Tag: #naacp

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Local Leaders Oppose TN ‘Stand Your Ground’ Bill

CREDIT: Tn.gov

Local civil rights leaders are opposing a new bill that will allow the use of deadly force to prevent personal — or personal property crimes. 

House Bill 11 would allow citizens to take matters into their own hands if their personal property is being violated. At first glance, the bill seems reasonable, but local civil rights leaders fear that it will put innocent people in direct danger.

“Similar to what happened to Ahmad Arbery in Georgia, they perceived him to have stolen something in that house then they chased him down and killed him,” said Rev. Walter Womack of the Southern Christian Leadership Council. That incident turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, where neighbors thought a man jogging in their neighborhood was a criminal. 

ShelbyCountyTn.gov

Van Turner

Van Turner, president of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP, raised the same concerns.
“This is a piece of legislation that comes from nowhere in the midst of a pandemic,” he said. “Every day, for the last two weeks, I’ve gotten a report of someone that I know who has passed from COVID-19. In the midst of all this death and despair, the efforts of our Tennessee General Assembly should focus on relieving folks from this.” 

The Tennessee bill seems much like the Castle Doctrine Law better known as the ‘Stand Your Ground law,’ where individuals have the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect themselves against an intruder in their home. 

The difference in the House Bill 11 and the Castle Doctrine is that the language states  “When and to the degree the person reasonably believes deadly force is immediately necessary to prevent or terminate the other from committing or attempting to commit the following offenses …” This means that the person being violated would not have to be in immediate danger, themselves. 

Under current law, if a suspect is running away from the scene of the crime, you cannot legally shoot at them. If this bill is passed, a citizen can do so without penalty. 

Tn.gov

Jay Reedy

Rep. Jay Reedy, who sponsored the bill, argues that citizens should have the right to protect their possessions. “I would like to understand why people should not be able to protect their property, and I’m waiting for a returned phone call from the NAACP.” 

As soon as the NAACP posted their grievance about the law, Reedy says his office tried to to call and set up a meeting to hash out the language in the bill. Turner said that he has not received a call from Reedy’s office. 

“The bill is so vague that if you thought that someone stole from you, then you can kill them,” said Vickie Terry, Executive Director of NAACP, Memphis. “It’s racially based and since it is a statewide law, it’s a kind of loophole for shooting unarmed people.” 
    

The law raises the case of Trayvon Martin, where George Zimmerman took it upon himself to profile and shoot the unarmed teen because of his perceived threat against the community. “You can’t allow people to just go and deputize themselves and take the law into their own hands,” said Womack.

The timing isn’t appropriate. Plus, the focus should be on people and not things” said Turner. “The measure would promote even more violence in the city.” 

The bill, which was filed several weeks ago, is slated to go to the state house floor in early 2021. The session starts January 12th and probably won’t be heard in committee until the end of January or early February.

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Jarvis Howard: On Being an Artist

Jarvis Howard and a painting he did for Oak Court Mall.

Once he began drawing, Jarvis Howard couldn’t stop.

Literally.

Take elementary school math class. “Every time we did a test I’d flip the paper over and I’d draw,” Howard says. “I wasn’t dumb, but at that that point I went to school to draw. I’d flip it over and do sketches. Doodling.”

After he failed math that year, he got a comment on his report card from his teacher, who wrote,  “For drawing in my class. I told you.”

Howard, 26, now has his paintings at various locations, including Oak Court Mall and J. Elite Salon and Studio. His work also has been featured in a children’s book and at private homes.

A native of Tunica, Mississippi, Howard became an artist in a roundabout way. In third grade, he wanted to win the $100 prize for best poster in the drug free poster contest. “I took the easy route. I had two cousins who could draw as well as I draw now.”

He enlisted one of them to make his poster. “I threw her a couple of dollars for her to do it for me. I knew I was going to win because of how amazing they drew.

“I got off the bus with my poster. I didn’t get in the classroom good my teacher snatched the poster from me. She was so excited, bragging about it to her students. I had a good feeling in the hall. Everybody was talking about the poster.”

He won the check for $100, but one of the judges then told his teacher, “It’s impossible for any third grader to do art work like this.”

They took the check away.

