Tag: National Civil Rights Museum

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Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (October 23, 2014)

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

I knew it. I knew it as well as I knew there was something fishy about Joan Rivers’ death. I knew that President Obama was responsible for the Ebola “epidemic” in the United States. Don’t believe me? Think I’m stupid (don’t answer that)? Well, maybe you would have more trust in The New York Times, which printed this the other day:

“The virus has also threatened to raise questions about the Obama administration’s competence, fueled in recent days by reports that two health care workers were infected while caring for an Ebola-afflicted patient at a Dallas hospital, and one subsequently flew on an airplane with a fever.”

Now do you get it? Two — make it three — people in the United States have contracted the disease, and now it is a nationwide epidemic, and Obama has not done his part to contain it. I knew this was some kind of Democratic, liberal plot from a man who might or might not have even been born in the United States.

I feel sincerely badly for the people in West Africa, who are really being ravaged by this disease, and I wish the U.S. was supplying them the same kind of resources as we are here at home, but come on. Maybe I am crass, but an Ebola czar already?

Justin Fox Burks

Gus’s Fried Chicken

And the media. The media are without scruples in the U.S. when it comes to this kind of thing. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to turn on Fox News (well, it would actually surprise the hell out of me if I turned on Fox News — the national channel, not our local peeps, who are awesome) — and saw all of the anchors at their desks in hazmat suits reporting the news through tubes coming out of the head gear. It reminds me of the Egyptian spring uprising, when even Anderson Cooper hunkered down in a fake cave pretending to be seconds from an untimely death. No shame.

And speaking of the media and no shame, I read a piece in last week’s Fly on the Wall in this paper. And then reread it, and reread it, and reread it, trying to figure out what it meant. In case you missed it, Chris Davis reported this:

“Four food writers for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette came to town for a conference and were freaked out by scenic South Front: ‘Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken in downtown Memphis isn’t much to look at … on a street flush with boarded-up windows, it’s the kind of place ‘fraidy-cat tourists would steer clear of for fear of getting mugged. I’ll admit my first thought was, ‘This is it? The place so many people are talking about?'”

That is just wrong. What exactly were they expecting from a fried-chicken restaurant, and where did they get the idea that Front Street is “flush with boarded up windows?” There’s something like $16 trillion of new development there with a lot more on the way. I can tell you this without even looking up who the writers were: They have never set foot in an interesting place in their lives, they have never had an original thought, and they probably live in the suburbs and think they know a lot about wine.

So to prove myself right, I went to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website and this was the lead headline: “South Hills Village Mall races to get ready for holiday season.” See? I bet the same writer who thought “‘fraidy-cat tourists would steer clear” of our Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken for “fear of getting mugged” wrote this riveting piece on their mall getting ready for the holidays.

Okay, okay, so I read the entire article (the one about Memphis food, not the one about their mall and the holidays because I would rather have an image of a naked Dick Cheney tattooed on my face than visit a mall during the holidays), and it wasn’t all bad. In fact, one dude wrote about visiting the Stax Museum (where I work by day) so they at least got some culture. They also visited the National Civil Rights Museum and the same guy wrote this:

“I was so impressed and moved by our group tour of the newly renovated National Civil Rights Museum, which is located at the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, that I went through a second time with my family. Afterwards, I felt like I could use a drink.”

Atta boy! So you did visit interesting places, and you do have original thoughts, and you might not live in the suburbs and think you know a lot about wine. You have my humblest apologies. Anyone who needs a drink after visiting a place as emotionally gripping as the National Civil Rights Museum is A-okay in my book.

So now I am not mad at those writers anymore. I’m going to be a much nicer person from now on. I might even forgive Obama for singlehandedly causing every American in the land to potentially come down with Ebola.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Trolley Trials

Something’s missing on Main Street.

Music and the smell of food waft over the Main Street mall’s lunchtime crowd. Office workers mill up and down the brick sidewalks, like always. A sign reads: “Pedestrians Yield To Trolley,” but for the past few months, the only traffic along the mall has been horse-drawn tourist carriages or the golf cart delivering Aldo’s Pizza Pies. 

Gone is the familiar rumble of Memphis’ vintage trolley cars — the lumbering vehicles that warned pedestrians to get out of the way with a friendly (or unfriendly) toot or ding. The void is unmistakeable, like a missing tooth. 

