on the M4 carbine, and patrol neighborhoods in massive armored vehicles?” the letter reads. “In all likelihood, the decision to adopt a military posture only served to aggravate an already tense situation and to commit the police to a military response.”

The protests in Ferguson have sparked action in Memphis. Vigils, gatherings, and marches sprang up all over town last week at parks, major intersections, and the National Civil Rights Museum.

Memphis United Facebook Page

Supporters took to the main intersections along the Poplar corridor on Monday holding signs that read “#handsup” and “#dontshoot,” Twitter hashtags inspired by Ferguson protestors. That protest was organized in part by Memphis United, the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, and others.

Memphis United wants to use the energy surrounding the events in Ferguson to push for a slate of changes in Memphis. The group wants body cameras on all local police officers, action on the city’s backlog of untested rape kits, and an end of militarization of the Memphis Police Department and private security officers, among other things.

“We are all outraged by the events in Ferguson and around the United States, where we see people of color disproportionately targeted by police violence,” says the group’s Facebook page. “We should be outraged, and our voices should be heard.”

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A Roast for Jacob Flowers

Somehow former Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (MPJC) Executive Director Jacob Flowers managed to make a decade-long, full-time career out of being a hippie.

And now that he’s moved on to another — ahem, hippie — job pushing affordable health-care sign-ups at Enroll America, those who have worked with Flowers through the local social justice movement will have a chance to poke a little fun at Flowers at “Roast & Toast Jacob Flowers” on Thursday, June 26th, at the National Civil Rights Museum.

MPJC friend and wage-theft crusader Kyle Kordsmeier will M.C. the event. The list of roasters includes Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy, AFSMCE director Gail Tyree, Manna House’s Pete Gathje, Pezz punk rocker Ceylon Mooney, First Congo Church’s Julia Hicks, former MPJC Board Chair Emily Fulmer, and Flowers’ successor as MPJC director, Brad Watkins. Flowers’ family will finish out the roast with jokes from his mother Sandy Furrh and his wife Allison Glass.

Before the roast, cocktails will be served as folk-jazz-pop trio Sibella performs. After the roast is a performance by Memphis United member and up-and-coming local rapper Knowledge Nick. Tickets are $10 to reflect Flowers’ decade with the organization.

“I think it’s pretty gracious that Jacob is still raising money in support of the work this organization does, even after he departs,” Watkins says. “And I think there are a lot of people out there who would be jumping at the opportunity to do a roast on Jacob.”

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Q&A with Hubert Van Tol

The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center will be celebrating its 32nd anniversary with a gala on January 18th featuring former executive director Hubert Van Tol as the keynote speaker. The organization is currently focused on “economic equality, housing, criminal justice reform, homelessness, protection of civil liberties, food justice,” and international issues, according to the center’s website.

Van Tol was executive director from 1985 to 1995. During that time, the center’s local work focused around pollution and the Community Reinvestment Act, a law enacted in 1977 to encourage banks to provide services to those in low- and middle-income neighborhoods and eliminate discriminatory lending practices.

He currently works in Rochester, New York, as the senior director for economic development at the PathStone Enterprise Center.

Flyer: What social justice issues were you dealing with when you were director?

Van Tol: The center was dealing with nuclear arms issues, [military involvement in] Central America, [apartheid in] South Africa, the Community Reinvestment Act, bank-lending issues, and environmental justice issues.

What was your favorite part of the job?

My favorite thing was the lending work that we did. The Community Reinvestment Act work gave us the ability to attempt to change some things at the neighborhood level, making sure access to capital and credit was a real possibility for people.

What neighborhoods did you work in?

It was really designed to try and get more loan dollars into North and South Memphis, but the community groups that were lending were working in specific neighborhoods and probably took advantage of the policy work and organizing like we did.

What’s changed the most about Memphis since your tenure?

When we were leaving, the downtown redevelopment was beginning to take off, so in my last visits there, [I’ve noticed] there’s a real difference in how downtown looks and feels.

You now work with the PathStone Enterprise Center in Rochester, N.Y. What do you do there?

The Enterprise Center is a community development financial institution. We make loans to small businesses and micro-businesses. We provide technical assistance and business training for the businesses that can’t get loans from the bank.

How can you get people involved in their communities?

People are always interested in the community. It’s just a matter of what issues most move them, what they have time to do, and [if] they see any hope of victories — winning something by getting active. I think that’s the most important thing, providing people some kind of avenue to have at least some victories in their efforts to improve their community.

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Peace Place

The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center moved to a new location last month, marking the nonprofit organization’s third move in 30 years.

Originally located at Prescott Baptist Church, the MSPJC has spent most of its existence at First Congregational Church in the Cooper-Young neighborhood. The new location at 3573 Southern — formerly Memphis Brew coffee shop — is double the size of the old office at First Congo.

Executive director Jacob Flowers said the organization wanted more of a presence in the community, hence the decision to relocate near the University of Memphis.

“We wanted to get out in the public eye more. It’s kind of like moving out of our parents’ house,” Flowers said. “For the past 30 years, we’ve been housed in one church or another, which is great but also stuck us behind several closed doors. Here, we are out in the community and close to the university as well.”

Founded in 1982 as a grassroots organization determined to realize social justice through nonviolent means, the MSPJC has seen its different programs flourish over the years, with their 2012 membership nearing 1,000.

Most recently, the center developed their GrowMemphis program into an independent nonprofit organization that is currently leading the food justice movement in the Mid-South. Flowers said that his organization’s new space will be shared with GrowMemphis, as well as other social justice groups.

“This isn’t just the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center anymore,” Flowers said. “It’s more of a social justice resource center where a few different groups can come together and share resources and keep costs down. We’ve still got a bit of space that we will be subleasing to other social justice groups as well.”

The new location features a kitchen, computers that are available for public use, and a computer lab for the seven staff members. But with all the improvements the new location offers, the MSPJC still counts on the generosity of its members, special-event revenue, and private foundation funds to keep its doors open.

When asked if the organization will be working with the University of Memphis more often now that it’s just across the train tracks, Flowers made it clear that the MSPJC is still committed to the needs of the greater Memphis area.

“Our work is very broadly targeted. We aren’t focused on one specific area of social justice or one specific community,” Flowers said. “We do plan on engaging with the university students more, but we aren’t interested in becoming a student organization. There’s too much going on in other parts of the city.”