The cousin who did the poster for him was 22 years old, Howard says. “A hundred dollars at a time was a lot of money for a third grader. I got kind of sad. But that made my spark come. I promised I’d learn to draw some day. It motivated me.”

To gain accelerated reading points, Howard checked out comic books, including Rugrats, and Rocket Power, to get the feel of it. How to get the hang of the control of the pencil. I was making progress. I just kept going and going.”

By the time he was in the fourth grade, Howard was drawing portraits in class — while his teacher was in the hall. “I’d draw all my classmates. I had them look at me for five minutes and I’d keep going non stop. My sketch portraits. Man, they looked just like them.”

One of his teachers gave him positive feedback. “She just told me I’m going to be great one day.”

After his family moved to Memphis in 2008, Howard’s passion became baseball — pitching and playing short stop —  at Kingsbury High School. “I found my peak. I loved baseball. I was a baseball player and I was the water boy for football. That took most of my time.”

He continued to get encouragement for his art. “I was good at shading and my line work was real good.”

One teacher told him, “I like your style,” but he wanted him to work with different materials. “I was doing colored pencils and crayon-type work. He said to try something different. Like ink pen.”

Howard drew what he saw. “What I’d see in books or based on movies I’d see. I’d put all my inspirations together. I was doing a lot of graffiti letters, drip letters, and stuff like that. I’d see a lot of trains with graffiti letters, so that kind of inspired me.”

He gave baseball a shot after he entered LeMoyne-Owen College. “I tried out twice, but it felt like I was losing it.”

Howard then realized the other guys planned on making baseball their career. “I thought, ‘Man, they’re serious. I’ve got to find something else for me to do. Art. This is what I’m going to do.”

He majored in fine art until he transferred to University of Memphis, where he began working in graphic design.

But in 2017, his art direction changed. “My life really changed for the better, man.”

He was working on some of his drawings outside at U of M.  A woman near him was painting on clothes. “She said, ‘What are you going to paint on your jacket?’ I said, ‘I can’t paint.’”

She assured him he could. 

Then one day Howard painted “Blues Clues and different Nickelodeon characters” on his jacket. “Next thing you know I moved onto canvas.”

His first painting on canvas was  “a guy from the Wild Thornberries. It was pretty cool. I just kept at it ‘till I mastered it.”

People began asking if they could buy his paintings. “Man, when I started making a little money from canvases and stuff, I knew this was something special.”

Painting came naturally to him. “I felt like I already had it inside me. You just have to do it. Once you mess up, you can paint over it. You don’t have to get another piece of paper.”

He painted with acrylics, which he continues to use. “I’m the acrylic king. I love acrylic.”

In 2017, Howard won the NAACP Artist Expression prize for his paintings, which included “Black Card,” a Black Lives Matter piece. “A lot of people were falling victim to police brutality. Instead of using a serial number on the card, I put dates of black people that got killed, their birth date and the day they got killed.”

For the expiration date, he wrote, “Am I next?”

Howard’s art work took off in various directions. He began turning his sketches into comic books. 

He presented a portrait he did of Rich Homie Quan after the rapper appeared at a spring show at U of M.  Quan told him, “Hey, bro. You cold. You’re serious about your grind. You’re serious about what you do.”

Rich Homie Quan

Howard did a digital graphic for the manager of 2 Chainz to use for merchandise for fans.

A digital praphic Jarvis Howard made for 2 Chainz

His other works included “a little NBA poster for Tyree Black for The Tyree Black Foundation.” 

A friend suggested Howard could get his “name out there” by setting up an easel and painting during a U of M graduation. So, Howard did an on-sight painting that included “black hands throwing graduation hats in the air.”

U of M president Dr. M. David Rudd was impressed, Howard says. “He said, ‘Looking forward to meeting you on Friday and giving you a check for that great art work.”

Dr M. David Rudd and Jarvis Howard

Shortly after,  Howard was one of the founders of Artistry on Campus. “A group of visual artists, the majority black. I felt like there was a way for black people to showcase their talent. I felt like a lot of art students on campus, white students, had their art in a museum. But these talented black kids, maybe they were scared to get their work out there.”

Rudd was instrumental in getting a $5,000 mural commission for Green Animal Hospital for Artistry on Campus members, Howard says. “It’s just an ‘I Love Memphis’ wall with white dog paws going all around the building.”

