Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Volunteer Odyssey’s MLK Days of Service

To celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this MLK weekend, Volunteer Odyssey is mobilizing Memphians to engage in service projects across the city. 

Throughout the year, the nonprofit connects other nonprofits with volunteers, provides a free platform for volunteer management, and coordinates corporate volunteer opportunities. “So MLK Days of Service is a great opportunity for us to gather several small projects from a lot of nonprofits around the city,” says Volunteer Odyssey executive director Caroline Norris, “doing everything from cleaning up T.O. Fuller State Park and making it even more beautiful, to working with Thistle & Bee to paint their new clinic and get it ready for some of their clients, to packing up food at the Mid-South Food Bank.” 

In total, there are 11 organizations for volunteers of all ages to serve this MLK weekend, with opportunities on Friday through Monday, at different hours through the day. “Our hope is that that will inspire every Memphian to find something, to find a way to plug in,” Norris says. “If it made them fall in love with Room in the Inn, and they had never heard of them before, and now they want to go and serve meals once a month, that can be transformational for some of these organizations.”

Photo: Courtesy Volunteer Odyssey

Spots for MLK Days of Service’s opportunities are already filling up, but Norris says not to worry. “Memphis is a last-minute kind of town, and so I know that there’s going to be spots available, especially down with the Wolf River Conservancy at T.O. Fuller State Park. They got hundreds and hundreds of spots.”

“What’s most important is rolling up your sleeves alongside your neighbors and getting your hands dirty, not just talking about what’s going on in our city, but really getting to work,” Norris says. “These organizations need people power, and so there is definitely an organization that is either the cause that you care about or is looking for the skills that you already have or simply just fits into your schedule.”

This year, for its MLK Days of Service, Volunteer Odyssey is also partnering with the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM) and Leadership Memphis in promoting their celebrations. Leadership Memphis will host its MLK Health and Wellness Fair on Saturday, January 18th, from noon to 2 p.m. at the Hollywood Community Center, with the goal to promote health, wellness, and access to resources. In addition to offering free health screenings and activities for the kids, the fair will showcase organizations focused on healthy living.

On Monday, January 20th, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., the National Civil Rights Museum will have its King Day, with free admission to the museum and a full day of activities including music, performances, children’s activities, and an online presentation. The museum is also asking for food donations to the Mid-South Food Bank in exchange for discounted admission to be used at a later date, and NCRM is hosting a blood drive. Those who donate blood will receive free admission for up to two people and an MLK Spirit of Service T-shirt (while supplies last). 

“We’re really trying to amplify what our community partners need,” Norris says of Volunteer Odyssey’s partnerships with Leadership Memphis and NCRM. “And so, this collaboration with MLK Days of Service is just a beautiful vision that there’s so much good happening. … Even if you can’t participate in the MLK days of service, use this opportunity to see how you might give back the rest of the year.”

Find out more about the volunteer opportunities available below or follow the link here, where you can also register.