“Fire at any given moment … “

Two fires — both on the Madison Line — caused a lengthy shutdown of the Memphis trolleys. Trolley 452 caught fire last November 4th on the I-240 overpass just west of Bellevue. Trolley 553 caught fire on April 7th on the Danny Thomas overpass bridge. They were hauled back to the Main Street trolley barn, and the cause of the fires was investigated. Both were burned beyond repair. 

Trolley service on the Madison Line was suspended after the April fire. The entire trolley system was shut down on June 11th. That decision came after a a review of the system by industry experts who said unless several corrective actions were taken, “fires will happen again.” Furthermore, it was conveyed to Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) management that there could be trolleys currently operating on the lines that “could catch fire at any given moment.” 

Green hybrid buses have since replaced the trolleys. They run the same routes, except for the Main Street Mall and parts of the Riverfront Loop. Bus ridership is rising, officials say, but lots of Memphians want the trolleys back. 

“Disturbing” and “Below Average”

According to an independent report by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), a Washington, D.C.-based industry group, there are two answers to the question: Why did the trolleys catch fire? 

One is physical, sparks turned to flames when a power surge hit a faulty electrical system. The other is systemic, years of shoddy maintenance procedures and safety processes had become engrained at MATA. 

MATA officials asked the group for an outsider’s look at the trolley trouble in Memphis. The response it got was quite technical and also quite harsh.

The trolley system was governed by “deferred, incomplete, or incorrect practices.” This brought an “environment of higher risk … resulting in an escalation in the number of incidents and accidents.” The system, according the APTA report, made for unreliable trolleys and, therefore, unreliable trolley schedules. MATA’s practices, the report says, were below the average of “today’s street railway industry.”

There was no person at MATA accredited to train trolley operators or maintainers, the report says. There was no safety manager. Several maintenance tasks could only be done by one person. Scant training records existed to show who had received training on what equipment. 

“There appears to be a lack of oversight by management staff to ensure written procedures are being followed,” the APTA report says. 

Oil covered several areas of “the pit,” where the trolleys were repaired, making it slick and dangerous. Worn-out trolley parts were scattered around the trolley maintenance facility on Main Street.  

“There are little or no records on repairs done to the cars,” the report said. 

The records that did exist showed 43 defects on Trolley 553 in the three months before it caught fire in April. Twenty-nine defects were recorded on trolley Number 452 in the three months before it caught fire in November.

There were no manuals on how to maintain the cars’ electrical apparatuses or the air systems. The maintenance staff said they didn’t know how or where to get them.

“Overall, the panel found this to be disturbing,” the report says.

MATA staff interviewed by the panel said they experienced several flashovers, or electrical spark-ups, each year on the trolleys, including one “big” flashover each year. “It would appear that no additional training was provided to the maintenance staff after the fires.”

“This means something to me.”

Ron Garrison, who has led transit systems in

St. Louis; Tallahassee, Florida; and the Washington, D.C. area, was hired as the director of MATA in July. 

His love of trolleys began early, he says, as he rode them growing up in St. Louis. Garrison says the trolleys are important to the vitality of Memphis business as a mobility tool and to tourism as a part of the city’s charm. Garrison says he’s working hard to get the trolleys back on track.

At 9 a.m., it’s almost lunchtime for Garrison. Getting to work early has been part of his routine here. He says he’s usually at work by 3:30 a.m. and jokes that he’s accidentally scared some of the bus mechanics on those early mornings. MATA’s first bus leaves at around 

4:45 a.m., and Garrison wants to be on it, because that’s where the customers are.

“You go talk to them,” Garrison says. “You get on the bus and you ride with them.” 

Garrison told members of the Downtown Memphis Commission the same thing last month, when asked how he would get feedback from the MATA-riding public. 

He then got some laughs when he told the board that he’d have to leave the meeting early because the Memphis Bus Riders Union was picketing a MATA station. The laughs were quickly doused when he told them that enlisting the union’s help as a focus group was another way he’d develop MATA’s future.

Garrison is buttoned-up but casual, comfortable in a suit and tie but easy with a joke. He’s not afraid to admit to city leaders or a scrum of reporters when he does not know the answer to a question. 

He styles himself a “pretty easy-going guy” but also notes that “sometimes you gotta get tough, like in the Navy.” Garrison received the Naval Achievement Medal for his 10 years of service that ended with him as the head of the HFDF Division of U.S. Naval Intelligence. 