Howard went on to do a solo commission for $1,000 at Oak Court Mall. The painting included the Pyramid, the B. B. King Blues Club logo, Harrahan Bridge, Choose 901, and the Redbirds and Memphis Tigers logos. 

His coloring books began taking off. “At the time I was just a young black man trying to make some money.”

He and Jonathan Russell, who was in the art group, did one at Custom Images 901 that included “Tops barbecue, street signs, and stuff like that.” 

The following year, they did a Memphis painting  outside Oak Court Mall.

Since graduating with a liberal arts degree, Howard has done everything from painting images and lettering on the glass door at Arnold’s Barbecue and Grill to painting a Lion King mural for a baby nursery. 

Last August, Howard did a painting for J. Elite Salon and Studio. “Just a business name and two silhouettes of black girls with different hair styles.”

Before the pandemic, Howard threw painting parties, where he would pre-draw the canvases and the guests painted them. “Like a coloring book.”

During the pandemic, he conducted a “virtual” painting party, where he demonstrated how to draw characters.

Howard did the illustrations for his first children’s book: “Spotted” by Sasha Owens. “A book about a lot of different animals that have spots. I just made it fun. To make people stop bullying.

“I just got working on my second children’s book by a girl I graduated with from high school, Alexis Young. This is ‘Vulture and the Sparrow’ about a vulture trying to come into a community of birds and try to be greedy and steal all their food.”

So, what keeps Howard going as an artist every day? “When people see me out here doing it, I give people that never had hope, hope.”

To reach Howard on all social media platforms, go to jrocjarvis. Or jrocjarvis@gmail.com.

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News News Blog

Webber’s Shooting Called ‘Boiling Point For Community’

CREDIT: Facebook


Civil rights groups say the community’s response to Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Brandon Webber at the hands of U.S. Marshals officers goes beyond the events of this week and is the result of years of injustice.

Just City said in a Thursday statement via Twitter that the neighborhood’s response is based on “decades of sustained over-policing and entrenched policies that criminalize poverty.”

“The loss of another young life was but a spark on the smoldering ashes that exist in so many neighborhoods in our community,” reads the statement from Just City. “Every single day in Memphis, young and old alike encounter oppressive systems, which are nearly impossible to avoid or escape.”

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Just City said the courts demand more time and attention from the poor than the wealthy, so “even simple traffic tickets can cause a crisis.”

“Hefty” court costs and fees, which if not paid result in driver’s license suspensions, is one way that Just City said those living in poverty are unfairly treated by the system.

“Law enforcement and courts demand accountability for the slightest misstep,” Just City said. “Yet when a life is taken in a hail of gunfire, we wait for days, weeks, or years for a simple description of what occurred, and officers are rarely, if ever, held accountable.”

Webber’s Shooting Called ‘Boiling Point For Community’

Hedy Weinberg, director of the ACLU of Tennessee, shared similar sentiments Thursday, saying that the community’s response was “clearly one of pain, of frustration, of anger.”

“While we in no way condone violence against police officers, the boiling point reached by some individuals in the crowd last night is the consequence of decades of injustice, discrimination, and violence against black people in Memphis and beyond,” Weinberg said. “Of course people in Frayser are upset and angry. We should all be angry.”


Weinberg continues saying that to ignore the pain of protesters and instead to respond with “a militarized show of police force, only illustrates and reinforces the problem.”

Facebook

Brandon Webber

“To adapt the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., unrest is the language of the unheard,” Weinberg said. “To stem the erosion of trust between the community and law enforcement, it is incumbent on Memphis leaders to start listening. This means acknowledging the community’s legitimate pain and anger.”

Weinberg also questioned if there were any attempts made by the officers to de-escalate the situation before shooting Webber: “Was shooting Mr. Webber over a dozen times, if reports are accurate, really necessary?”

There should be a “swift, thorough, and transparent” investigation into the shooting and a “prompt” release of any footage or evidence related to the incident, Weinberg said.

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The Memphis branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) also wants answers surrounding Webber’s death.