Photo: Courtesy Volunteer Odyssey
  • National Civil Rights Museum: Passionate volunteers are needed to help coordinate #KingDay2025. This year’s celebration will also mark the launch of the museum’s yearlong observance themed Community Over Chaos, highlighting pivotal anniversaries in civil rights history, including the 60th anniversary year of the Selma March and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. | Monday, January 20, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
  • Girls Inc.: Get your hands dirty for a great cause! Girls Inc. needs volunteers to prep their urban farm for the spring. This is a great way to support a mission that inspires and empowers young girls in Memphis. | Saturday, January 18, 9:30-11:30 a.m.; Sunday, January 19, 8:30-10:30 a.m.; Monday, January 20, 8:30-10:30 a.m.
  • Wolf River Conservancy: This MLK Day of Service event will focus on preserving T.O. Fuller State Park, a historically significant site for the African-American community. Volunteers will assist with hiking trail restoration, playground surface renewal, and invasive species removal. | Saturday, January 18, 10 a.m.-noon
  • Thistle & Bee: Thistle & Bee is transforming lives, and you can be part of their journey! Help paint walls, organize supplies, and clean their new clinic space. Your efforts will directly support survivors of trafficking as they rebuild their lives with dignity and hope. | Saturday, January 18, 9 a.m. to noon | Sunday, January 19, 9 a.m. to noon 
  • Memphis City Beautiful: Join Memphis City Beautiful and partners in Midtown and Orange Mound on Saturday or the Mitchell Heights community on Sunday. Volunteers will plant native trees, clean-up intersections, and help create more inviting spaces in our city. Wear weather-appropriate clothing and get ready to dig in. | Saturday, January 18, 10 a.m.-noon, Sunday, January 19, 10 a.m.-noon
  • Overton Park Conservancy: Repair the Limestone Trail after recent storm damage. Bring a pair of work gloves and a couple of friends. Meet at the East Parkway Pavilion in Overton Park. | Monday, January 20, 9 a.m.-noon
  • Room in the Inn: Room in the Inn provides a welcoming, safe space for those experiencing homelessness, built on love and respect. Lend a hand with projects that directly support their mission. | multiple projects and shifts available
  • Shelby Farms Park: Take part in the Helping Hands project, an ongoing effort to pick up 2,025 pieces of litter by the end 2025. By volunteering, you’ll contribute to keeping one of Memphis’ most cherished green spaces clean and beautiful for everyone to enjoy. | ongoing/open availability
  • Mid-South Food Bank: Join the Mid-South Food Bank to pack meal boxes for the Care Like King Days of Service. Your time and effort will help fight hunger and ensure families across Memphis have access to nutritious meals. | Friday, January 17, 10 a.m.-noon
  • V&E Greenline: Help out on the V&E Greenline. There’s plenty to do to prepare for the spring growth. Meet at Kirby Station (1625 Tutwiler) at 9 a.m. for donuts, coffee, community, and lots of hard work. | Saturday, January 18, 9-11 a.m.
  • Lichterman Nature Center: Helping with trail maintenance, invasive plant removal, trash clean-up, resetting the children’s Discovery Forest, and helping to plant native plants. | Saturday, January 18, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Categories
News News Feature

Civil Rights Museum Hosts King Family

It’s never easy for the King family to come to Memphis. 

Martin Luther King III was only 10 when his father was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. It would be another 40 years before he would visit the site to place a memorial wreath. 

This week, he’s back with his family: his wife Arndrea Waters King and daughter Yolanda Renee King. “This is the first time that we’ve done this as a family,” Arndrea says. “We felt that it was important to do so this year and we wanted to acknowledge those people that we feel are continuing, in their own way, the work of Martin Luther King Jr.”

As difficult as it is to make the journey, it’s also a testament to that work that compels the King family to gather here and encourage the efforts of those who share a dream of battling the “three evils of society: racism, poverty, and violence.”

On Thursday, April 4th, the National Civil Rights Museum will welcome the King family to the event “Remembering MLK: The Man. The Movement. The Moment.” The commemoration will be in the museum’s courtyard at 4 p.m. with a musical prelude followed by the commemorative service at 4:30 p.m. Mr. King will deliver the keynote address with a focus on the most significant social justice issues facing the nation today. (The event will be streamed via the museum’s websiteYouTube, and Facebook platforms.)

The Drum Major Institute (DMI) is the nonprofit founded by Dr. King in 1961 to pursue social justice. Arndrea King is president of DMI and Mr. King is chairman and they are bringing the cause to the National Civil Rights Museum. They are also bringing their daughter, Yolanda Renee King, who is already making her mark as an activist and children’s book author. 

Arndrea says that the need for social change is just as compelling as it ever was, and in some ways more so. “We feel that in some ways there’s a backward movement from the dream,” she says. “Laws are being passed where our daughter — Dr. King’s only grandchild — has fewer rights now at 16 than the day that she was born.”

The occasion of the 56th anniversary of Dr. King’s death gives DMI the opportunity to remind the nation of the continuing struggle. “It’s very important for us to be there to be assembled and a reminder of the sacrifice that so many people made,” Arndrea says, “but also to rededicate ourselves and hopefully for all people of goodwill to join us and rededicate themselves to the eradication of racism and bigotry and poverty and violence, and to dedicate themselves to peace and justice and equity.” 

DMI will announce a number of grants for work being done by several organizations around the country toward that end. Those groups are working in various areas, such as voting rights, justice inequity, and more. Arndrea says, “We feel people are on the front lines of the same issues that Martin Luther King Jr. worked on. And I always remind people that he told us to give us the ballot before he told us about his dream. It’s also important to remember that Dr. King was not only a scholar and minister, but an activist. He saw what was wrong and helped organize change.”

