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Year That Was: Violence, Environment, and Health

Photo: Rowan Gratz

January

2021 was twice as deadly as 2020 for Covid-19 in Shelby County. In 2020, 903 died of Covid here. In 2021, 1,807 passed from the virus.

A consent decree forced Horn Lake leaders to approve the construction of a new mosque.

Family members wanted $20 million from the city of Memphis; Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW); and the Memphis Police Department (MPD) for the 2020 beating death of a man by an MLGW employee.

New DNA testing was requested in the West Memphis Three case for recently rediscovered evidence once claimed to be lost or burned. 

February

An ice storm knocked out power to nearly 140,000 MLGW customers.

The new concourse — in the works since 2014 — opened at Memphis International Airport.

Paving on Peabody Avenue began after the project was approved in 2018.

Protect Our Aquifer teamed up with NASA for aquifer research.

A prosecutor moved to block DNA testing in the West Memphis Three case.

March

A bill before the Tennessee General Assembly would have banned the sale of hemp-derived products, like Delta-8 gummies, in the state. It ultimately provided regulation for the industry.

The project to fix the interchange at Crump Ave. and I-55 resurfaced. Bids on the project, which could cost up to $184.9 million, were returned. Work did not begin in 2022 but when it does, it could close the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (the Old Bridge) for two weeks.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee temporarily cut sales taxes on groceries.

April

The Mississippi River ranked as one of the most endangered rivers in America in a report from the American Rivers group.

Critics lambasted decisions by Memphis in May and Africa in April to honor Ghana and Malawi, both of which outlaw basic LGBTQ+ rights.

The federal government announced a plan to possibly ban menthol cigarettes.

Lawmakers approved Gov. Lee’s plan to update the state’s 30-year-old education funding plan.

Tom Lee Park (Photo: Memphis River Parks Partnership)

May

Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi prepared for the likely overturn of the Roe v. Wade decision, ending legal abortions in the state.

The Greater Memphis Chamber pressed for a third bridge to be built here over the Mississippi River.

Cooper-Young landlords sued to evict the owners of Heaux House for “specializing in pornographic images.” 

The Memphis City Council wanted another review of Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) plan to remove coal ash from the shuttered Allen Fossil Plant.

June

New research showed Memphis-area women earned 83 percent of their male counterparts income in the workplace from 2000-2019.

Gov. Lee ordered schools to double down on existing security measures in the wake of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

MPD arrested four drivers in an operation it called Infiniti War Car Take-Over.

A key piece of the Tom Lee Park renovation project won a $3.7 million federal grant, which was expected to trigger nearly $9 million in additional funds.

Tennessee Republican attorney general fought to keep gender identity discrimination in government food programs.

Jim Dean stepped down as president and CEO of the Memphis Zoo and was replaced by Matt Thompson, then the zoo’s executive director and vice president.

Locals reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

July

Memphian Brett Healey took the stage at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Eating Contest.

One Beale developers returned to Memphis City Hall for the fourth time asking for financial support of its luxury hotel plans.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) board placed Superintendent Joris Ray on paid leave as they investigated whether he violated district policies with relationships with co-workers and abused his power. 

The project to forever eliminate parking on the Overton Park Greensward got $3 million in federal funding.

Tennessee’s attorney general celebrated a win after a federal judge blocked a move that would have allowed trans kids to play sports on a team of their gender.

Tennessee’s top Pornhub search was “interracial” in 2021, according to the site.

August

A panel of Tennessee judges did not give a new trial to Barry Jamal Martin, a Black man convicted in a Pulaski jury room decked out in Confederate portraits, flags, and memorabilia.

Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert caught flak from the Tennessee Comptroller after traveling to Jamaica while her offices were closed to catch up on the controversial backlog of license plate requests from citizens.

MSCS superintendent Joris Ray resigned with a severance package worth about $480,000. Finance chief Toni Williams was named interim superintendent.

Officials said the Memphis tourism sector had made a “full recovery” from the pandemic.

A new bail system unveiled here was touted by advocates to be “one of the fairest in the nation.”