In a Thursday statement, Deidre Malone, president of the Memphis branch, said the group is “very interested” in determining whether or not the U.S. Marshal officers that shot Webber were wearing body cameras and if there “was a better way to engage Mr. Webber once he was located.”

“Unfortunately for our citizens, Memphis is again in the spotlight over a shooting of an African American,” Malone said. “The NAACP Memphis Branch will continue to ask these questions until we obtain a response.”


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News News Blog

Local Warehouse Workers Call for End of ‘Abuse and Mistreatment’

Workers in a warehouse here are fed up with their poor working conditions, and Monday they took action.

Employees at XPO Logistics Verizon warehouse delivered a letter to management, putting them on notice for health and safety issues in the work environment, misconduct, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

The letter, signed by the Memphis NAACP, City Councilwoman Patrice Robinson, Memphis Feminist Coalition, and about nine other groups in the community, read, in part: “It is clear that XPO exhibits a consistent toxic culture that runs contrary to its stated policies and practices.


“As community leaders and women’s rights advocates engaged in legal and policy work to fight against sexual harassment and are active in the Times Up and Me Too movements, we are deeply concerned and troubled with the behavior of XPO Logistics.

[pullquote-1] Therefore, we are calling for a joint meeting with Jacobs, the executive board, and XPO’s customers in the supply chain (like Verizon, Cummins, Nike Golf, and Disney) to discuss the company’s inexcusable actions and what steps each will take to stop the abuse and mistreatment of its workers.”


The letter also demanded transparency in the investigation of the working conditions and the death of Linda Neal who died at XPO’s Verizon warehouse after passing out on the job last year. Workers attributed her death to the conditions in the warehouse.

“My friend and co-worker lost her life on the job because of the inexcusable inactions of XPO,” Lakeisha Nelson, worker at XPO’s Verizon facility, said. “Every day, XPO workers like me endure unfair, inhumane treatment and are exposed to threats to our physical and mental health. We’re standing up in the warehouses because we are human beings with value and worth and we’ve had enough.”

Monday the workers, joined by 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen and State Representatives Jessie Chism, and London Lamar, as well as Shelby County Commissioner Eddie Jones and well-known Memphis activist Earle Fisher, attempted to hand-deliver the letter to management, but were denied and locked out.

Afterward, in a press conference, Cohen said he was “disappointed” in the management’s lack of cooperation, calling the scene “disturbing.”

“I was very disappointed they [XPO management] wouldn’t accept the letter, which is an easy way to deal with this issue,” Cohen said. “I was disappointed they wouldn’t allow me to go in and talk to them and give them that letter. It shows a disrespect for public officials, for you as my constituents but also as workers.

“And, it also shows an inability to understand public relations and the fact that they work within a framework that includes the Department of Labor and the United States government, that they should have an interest in working with — the State of Tennessee as well as their State Representatives here. It’s been a disturbing scene to me, I don’t feel good about XPO Logistics. I didn’t feel good when I came out here and now I feel that the allegations that have been made have been confirmed to me in my mind, in the callous way they’ve treated us and treated me.”

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Deirdre Malone, president of the Memphis NAACP, echoed that sentiment, saying that she believes the claims of sexual harassment made by workers.

“It’s intolerable for them to work in a plant like this,” Malone said. “We believe the workers. We believe that sexual harassment does exist at this facility. We believe the workers. That’s the reason we’re here today and we’re going to let them know that we’re not going to tolerate it.”

This action comes after a group of the workers filed a complaint against XPO with the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for extremely hot working condition last month.

Employees said they experienced “instances of extreme heat leading to dizziness, dehydration, and fainting,” according to that complaint. During a three-day period, the heat index near the warehouse exceeded OSHA’s “extreme caution” threshold during the majority of working hours, workers said.

In June, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed complaints on behalf of two female employees at XPO’s Disney warehouse here for claims of sexual harassment and discrimination.

During the spring and early summer, current and former female employees at XPO warehouses statewide filed a total of 11 complaints with the EEOC for reports of sexual harassment including unwanted pushing, shoving, grabbing, and kissing by supervisors. Workers also reported that they faced retaliation for reporting harassment.

XPO Logistics, a $15 billion company, packages and distributes products for major brands, such as, Verison, Nike, Disney, and Home Depot.