With 2024 a major election year and with the nation seriously divided, Mr. King reflects on what more needs to be done. “It is daunting because of the mechanisms that are in place to divide,” he says. “That could be social media to some degree, that could be some elements of mainstream media and obviously a lot of individuals who may be influencers. Certainly, the megaphone that the former president has is probably doing the most damage, and people seem to be in denial or blind to it, seeing only what they think are the good things. We have to be very thoughtful and very direct intentional is what I would say.”

Mr. King believes the country wants to move in a different direction. “Even the people who are angry and frustrated and hostile at everyone — I can’t believe you want to stay that way. That is just not who we are as human beings. When a crisis comes, we find a way to come together, and I want us to operate the way we operate in those crises. We don’t ask, well, who is the victim? Who’s in trouble? What caused it? It doesn’t matter what your sexual orientation is, it doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian or not, it doesn’t matter. All we come to do is to help you get out of that situation and help you get to the other side.”

What he hopes for, and is working toward, is creating a climate where there can be discussions without rancor, but instead, “with an understanding that there are far more things that we have in common than we have apart. We call ourselves the United States of America, but we are not operating as a United States. We are operating as a fragmented, dysfunctional, very tragic society.”

And here, he cites his father. “My dad would’ve said that we must learn nonviolence or we may face nonexistence. We are not engaging in nonviolence and where we are, it’s not promoted. We must teach how to live together without destroying person or property and how to live in a civil society. You have to intentionally do that.”

Sometimes, though, it’s difficult. “That may be part of why my wife and I and our daughter chose to come to Memphis on this actual anniversary. It is a hard kind of scenario for us. But I also remember that Dad was killed on April 4, 1968, and then on April 8th, my mom and the three older ones of us, my late sister Yolanda and my late brother Dexter and I, along with Mom all came to Memphis for her to continue in the tradition of my father leading that demonstration so that sanitation workers could be treated with dignity and respect and paid a fair and decent wage.”

The involvement of Mr. King and his siblings, thanks to their mother, Coretta Scott King, was a lesson that continues today in that young people are a force to be brought in to help with the struggle. The Martin Luther King III Foundation has begun a five-year initiative called Realize the Dream that involves youth. As Arndrea says, “We’re going to ignite a movement where young people will come together, stand together, work together, serve together in whatever capacity that they choose, and collectively commit and complete 100 million hours of service by the 100th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. It’s very important for young people, particularly those who were born post-Civil Rights Movement and went through the pandemic and racial awakening — they’ve also now gone through the backlash of that. They can see how they can be a part of doing something to create the world in which they want to live in a very tangible and real way. Dr. King said that everyone can be great because everyone can serve.”

Categories
Special Sections Sponsored Content

“Remembering MLK: The Man. The Movement. The Moment.”

The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel will present a commemoration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy on Thursday, April 4, the 56th anniversary of his death. Martin Luther King III, wife Arndrea Waters King, and daughter Yolanda. Renee King will participate in the ceremony, which will be live streamed for those who cannot attend in person. This year, the Museum introduces a youth component with the performing winners of its Youth Poetry and Spoken Word Competition.


The event entitled “Remembering MLK: The Man. The Movement. The Moment.” will be held in the Museum’s courtyard at 4:00 pm Central with a musical prelude followed by the commemorative service at 4:30 pm. Participants can also join the live stream via the museum’s website, YouTube and Facebook platforms.


Martin Luther King III, the oldest son of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, will deliver the keynote address. Mr. King is a civil rights advocate and global humanitarian, focusing on addressing the most pressing social justice issues of today. Amplifying his father’s work, Mr. King has devoted his life to promoting global human rights and eradicating racism, violence, and poverty, earning a reputation as a respected international statesman and one of the world’s most passionate advocates for the poor and oppressed.


As chairman of the Drum Major Institute (DMI), a nonprofit rooted in his father’s work over 60 years ago, Mr. King collaborates closely with his wife, Arndrea Waters King and daughter, Yolanda Renee King, to advance Dr. King’s vision of a more just and equitable world. Founded in 1961, the organization focuses on continuing the King legacy through education, action, engagement with world leaders, and collaboration with socially conscious organizations.


Arndrea Waters King, social justice activist and President of Drum Major Institute (DMI), has championed several nonviolence, anti-hate and social change initiatives throughout her life, designing programs to advance understanding and activism. She is a strong supporter of youth activism and believes in helping young people take a peaceful, effective stand for the world issues that concern them most. As president of DMI, she plays a critical role in creating strategic partnerships and managing the daily operations of this active social justice organization.