Eliza Fletcher (Photo: Memphis Police Department)

September

Memphis kindergarten teacher Eliza Fletcher was abducted and murdered while on an early-morning run. Cleotha Abston, out of jail early on previous abduction charges, was arrested for the crimes.

MLGW’s board continues to mull the years-long decision to, possibly, find a new power provider.

Ezekiel Kelly, 19, was arrested on charges stemming from an alleged, hours-long shooting rampage across Memphis that ended with four dead and three injured.

A Drag March was planned for the “horrible mishandling” of a drag event at MoSH. Event organizers canceled the show there after a group of Proud Boys arrived armed to protest the event.

October

Workers at four Memphis restaurants, including Earnestine & Hazel’s, sued the owners to recover alleged unpaid minimum wage and overtime. 

Shelby County was largely unfazed by an outbreak of monkeypox with only about 70 infected here as of October.

Animal welfare advocates called a University of Memphis research lab “the worst in America” after a site visit revealed it violated numerous federal protocols concerning the care of test animals.

While other states have outlawed the practice, Tennessee allows medical professionals and medical students to — without any kind of permission — stick their fingers and instruments inside a woman’s vagina and rectum while she is under anesthesia.

Joshua Smith, a co-defendant in the election finance case against former state Sen. Brian Kelsey, pleaded guilty in court.

The Environmental Protection Agency told South Memphis residents little could be done to protect them from toxic emissions from the nearby Sterilization Services facility.

West Tennessee farmers struggled to get crops to market because of the record-low level of the Mississippi River.

November

Groups asked state officials for a special investigator to review the “very real failures that led to [Eliza] Fletcher’s tragic murder.”

A group wanted state officials to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park.

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional.

A plan to forever end parking on the Overton Park Greensward was finalized by city leaders, the Memphis Zoo, and the Overton Park Conservancy.

December

The Commercial Appeal dodged layoffs in the latest round of news staff reductions by Gannett.

Federal clean-energy investments will further ingrain Tennessee in the Battery Belt and help develop a Southeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (H2Hubs).

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee criticized Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (MLH) for canceling gender affirmation surgery for a 19-year-old patient.

State and local officials investigated an alleged milk spill into Lick Creek.

MLGW rejected Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 20-year rolling contract but will continue to be a TVA customer “for the foreseeable future.” 

Former state Senator Brian Kelsey’s law license was suspended after he pled guilty to two felonies related to campaign finance laws last month.

Visit the News Blog at memphisflyer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.

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St. Jude Programs Expand STEM Outreach In MSCS

STEM interns Jana Elabiad (left) and Morgan Johnson learn a laboratory technique with Andrey Reshetnyak, Ph.D. (Credit: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.)

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has teamed up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools to provide science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and outreach to students from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

According to St. Jude, it is “likely the first major medical and research institution to dedicate significant resources in its own community to educate and train the next generation of doctors, nurses, researchers, and scientific academic leaders.

Kate Ayers is director of STEM education and outreach at St. Jude, and said that while the program has been around for about 15 years, the partnership with MSCS started about five years ago.

Ayers started working with the program in 2013, and at that time there was a curriculum written at the 4th grade level about cells, cancer, and healthy living. However, there was a big shift when the Next Generation Science Standards were first introduced.

“With that comes a major shift in how science is taught in the classroom,” said Ayers. “I think Tennessee adopted those standards two years later, and it began to be integrated into curriculum, or the expectation was that it was integrated into curriculum, beginning in 2016.”

Ayers said that this marks the point where St. Jude began to shift its program model, and when it began to engage MSCS in a “more intentional way.”

St. Jude said this need is also the result of the “national education debt,” and “the legacy of school segregation.”

“On one side there is the history of racism and classism that has historically plagued our education system for a very long time, and creates pathways where resources are allocated to some schools and not to other schools,” said Ayers.

The term “education debt” was coined by Gloria Ladson-Billings, a critical race theorist, and says Ayers, the term discusses the education gap.

“That implies that there is some deficiency in the child — that they aren’t meeting these standards, and by shifting the language to an education debt, she [Ladson-Billings] is calling out the systems that have prevented access to high quality education for people of color and people from low economic statuses.”