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News News Blog

NAACP Expresses Support for TBI Investigating Police Shooting

Darrius Stewart

In a press conference at First Baptist-Broad on Wednesday morning, Keith Norman, president of the Memphis chapter of the NAACP, said the organization supports the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) looking into the police shooting death of Darrius Stewart.

Norman said the organization helped state Representative G.A. Hardaway in crafting a bill to mandate that all police-involved shootings in the state be investigated by the TBI rather than by police departments in their own jurisdictions.

“No local body should should do an investigation of a police shooting. An independent body should investigate,” Norman said. 

On Monday, the Memphis Police Department and Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirch announced that Stewart’s Friday night shooting death by Memphis Police officer Connor Schilling would be investigated by the TBI rather than by the MPD. The decision has been criticized by some because TBI files are sealed from the public. Many are calling for more transparency in the investigation.

Norman said he supported that transparency, and he urged citizens to push for a change in the law that would require TBI documents to be made public.

“I would encourage all citizens to get involved in petitioning for a change in the law so that findings could be made public,” Norman said.

Norman said the NAACP will also be looking into protocol for dealing with passengers in cars during traffic stops. Stewart was riding in a car that was pulled over for having a headlight out. 

Norman said that people should remain calm while the investigation is underway. Stewart was placed in the back of a squad car during the traffic stop while Schilling checked for warrants. The police account of what happened says that, when Schilling opened the squad car to handcuff Stewart, the man kicked the door and tried to attack the officer. Shortly after the warrant check, police reported that Stewart had been shot and an ambulance was called for. Stewart later died at The Med. Some have questioned whether or not the police should have even been checking on warrants for a passenger.

“We have questions about what are the rights of a passenger under the rule of law during a mere traffic violation,” Norman said. “Should officers have the right to question everyone in the car? This can lead to inappropriate contact with citizens who have not committed a crime.”

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SMA Founder Recognized By Sierra Club

Reginald Milton

  • Reginald Milton

This Saturday, the Sierra Club will recognize South Memphis Alliance (SMA) founder Reginald Milton for his continued service to the South Memphis community.

Both the founder and executive director of the South Memphis Alliance, Milton has been selected as the recipient of the 2012 Dick Mochow Environmental Justice Award. The SMA recently began turning the old Reed’s Dairy complex on Bellevue into an affordable laundromat and has also secured funding for a recreation and resource center to be constructed at the corner of Walker Avenue and South Bellevue.

Started in 2000, the SMA has tried to make South Memphis a better place to live by setting up and supporting neighborhood associations, civic clubs, and other forces for good in the community. In addition to their work in the historic Soulsville community, the SMA also has programs that deal directly with the safety and well-being of foster children, dealing with everything from drug abstinence to proper financial planning.

Milton will receive the award at the 11th Annual Sierra Club Environmental Justice Conference this Saturday at Lindenwood Christian Church. Author and NAACP member Jacqui Patterson is the keynote speaker.

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Editorial Opinion

Honoring Benjamin Hooks

It is rare for a public figure to command veneration and loyalty from both sides of the political aisle and from every point on the ethnic spectrum, but such a figure is the Rev. Benjamin Hooks, who, it was announced this week, will be one of eight 2007 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Hooks kept up his tenure as pastor of Middle Baptist Church in Memphis throughout a lengthy service, beginning in 1976, as executive director of the NAACP nationally. He ranks up there with anyone else — including his friend Martin Luther King Jr. — as an exemplar of the civil rights struggle. His effectiveness with the NAACP was enhanced both by his legal brilliance and by a sunny disposition that allowed him to win friends (and disarm adversaries) across the usual social dividing lines.

A proud graduate of LeMoyne College, Hooks also is a veteran of combat service in World War II. On returning home, he got involved in local politics, but even doing so, he maintained friends in both parties. His evenhanded sense of justice would make him the first black Criminal Court judge in Tennessee history. And, while he always supported governmental action against discrimination and to offset the after-effects of segregation, he famously issued this challenge: “I’m calling for a moratorium on excuses. I challenge black America today — all of us — to set aside our alibis.”

Hooks’ career has been crowned in recent years by his service as president of the National Civil Rights Museum. He is a great man, and this week’s great honor is entirely appropriate.