At 15 years old, Yolanda Renee King, the only grandchild of Dr. King, is an activist and children’s book author having recently published We Dream A World, a tribute to her grandparent’s legacy. Having appeared on the world stage and in national media interviews, she uses her voice to speak up on key issues including gun violence, climate change, and racial equality.


As a teen creative, Yolanda King will lead the youth segment of the commemoration with words of inspiration and introduction of the “I AM the Legacy” poetry and spoken word winners to be announced this month. The competition is designed for high school students to use the performative art of poetry on topics that identify their thoughts, solutions, or designs on how they envision freedom, equality, and justice for their future. The competition is made possible by The Memphis (TN) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.


“This year, the commemoration is poignant as we elevate the ‘drum major instinct’ Dr. King expressed, but with the fierce urgency of now,” said Dr. Russ Wigginton, Museum President. “Given today’s climate, we recognize we all must move toward greater justice, peace, and righteousness from wherever we stand,” he said.


Each year, the Museum commemorates the tragic event that occurred on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in 1968. This year’s event features a keynote speaker, special performances, fraternal tribute, and changing the balcony wreath with a moment of silence at 6:01 pm Central when Dr. King was slain.


Rev. Dr. Dorothy Sanders Wells, the Rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church, will give remarks. Wells has recently been elected the first woman and first Black person elected as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi.

W. Crimm Singers AKA Wakanda Chorale, a professional ensemble-in-residence of Tennessee State University’s Big Blue Opera Initiatives, will perform music of the Black experience throughout the diaspora and every genre connected to it with major emphasis on the Negro Spiritual, African American operatic, and concert repertoire, hymnody, and anthems.


During the 4:00 prelude, recorded speeches by Dr. King will broadcast in the museum courtyard. In the event of rain, the event will be held inside the museum’s Hooks Hyde Hall. For more information, visit April4th.org.

Members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. gather to present a wreath in memory of their fallen brother. Dr. King was a member of the fraternity.

This article is sponsored by National Civil Rights Museum.

Categories
Special Sections Sponsored Content

The Resilience: Combatting Police Violence through Policy and Public Safety

The National Civil Rights Museum will host the fourth and final national convening, entitled “The Resilience: Combatting Police Violence through Policy and Public Safety,” on March 22, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Renasant Convention Center. As part of “The Reckoning, The Resolve, The Restoration, and The Resilience” series, the museum brings together thought leaders, policymakers, surviving families, and activists to examine the historical connections of systemic racial violence and find solutions for today’s challenges. 

“The Resilience symposium is the apex of collaboration among thought leaders and activists whose commitment to public safety, justice, and dignity are born out of love for our communities,” said Museum President, Dr. Russ Wigginton. “Through tough conversations, smart strategies, and ultimate determination, we are destined to build a better world for our children, but we must begin now.”

During the symposium, participants will offer strategies and solutions to tackle police violence through policy-driven, community-led, and trauma-informed alternatives to traditional public safety methods. The event includes an opening panel, facilitated sessions, and a lunch roundtable discussion. 

The event format includes:

  • Opening Panel – From Pain to Purpose: The Courageous Activism of Police Violence Victims. The panel includes Rodney and RowVaughn Wells, parents of Tyre Nichols; Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin; Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner; Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd. CNN political commentator and author, Symone Sanders Townsend, is the panel moderator.
  • Facilitated Session I – Enhancing Public Safety through Community-Led & Trauma-Informed Alternatives. This session is led by Eric Cumberbatch of the Center for Policy Equity in New York City. His extensive portfolio of work is focused on undoing the impact of white supremacy in Black communities and placing power in the hands of the most vulnerable people.
  • Facilitated Session II – Advocating for Police Reform through Effective Policy Solutions. This session is facilitated by Rashawn Ray, professor, author, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and executive director of the AIR Equity Initiative which collaboratively focuses on developing strategies to mitigate the harm caused by segregated communities with emphasis on education, workforce, safety, and health equity. 
  • Lunch Roundtable – Ending Police Violence: Strategies for Cross-Sector Collaboration. The luncheon panel includes Derrick Johnson, National President of NAACP, Raumesh Akbari, Tennessee State Senator, and is moderated by Symone Sanders Townsend.

“In the face of adversity, resilience is not merely enduring; it’s about standing firm, adapting, and advocating for change. It’s the unwavering commitment to justice, the courage to confront systemic issues, and the determination to build a safer and more equitable future for all,” said Veda Ajamu, Managing Director, DEI Programs and Community Engagement.