There is also a growing emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of science, said Ayers. 

Ayers said that education debt has prevented many children of color, young girls, and children from low socioeconomic backgrounds from pursuing careers in science. “Institutions like St. Jude and scientific institutions across the nation are getting pressure put on them by federal granting mechanisms to address this issue of diversity in the field of science,” said Ayers. “Those two things meet where we need more scientists of color and more women coming into the field of science in order to ensure that we have this diversity of thought, diversity of perspectives, that new research has shown enhances the quality of problem solving and critical thinking.”

According to St. Jude, the most recent Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores show that “13 percent of the 110,000-plus students (about 90 percent of whom identify as Black, Hispanic, or Native American and about 60 percent of whom are economically disadvantaged) in the Memphis-Shelby County Schools system are proficient in math.”

In order to address this education debt in meaningful ways, Ayers said that St. Jude works to make sure that children are getting access to “high-quality science education.”

The St. Jude K-12 Cancer Education and Outreach Program offers four different programs for the 2022-2023 school year.  

  • The Kindergarten Collaborative works with 27 teachers in six schools to introduce STEM to kindergarteners. 
  • The St. Jude Afterschool STEM Clubs were in 10 schools for the fall semester, and will be in 12 schools for the spring semester. According to St. Jude, students in this program work together to “design and build a prosthetic hand for an osteosarcoma patient who had an amputation.”
  • Middle school students work to “identify potential areas of cancer health disparities in their local communities,” through the Middle School Community Health Clubs.
  • The St. Jude High School and College Research Immersion Program was launched in the summer of 2022 and placed high school and college students in eight-week internships on the St. Jude campus.
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A Natural Affair Beauty Lounge Partners with MSCS

Photo Credit:Takeisha Berry-Brooks

A Natural Affair Beauty Lounge, located at 2869 Poplar Avenue in Memphis and at 1250 North Germantown Parkway in Cordova, recently became the first salon to become a signature partner with Memphis Shelby County Schools’ College, Career, and Technical Education cosmetology program.

Takeisha Berry Brooks, the owner of A Natural Affair, said that a path was created so that her student and stylist, Alicia, could obtain work study. This means that Alicia would attend school during the day, and after her classes she would go to the salon to not only work, but to obtain her cosmetology license while in high school.

Takeisha’s student, Alicia.

Brooks prides herself on being able to give young stylists a place to start. She has been offering apprenticeship programs at her salon even prior to becoming a signature program. 

According to Phil Dotson, partnership director of the division of college, career, and technical education for MSCS, it’s through partnership programs that MSCS is able to connect students and their coursework to companies in the community.

“Our kids have to be able to see the careers that are in their backyard, their communities, so that they can make that choice that they know what they want to do when they leave school,” he said.

There are two models of the partnership program. Dotson explained that the community partner program is the Adopt-A-School model, meaning that companies can partner with one specific school to “give kids what they need and to provide supportive services to the school.” Dotson said that the signature partnership program is what they “like to hang their hat on.”

Dotson said MSCS works to ensure that they are offering the right type of certifications, ones that will “make students more attractive candidates when they interview for jobs.” He added that there are more than 40 academic pathways, which gives partners the opportunity to introduce these pathways in real life.

Brooks is a graduate of Kingsbury High School, and was in the school’s cosmetology program. She said without that that foundation, she wouldn’t be where she is today. “This opportunity to partner is just a full circle moment, because I feel like I was chosen to show that vocational works in high school.”

“It’s a tight ship,” said Brooks. “To know that every day that I impact lives, and that they come to A Natural Affair to survive and have the confidence to say ‘Hey I can do this,’and to watch these girls get houses, go from driving raggedy to cars to brand new cars, and to see these girls moving up in life because of something I’ve established. My mind is blown.”

Brooks also focuses on teaching her students the business side of cosmetology. “They have to have some sense of direction when it comes to how money is dispersed,” she said.

“It teaches them how to create a work-life balance,” said Brooks. “Whether they’re single or have families, it creates a system, gives them some type of stability. That way when they do go out on their own, I hope that they continue to practice what they’ve learned at A Natural Affair.”