On Closing Mud Island

Mud Island River Park closes for the season this week, if anyone cares.

The most expensive and attractive park on the river closes during the month of November, when the temperatures are pleasant and the colors are changing. Those white tepees and campfires at the south end of the park that pop out on summer weekends might actually get some use on a cold autumn night.

But the park is an odd duck. It is part theme park for tourists and part public park for Memphians. It is expensive to operate and maintain, from the monorail to the museum and shops and restaurants. Admission to the park is free, even if food and soft drinks are pricey. Still, the demand from locals and tourists to keep it open year-round like Overton Park and Shelby Farms simply isn’t there. So the Riverfront Development Corporation closes it, except for special events, until next spring.

This is the same outfit that wants to spend $29 million for a boat landing in Tom Lee Park and $6 million to fix up the cobblestones in the name of reconnecting Memphians to the river, attracting more tourists, and preserving a historic “treasure.” The same things were said about Mud Island when it was built almost 30 years ago.

The fact is that “connecting with the river” is praised more in words than in practice. There are not that many people who want to passively look at cobblestones and barges and pretty views. Most people want to do something and watch something more exciting, like Joe Royer’s “cyclocross” bike race along Mud Island’s Greenbelt Park next weekend. Such events do more to connect Memphians to the river than expensive parks and monuments.

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Politics Politics Feature

LaSimba Gray to Congressional Black Caucus: “Stay Out” of 9th District Race

CREDIT: jb

According to
Roll Call, a Washington, D.C. publication for political insiders, the
Rev. LaSimba Gray is asking members of the Congressional Black Caucus to “stay
out” of the 2008 Democratic primary race pitting incumbent 9th
District congressman Steve Cohen against repeat challenger Nikki Tinker.

Noting an appearance in Memphis last weekend on Cohen’s behalf by U.S. Rep.
Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, who is black, Gray said, according to the
newspaper, “”Steve
Cohen has been quoting many of them heavily and bringing them into the district
and we are simply asking them to stay out of this race.”

Gray strove unsuccessfully during the 2006 congressional race to winnow down a
large field of African-American candidates to a consensus black
candidate to oppose Cohen, who, as the minister noted, is both white and Jewish.

Roll Call quoted Gray as contending that the second-place finish in last
year’s primary of Tinker, a corporate attorney, meant that “she has won … the
primary of African-American candidates.” Gray said further, “The road has been
cleared for Nikki and we are busy meeting with candidates who ran last time to
show them the reality — the fact that with all of them in the race they can’t
win.”

Gray’s concept of a black-versus-white showdown was frowned on by Cleaver
spokesman Danny Rotert, who remarked that Cohen seemed to stand high in the
estimate of his constituents and observed, “If somebody here [Kansas City] said
Congressman Cleaver can’t represent his district because it’s a [majority] white
district, that would not go very far. So it’s too bad that that’s the rhetoric
that’s being used in Memphis.”

As of the last Federal Election Commission filing, Roll Call noted,
Tinker had $172,000 in cash on hand compared to Cohen’s $374,000. As the
periodical also observed, the feminist organization Emily’s List, which supported Tinker
strongly in 2006, has so far been non-committal about 2008.

A number of Tinker’s former Memphis supporters have also indicated they will not
be backing her in next year’s race. One such, lawyer Laura Hine, said she had
committed to Tinker in 2006 before Cohen made his candidacy known. Affirming her
support for Cohen in next year’s race, Hine said recently, “The fact is, he’s
been a very effective congressman, speaking to all the issues I care about.”

One such issue, according to Hine, was pending federal Hate Crimes legislation,
which Cohen has backed and Tinker has been silent about. Rev. Gray recently made
an effort to organize opposition to Cohen’s stand among black ministers, on the
ground that the bill would muzzle their opposition to homosexuality.

Other
local African-American ministers, like the Rev. Ralph White and the Rev. O.C.
Collins Jr., have refuted that allegation, citing specific sections of the bill,
and made a point of supporting Cohen. The Memphis chapter of the NAACP also
recently affirmed its support of the bill and Cohen’s activities on its behalf.

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Opinion

One Vote at a Time

There is always a grain if not a rock of truth in everything Mayor Willie Herenton says, no matter how unpopular. He’s right about this: If you are going to stay in Memphis for a while — and not everyone is — then you will have to look at things differently.