The museum has launched this collaborative effort to include a broad spectrum of citizens from many disciplines, industries, and roles to root out the causes at a systemic level. National and local leaders committed to seeing change in their communities and enhancing relationships between citizens and law enforcement are strongly encouraged to attend.
The four-part, national convening series — The Reckoning, The Resolve, The Reconciliation, and The Resilience — is made possible by the support of FedEx, Cummins, and The Kresge Foundation. For tickets and more information, visit civilrightsmuseum.org.

Part 3 of 4 the museum’s national convenings on September 6, “The Restoration: Community Healing for Solutions to Police Violence,” panelist Eric Cumberbatch of the Center for Policing Equity, discusses practical solutions implemented in New York City. Cumberbatch will also lead a facilitate session during The Resilience on March 22.

This article is sponsored by National Civil Rights Museum.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

NCRM Announces 32nd Freedom Award Honorees

On Tuesday, the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM) announced the honorees for its 32nd Freedom Award. Each year, the museum strives to honor those who have made “exceptional contributions to civil and human rights,” with previous winners including Coretta Scott King, Oprah, Nelson Mandela, and Bono.

This year, three winners have been selected:

  • Kerry Kennedy: President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a renowned human rights activist, and lawyer, Kennedy’s tireless efforts span over four decades, championing various causes such as child labor, women’s rights, environmental justice, and more.
  • Dr. Clayborne Carson: Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of History, emeritus, at Stanford University, Dr. Carson’s profound work centers on the study of Martin Luther King Jr. and the human rights movements that his legacy has inspired.
  • Stacey Abrams: A bestselling author, civil rights activist, and political leader, Abrams is a trailblazer, becoming the first Black woman to be the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in United States history. She has founded multiple nonprofit organizations dedicated to voting rights and addressing social and economic issues.

The NCRM will host its award ceremony, hosted by actor and philanthropist Tobias Truvillion, on Thursday, October 19th, at the Orpheum Theatre at 7 p.m., and will feature entertainment including poet J. Ivy and Let It Happen. A pre-gala event will take place at 5:30 p.m. next door at the Halloran Centre.

In addition, the NCRM will hold a student forum at 10 a.m. the same day, which “aims to empower middle and high school students to take action and create positive change within their communities,” per the museum.

Tickets for the event will go on sale starting August 1st. For more information about the event, visit freedomaward.org.

Categories
Art Art Feature

“A Requiem for King”

Last month, to honor the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the National Civil Rights Museum unveiled “Waddell, Withers, & Smith: A Requiem for King,” an exhibition highlighting three Memphis-based artists whose work responded to King’s assassination and the Civil Rights Movement: self-taught sculptor James Waddell Jr., photojournalist Ernest Withers, and multimedia artist Dolph Smith.

“It goes to show the levels of Dr. King and how many people he impacted,” NCRM associate curator Ryan Jones says of the exhibit. “He didn’t just impact people who were civil rights leaders and human rights activists; he impacted people who were artists. And so this goes to show what he meant as a man and that people here in this great community of Memphis have channeled and responded to something that has been a dark cloud over the city in the past 55 years. Dr. King impacted the hearts and minds of so many citizens.”

Each of the three artists were born and raised in Memphis, Jones says, and all served in the military, with their respective services being turning points in their artistic careers. Withers, a World War II veteran, learned his craft at the Army School of Photography. He would then go on to photograph some of the most iconic moments of the Civil Rights Movement, including King’s fateful visit to Memphis, the priceless images for which line the exhibition’s walls.

“We can’t tell the story of the modern Civil Rights Movement without the role of photography,” Jones says, and truly, Withers played one of the most significant roles in documenting that history, capturing approximately 1.8 million photographs before his death at 85 years old in 2007.

At the same time Withers was documenting King’s Memphis visit and the aftermath of his assassination, James Waddell (who happened to later be photographed by Withers) was serving in the Vietnam War and didn’t learn what had happened in Memphis until weeks later. For Waddell and his family, King’s death marked a period of pain and grief — “His relatives compared the assassination to a death in the family,” reads the exhibit’s wall text.