After a few years running his own St. Louis insurance company, Garrison started a career in mass transit in 1990 with the St. Louis Metro. Three transit systems and 24 years later, he finds himself in Memphis.

Garrison completely redesigned bus routes in Tallahassee, decentralizing the old hub-and-spoke system there, which made for shorter wait times, more bus routes, and easier transit around the city.

Tallahassee’s StarMetro system won the American Planning Association’s 2013 award for excellence in public transportation. Upon his resignation from the system in 2013, the editorial board of the daily Tallahassee Democrat said of Garrison’s tenure: “… the system works. The city can offer thanks to Mr. Garrison and claim its award with pride.”

Garrison says his appreciation for mass transit began at young age. His grandmother couldn’t walk and got around using one of the first electric wheelchairs. At that time, Garrison recounts, there was no para-transit. To go someplace, you had to call an ambulance.

“I say that to you, because this means something to me,” he says. “I’m not doing this for fun. I’m doing this because I want to do the right thing. I came here because I can feel that this city is changing and doing the right thing.”

Streetcar Desires

Vintage trolley cars clattering along old rail lines through the oldest parts of Memphis may seem like some kind of nostalgia-fueled pet project. But, ironically, the city’s trolley system puts Memphis years ahead of many other major cities in the U.S. 

Streetcar projects are currently underway in Atlanta; Seattle; Milwaukee; Detroit; Cincinnati; Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Kansas City, Missouri; Tempe, Arizona; Arlington, Virginia; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

As city cores come back to life across the U.S., downtown residents want to be able to walk, bike, and ride public transportation, and they want to live around others who want the same things. They want an authentic and progressive urban lifestyle.

“Streetcars do more than simply improve mobility,” says the website for the Milwaukee Streetcar Project. “By promoting development, raising property values, attracting businesses, and helping to define our contemporary city, streetcars benefit everyone. Streetcars add vitality to an urban setting, increasing commerce and activity around every one of the fixed stations and stops.”

Charlotte’s project is charged with helping to create “a transit-focused and pedestrian-oriented center city.” Tempe says its streetcar project will “increase mobility, strengthen existing neighborhoods and create sustainable development.” Atlanta wants a system that “links communities, improves mobility by enhancing transit access and options, supports projected growth, promotes economic development and encourages strategies to develop livable communities.”

So far, Portland’s streetcar project has led to 140 real estate projects worth $3.5 billion. According to city statistics, property values there rose by 50 percent. After streetcars began running in Seattle, the city saw 3.3 million square feet of new development.   

A major difference between many of these projects and the Memphis trolley system are the cars themselves. Most of the Memphis trolleys were built around the 1920s. They are mobile pieces of antique furniture — worn wooden artwork on heavy steel wheels. In contrast, the Atlanta cars are fast (up to 50 miles per hour) and sleek. Similar cars are being used in Los Angeles, Tempe, and Seattle.

The Unpromised Future

So when will Memphis’ trolleys come back? Garrison isn’t making any promises about it, but three teams of rail and safety experts converged in Memphis last week for another assessment of the trolley system. Once they’re finished, a new system plan for the city will be revealed, possibly as early as November. Presumably, a timeline for renewed trolley service will be part of the plan.

In the meantime, Garrison and MATA officials are working to reimagine and build the future of the trolley system. He envisions a more efficient system. He knows that the trolleys rarely ran on time, which was the top complaint from locals.

MATA is also implementing an “intelligent” transportation system that will give real-time information on buses and trolleys. By December, MATA is expected to launch a website and a mobile app that will show customers exactly where its vehicles are and when they’ll arrive. 

As for the trolleys, another major factor in on-time performance is to keep them from breaking down so often. 

“We want our miles, or our hours, between breakdowns to be, and I’m not exaggerating here, at least 20 times better than what it is now,” Garrison says. “I know if we don’t do that, that’ll be the first thing on people’s minds.”

Garrison says maintenance and safety processes will also be tightened up, adding that a job posting for a dedicated trolley safety manager is forthcoming. 

When the trolleys first come back, it won’t be with the city’s whole fleet of 17. Seven cars — the bigger ones made in Australia — will be the first to roll down Main. “You can get more folks on them,” Garrison says. The rest of the cars and routes will be added later, he says.

The price tag for the trolley fix has been cited at between $6 million and $36 million, a huge gap. The estimates were done before Garrison was hired. He says the higher figure probably includes some new equipment and facility upgrades. 