Last week, I became a big fan of the Memphis NAACP. They lost but they looked good doing it, and they showed class. No organization or individual had more reasons to be partisan in last week’s election. The NAACP was co-plaintiff in the 1991 lawsuit that abolished mayoral runoffs. Not one but two favorite sons were in the race for mayor: Herenton, a trailblazer since he was a school principal in the 1970s, and Herman Morris, NAACP chairman from 1992 to 2000. Both are black. Carol Chumney isn’t.

But the NAACP’s election-day efforts were all about turnout, not any particular candidate. They lost only in the sense that turnout in the 54 precincts they targeted was not as good as they hoped it would be. In fact, it was dismal — 38 percent overall and in the teens in some target precincts.

Spartan simplicity is not always the rule at local nonprofits, but it is at the NAACP. Their little office on Vance is right across from the Cleaborn Homes housing project. On a day of excess, partisanship, and pack journalism, what better place for a reporter to view the election than a place with no cameras, no candidate signs or leaflets allowed, no bar, and no buffet? And no big screen. The only television was a 12-inch model with an antenna. Lean too close to read the numbers, and it stuck you in the eye. Move it, and you messed up the picture.

Beneath portraits of local NAACP heroes Maxine Smith, Vasco Smith, Benjamin Hooks, and Jesse Turner, volunteers worked on three clunky Compaq computers that were probably rejected by E-Cycle Management. Others worked the phones, reading from a printed script (“We’re calling on behalf of the Memphis branch NAACP to encourage you to vote today for the candidate of your choice”) and offering a ride to the polls. Forget public-service announcements and editorials; in the trenches, turnout means one vote at a time.

By mid-afternoon, the numbers coming in were not good. Wearing a yellow T-shirt that said “Lift Every Voice and Vote,” NAACP executive secretary Johnnie Turner looked worried. With five hours to go until the polls closed, nearly every precinct was hundreds of votes short of its turnout goal.

“Last year, we made almost all of our goals, but the way this is looking, people are not turning out,” said Turner, who has run the Voter Empowerment Project since 2000.

She was writing down numbers and doing the arithmetic, which was considerable. The goal was a 5 percent increase in each precinct. The 1999 election was chosen as the benchmark because the 2003 election was a Herenton blowout with a 23.7 percent turnout. That bar was too low. Or so Turner thought. Now, Asbury, Alcy, Glenview, Gaston — site after site — wasn’t coming close to the 1999 turnout, much less the hoped-for increase.

“We’ll have to regroup,” Turner said. “This election has been strange. I started to say divisive, but maybe it’s kind of polarized. Anytime the community sees discord, they take the attitude ‘I don’t want to be part of this mess.'”

When I went out to eat, I got to watch my first live shooting in a while. At Cleaborn Homes, a young man in a white T-shirt was running between the buildings. Another man with a pistol was chasing him and firing several shots from about 30 feet away, all of which missed. A minute later, the guy who’d been shot at walked past my car with the nonchalance of someone who had just missed getting sprayed with a water hose.

When I came back, Turner had made an executive decision. The original goal had been “overly ambitious.” The new goal would be the 2003 turnout plus 7 percent. In effect, the former teacher was lowering the grading curve.

“Now this is more like it,” Turner said as the polls closed and new numbers came in. “We’re going to make it.” As it turned out, however, the 1999 standard may have been unattainable, but it was not unrealistic. The overall turnout for the election was higher — more than 165,000 voters last week compared to 163,259 in 1999.

At 9 o’clock, when the first returns showed Herenton far ahead and Morris in third place, there was no cheering at the NAACP. And no booing. Soon after that, everyone left, except Turner and a few others.

Nice effort, I said on the way out. “Yes,” she said. “Honest.” And it was.

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Politics Politics Feature

NAACP Praises Cohen for Hate Crime Stand at Sunday Love-Fest

CREDIT: jb

In stark contrast to his reception at an angry ministerial
meeting hosted by Rev. LaSimba Gray in August, 9th District
congressman Steve Cohen heard himself lauded and endorsed Sunday by members and
leaders of the local NAACP for his support of federal Hate Crimes legislation.