“[Sculpture] was his way of reacting to the tragedy that had happened,” Jones says. “He said that living in Memphis and being a native Memphian and not doing the work would be something he would never be able to get over.” So when he returned home, Waddell channeled this grief in the work now on display — an aluminum-cast bust of King and Mountaintop Vision, a bronze statue of King kneeling on a mountaintop with an open Bible. “It shows he’s humbling himself to God,” Waddell said of the sculpture in a 1986 interview in The Commercial Appeal with Anthony Hicks. 

James Waddell’s Mountaintop Vision (Photo: Abigail Morici)

Initially, as the 1986 article reveals, Waddell planned to create an eight-foot version of Mountaintop Vision as “the city’s first statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” “The time is right, because Memphis is beginning to voice an opinion that there is a need for a statue,” Waddell told The Commercial Appeal. “This will be a tool for understanding.”

Waddell, who has since passed, said he hoped “to see the finished piece placed at the proposed Lorraine Motel Civil Rights Museum, Clayborn Temple, or in Martin Luther King Jr. Riverside Park.” Though that eight-foot version never came to fruition, at long last, the smaller version of Waddell’s Mountaintop Vision can be seen not only in a public display for the first time, but also at the National Civil Rights Museum as he once had envisioned. 

Dolph Smith’s The Veil of the Temple Was Rent in Two (Photo: Abigail Morici)

Meanwhile, Dolph Smith, who had long since returned home from the Vietnam War, was in Memphis the night of King’s assassination. As Memphis was set ablaze that night, he and his family stood on the roof of their home, watching the smoke rise around them. He vowed to never forget that date — April 4, 1968. In his personal calendar for that day, he wrote, “If this has happened in Memphis, then now I know it can happen anywhere. It is so hard to believe a man’s basic instinct is to be good.”

In response to what he called “an unspeakable tragedy” and the public uprising that arose from it, Smith took to the canvas. For one piece on display at the museum, titled The Veil of the Temple Was Rent in Two, the artist ripped an American flag, placing photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in between its tears, as Jones says, “to show the extreme divisiveness that the assassination caused.”

In all, Jones hopes the exhibit will show the reach of King’s legacy extending beyond April 4, 1968, all the way to the present day. In one of the videos projected on the exhibition’s walls, Smith, now at 89 years old, speaks on the importance of witnessing artwork like the pieces on display. “If you make something and it just sits there, it’s unfinished,” Smith says. To him — a painter, bookmaker, and educator — in order for a work of art to be “finished,” it has to be shared, for the mission of the artist is not simply to create but to spark conversation, to encourage self-reflection, and in cases like that of Withers, Waddell, and Smith, to activate progress.

“Waddell, Withers, & Smith: A Requiem for King” is on display at the National Civil Rights Museum through August 28th.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

The Poor People’s Campaign: a Next-to-Last Stop in Memphis


There damn sure are two Americas. There is the America that venerates someone they call, somewhat archaically,  “President Trump,” and plan, as billboards on our thoroughfares are now telling us, to convene with him right here in the area on June 18. And there is another America that won’t be at that meeting, an America whose sentinels — 1,000 to 1,500 strong — marched on Monday afternoon from Robert Church Park to the National Civil Rights Museum, chanting and singing.

“We are ready/ united we go/ bringing the power/ here we go/ all together/ here we go…,” they sang. And their signs told their mission — “The Poor People’s Campaign” — and their sentiments — “Everybody’s Got a Right to Live” (alternatively, “Todo El Mundo Tiene Derechos A Vivir”), and even some of their impossible presumptions — “Vote Out the Republican-Appointed Judges” and “End Capitalism.”

Yes, the Poor People’s Campaign. A revival of the very movement that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was on his way to creating when he was assassinated, just short of the mountaintop, here in Memphis more than half a century ago. And this reconvening, too, has a convocation slated for June 18. That one will take place in Washington, D.C., and Monday’s Memphis rally was intended as the last climactic prelude to that event.

There was more singing when the cadres gathered at the National Civil Rights Museum, there was a trumpet solo of “A Change Will Come,” and the clergy of three faiths — Christian, Jewish, and Islamic — celebrated the occasion, even throwing in a side reference to the Bhagavad Gita, thereby evoking yet another religion of humankind.

And there was the Rev. William Barber, who described himself modestly as “co-chairman of the Poor People’s Campaign” and began his remarks with a disclaimer: “I’m honored to be here with you today. … Nobody here is more important than anybody else. Ain’t no first, ain’t no seconds. We are just one.” He continued: “So I’m gonna ask three people from Mississippi, three people from Kentucky, maybe from Arkansas, three people in Tennessee — preferably some of those between 20 and 45 or so — run on up here and come stay with me. Because that’s another thing in the Poor People’s Campaign — we don’t ever stand at the podium alone because this is not about any one person.” After the requested assemblage sorted itself out and stood in place behind him, he began to do his best to make that last assertion — “We are just one” — a reality.

The Rev. William Barber at the National Civil Rights Museum. (Photo by Jackson Baker)


Make no mistake: Rev. Barber, not Al Sharpton of the Tawana Brawley caper and MSNBC, is the ranking  social missionary these days among the black clergy, the successor-in-waiting to Jesse Jackson and, for that matter, to Dr. Martin Luther King. This bear-like man with basso profundo tones and a cadence that indeed seems to come straight from God. It is possible to extract from his hour-long message several shafts of golden rhetoric, and so we shall, but with this caveat: You had to be there, you always have to be there with Rev. Barber, the whole of whose message is always greater than the sum of its parts. He speaks with a hypnotic mantra that has to be experienced direct to be fully appreciated.

Nevertheless, for the record, here are some of the promised extracts:

Barber spoke to the “sacredness” of the venue this way: “The Bible says we gotta be careful because some people love the tombs of the prophets. But they don’t necessarily love the prophets and there are some folks that have come to the prophets’ tombs while they’re dead but would not dare come while they were still living.”

He made clear what he regarded as the source of his inspiration: “It was clear that we needed a mass assembly. This came after two national tours, visiting over 40 states being invited by the people. This was not a moment that some folk in D.C. decided they want to have and they start telling the people what to do. [It’s] the people from the bottom up.” And this was no mere ceremony: “You don’t need any more commemorations. We need re-engagement. We don’t need to keep talking about crucifixions, we need to start out as a resurrection.”

He dispelled what he saw as obstructive illusions to this resurrection: “If we were gonna be accurate, the truth of the matter is, Dr. King was hated. Dr. King was put out of the Baptist denomination. Threw him out! Preachers, civil rights leaders, and every major civil rights organization wrote resolutions against him when he connected poverty and racism and militarism, everyone. Even SCLC was split up. They were split [because] the poor folks campaign wanted to organize the wretched of the earth.” 

Dr. King’s last sermon, the one written but never given, was entitled “America May Go to Hell,” he proclaimed.

Again: “Nothing would be more tragic than for us to turn back now. This is not about nostalgia. It’s not about just remembering the past.”

Neither Memphis as a community nor the state of Tennessee were spared: “It’s been 54 years since the sanitation workers strike and right here in Memphis they still don’t have union rights. … People in this city stopped a pipeline company that would damage the black community. There are attempts by that company to find other ways to bring toxic waste, and to get the legislature to write laws that would keep black communities from blocking the pipeline. We don’t need nostalgia. We need a movement now because nothing would be more tragic than to turn back now!”

Further: “You have a governor in this state who will go to black events and talk about Dr. King and how he loves Dr. King stuff [while] trashing everything Dr. King stood for. Talking about we need to get back to normal after Covid! You know what the hell normal was?  Forty-six percent of all the people in Tennessee poor and low wealth.  It’s 1. 3 million residents.  It’s 56 percent of all the children in this state. 1 million black people, 2 million white people, 740,000 uninsured, 8,300 people homeless, 1.3 million people making under 15 dollars an hour, 51 percent of the workforce in Tennessee today work for less than a living wage. We don’t need no more notice. We need a resurrection!

“Before Covid hit, poor people were dying at a rate of 700 a day, a quarter million a year. And during Covid, poor people died at a rate two to five times higher than other folks. The virus didn’t discriminate, but we did: 8 million more people fell into poverty while billionaires have made over $2 trillion. We don’t need that. We need a resurrection!”

What was called for? “A living wage, guaranteed health care, guaranteed housing, just basic, fundamental human rights. … We’ve got less voting rights today than we had ever since 1960. … We’ve made a billionaire every 33 hours, every 33 hours a million people have fallen into poverty.”

Not that his concerns were restricted to the economic sphere: Barber condemned ” a form of theological malpractice in modern day terrorism. They claim that a agenda for God is hating gay people, being against abortion, being for guns, being for praying the schools and for a particular party whose name starts with R.”

There was more of the same, full of repetition and rolling thunder and dashes of humor (as when he invoked “ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Negro”). And, after a final, extended crescendo, the Rev. Barber would close: “It is time to turn to your neighbor and say, ‘Neighbor, you know it’s time for me to go to the meeting … it’s time to get a hold of this nation. Are you ready?”