Gray, who had opposed Cohen’s election in 2006 and had
tried unsuccessfully to organize support for a consensus black candidate in last
year’s large congressional field, has insisted that the bill inhibits black
preachers from inveighing against homosexuality and has spurred opposition to it
among black clerics. Denying the allegations, Cohen has responded by calling
Gray’s use of the Hate Crimes issues merely a device to support Nikki Tinker, a
declared opponent of Cohen’s reelection in 2008.

Sunday’s meeting was as supportive for the congressman as
Gray’s ambush meeting in August had been negative. Cohen and the NAACP members
enjoyed something of a love-fest, in fact, with longtime NAACP eminence Maxine
Smith, who directed the local organization for years, making a point of praising
“my congressman” and current NAACP executive director Johnnie Turner and chapter
president Dr. Warner Dickerson adding their kudos.

Of the Hate Cries bill and Cohen’s sponsorship, Dickerson
offered this: “I want to say up front that the national NAACP not only endorses
this bill but supports it as a source of strength.”

Noting that the bill was also supported by such
organizations as the ACLU, NEA, Congressional Black Caucus, and the PUSH/Rainbow
Coalition, Dickerson said of Cohen, “We thank him for his support of the bill
and all that he has supported there and prior to going there, when he was in the
state legislature and also locally. He supports the issues and the things we
believe in as the NAACP. “

In her introduction, Johnnie Turner said rhetorically, “Is
there anybody here that doesn’t know Steve Cohen?”

Gray ‘…hurt Memphis and hurt race relations.’

In his own remarks, Cohen followed up on that theme,
telling the group, “When I was on the county commission I had a lot more in
common with Vasco Smith and Jesse Turner and Minerva Johnican and Walter Bailey
and worked with them and voted with them….Those were the people I worked with.
They were my allies and my friends” He added similar remarks about current state
Representative Larry Turner and state representative and state senator Kathryn
Bowers, both of whom were on hand.

“Y’all are the reason I got in trouble, wanting to join
that club,” he joked, recalling a mini-controversy over his professed desire,
after being elected, to join the Congressional Black Caucus. Cohen then noted
that he had addressed the Caucus during the previous week on subjects like his
apology-for-slavery legislation, which he said now had good prospects for
passage.

Cohen noted recent coverage of the local Hate Crimes
controversy on National Public Radio and said Gray, who was heard from on the
broadcast opposing the bill and expressing reservations about white
representation of the 9th District, “sounded pretty bad” and hard
“hurt Memphis and hurt race relations.”

The congressman said the Hate Crimes bill was “as American
as apple pie, motherhood, and the NAACP” and contended that, besides adding
protection for gays and people with disabilities to existing legislation, the
bill also strengthened federal jurisdiction and funding for crimes against
blacks. “Some 54 percent of hate crimes are committed against African Americans,
and only 16 percent against gays,” he said.

‘Strange Bedfellows’

As before when he has discussed the issue, Cohen insisted
that conservative clergymen were permitted both by the bill itself and by the
First Amendment to say whatever they chose about homosexuality. “No preacher’s
ever been arrested for preaching anything ever.” He said opinions to the
contrary were being urged by right-wing clerics who are “trying to get American
preachers to leave the Democratic Party on social issues.”

He then quipped, “Politics can make strange bedfellow, but
you shouldn’t wake up and have to go to the Health Department.”

At the close of Cohen’s remarks, he got more kudos from
Jesse Turner Jr., who recalled lobbying the then congressional candidate in
early 2006 for some 30 issues favored by the national NAACP. “He was for 28 of
them, and by the time we finished talking, he was for 29,” said Turner. “I want
this audience to know that he was on board even before he got elected.”

Last week, Cohen earned a similar fillip from an evaluation
from the Congressional Black Caucus Monitor, a national group that gives
performance grades to congressional members in predominantly black districts.
After giving Cohen’s 9th District predecessor, former Rep. Harold
Ford Jr., a “dishonorable mention,” the Monitor’s report said, “it’s worth
noting that his white successor, Rep. Steve Cohen, represents Ford’s former
constituents more ethically, ably, and accurately than Ford ever did, and
consequently scores higher on the CBC Report Card.”