The minions he had addressed had already said, in their arrival chant, that they were.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

NCRM Hosts Exhibit Reflecting on St. Jude’s Legacy of Defying Racial Inequities

In honor of Black History Month, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and ALSAC, the hospital’s fundraising and awareness organization, have partnered with the National Civil Rights Museum in an exhibit reflecting on St. Jude’s legacy of defying racial inequities within healthcare.

“St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was founded as a beacon of inclusion and equality, and I couldn’t think of a better place to share that history than the National Civil Rights Museum,” says Richard C. Shadyac Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC. “We encourage everyone to visit this amazing museum to learn more about the connected civil rights stories of Memphis, ALSAC, and St. Jude.”

The interactive poster installation traces St. Jude’s history starting with its 1962 founding as the first fully integrated children’s hospital in the South at the height of segregation. With QR codes that direct visitors to video footage and webpages, guests can read about and hear the stories of three people: Paul Williams, the African-American architect who designed the original star-shaped hospital building; patient Courtney, whose life St. Jude’s care helped save; and Dr. Rudolph Jackson, one of the first Black doctors at the institution.

“When I first came here in ’68, I came here as part of the sickle cell program,” Jackson says in one of the exhibit’s videos. “The entire country and the world were going through the same kinds of things that we were seeing in Memphis. There was the school strike going on, the garbage strike, marches. … I wanted to do something for particularly African Americans who could not afford healthcare. The kind of healthcare people get here at St. Jude, you can’t purchase. It’s so great to find so many people who have the same ideas and work three times as hard.” Jackson has passed away since the filming of this video.

The exhibit is on display through March 8th in the guest lounge on the second floor of the museum.

“ALSAC & St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Commitment To Equity And Inclusion For All Children,”

National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry, on display through March 8th.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

National Civil Rights Museum Hosts Virtual “Remembering MLK” Event

On Easter Sunday, the National Civil Rights Museum will present a virtual commemoration in honor of Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy on the 53rd anniversary of his death. This year’s event will feature a conversation with Rev. James Lawson, a key King ally in pursuit of nonviolent philosophy who trained a number of activists on civil disobedience. A performance of “Precious Lord,” Dr. King’s favorite gospel hymn, will be presented by the vocal ensemble Adajjyo. A keynote from Dr. Bernard Richardson, Dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University, will explore King’s last days. The broadcast will culminate with a moment of silence at 6:01 p.m., the time King was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

Following the commemoration is the world premiere of “Caged,” a commissioned Chamber Orchestra piece by African-American composer Brian Nabors, performed by Iris Orchestra and Memphis Symphony Orchestra Diversity Fellows. The piece takes listeners on an energetic, rhapsodic journey through a range of emotions.

“This work embodies our need to ‘let loose’ and release the restrictive tension that quarantining and the pandemic as a whole brought upon us,” Nabors says. “This piece pairs the barbarous with the deeply introspective and brings listeners to an inward reconciling of the grief many are feeling during this difficult time. Although we may feel ‘caged’ at the moment, the power of music is what continues to lift our spirits and will eventually pull us through to the other side.”

Both groups of artist fellows will also present a live outdoor performance in Overton Square on April 11th at 3 p.m. The concert will showcase underrepresented composers and feature a live premiere of “Caged.” Nabors will attend and give an exclusive introduction to his work.

Remembering MLK, online from the National Civil Rights Museum, civilrightsmuseum.org, Sunday, Apr. 4, 5 p.m., free.

Categories
News News Blog

Museums’ COVID Closings Extend Into January

Jon W. Sparks

Spring, Summer, Fall at the Brooks Museum by Wheeler Williams

Most museums are temporarily closing their doors due to recent COVID restrictions. This list will be updated as needed.

  • Memphis Brooks Museum of Art will remain closed until Wednesday, January 6th. This includes all public programming.
  • The National Civil Rights Museum is temporarily closed until further notice.
  • The Pink Palace Museum closes December 24th at 2 p.m. through January 23rd.
  • The Metal Museum buildings and grounds will remain closed through the New Year and will reopen to the public on Friday, January 8th.
  • Stax Museum will be closed from December 24th through January 4th.
  • The Dixon Gallery and Gardens will continue to be open except for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. It has a strict capacity limit and requires guests to wear masks and social distance during their visit.