The figure definitely includes new trolley cars, and they’re not cheap. Vintage trolley cars can cost as much as $1.3 million each and MATA would have to buy 17 of them to replace what it has now.  

Does MATA need new trolleys? Garrison says it’s a possibility and “one of the first things I looked into.” But he says buying new trolleys would require a “community conversation” that could include considering a switch to the kinds of modern streetcars running in other parts of the country. But Garrison is quick to show that he understands why the old trolleys are important.

“The historic trolleys are more open-air; they’re nostalgic,” he says. “They have a certain sound that is romantic and takes people back to another time. I know many people come just to see the trolleys.”

With any luck, they’ll be able to see them again in the near future.

Trolley Stopped

South Main business owners not happy about lack of trolleys.

With the trolleys having been gone a full six months, many South Main business owners says they are seeing their sales decline, mainly due to a lack of tourists. 

“For the past four years that I’ve owned a business on South Main, tourists from all over the world would ride the River Loop Trolley, not even knowing that our district was down here,” says Anna Avant, owner of Hoot + Louise. 

“They would see the district and stop and shop and eat and look around, because the trolleys introduced them to our neighborhood. You just see less traffic down here now, and I can tell you that not one person has gotten off one of those green buses and come into my store.”

Lisa Brumleve, manager of business recruitment and retention at the Downtown Memphis Commission says the lack of trolleys has caused a drop in sales for some South Main businesses. “A few of the retailers in South Main have received grants from the Downtown Memphis Commission, so, they have to send me — twice a year — financial statements, and we’re looking at about 20 percent down [from one year to the next],” Brumleve says.

Not only are business owners upset about the lack of tourists in the area, store owners like Avant worry that the longer the trolleys are away, the less of an issue it will be to the entire city.

MATA has held various meetings to inform the public on the status of the streetcars. Even after the American Public Transportation Association report was released stating that MATA had failed to properly maintain the trolleys, business owners were hopeful that one or two trolleys could still serve the South Main District.

“There was a town meeting that MATA held when they first shut down the trolleys, and most business owners said they felt good leaving the meeting that one or two trolleys might soon be back,” Avant says. “I didn’t know that the trolleys weren’t coming back this year until I read an article last week. I have not personally heard from anyone at MATA, and I don’t expect them to keep in contact with me because I expect them to be working on the trolleys. But it seems like the more time goes by, the more likely it is that people will forget about the trolleys. But I can tell you that no one down here [on South Main] is forgetting.” 

While there are many businesses on South Main that don’t rely on tourists, the exposure the trolleys created helped business. Sarah Worden, owner of the jewelry store Charlotte Ehinger-Schwarz, says the area is more dependent on the trolleys than people might realize.

“My business has been here for 11 years, and my customers have been keeping my business alive during that time, but no one wants to just survive,” Worden says. “Having those tourists come in creates more exposure, and it’s that little extra business that helps you get ahead. As a business owner you can’t ever rely on one segment like tourism, but it sure helps when it’s there. I don’t know that if I have a down year I could blame it exclusively on the trolleys, but I know that because they are gone that this will probably not be a growth year for my business.”

South Main Association President Brian Douglas says he’s confident that the neighborhood will continue to grow, citing three businesses that have opened since the trolleys stopped running in April. But Douglas admits that the trolleys were a good way to show off South Main.

“The trolley is iconic in the way that it draws people to this area — something that we just aren’t seeing with those green buses,” Douglas says. “Before the city started construction on the Chisca Hotel, people would get to that area and not want to go any farther. If they hopped on the trolley, they didn’t really have a choice, and once they got to South Main they realized that this area had a lot going on. 

“Obviously we all want the trolleys back yesterday, and I think MATA does, as well, because that’s more revenue that they could be generating,” Douglas says. “Now that we know what went wrong, all we can do is hope to get it right this time. No one wants them to rush the trolleys back into service only to have another fire or something that causes the trolleys to stop altogether because people are afraid to get on them.”

Still, South Main business owners feel an integral part of their neighborhood is missing. 

“Would I want to leave this area if the trolleys don’t come back? Of course not. I love South Main and downtown, but if they don’t come back, it’s very possible that I would leave this area,” Avant says.

“We are getting into what is normally our busiest time of the year, and it’s just disappointing. We have staples down here that make the neighborhood what it is. There is the Arcade, the Civil Rights Museum, and Ernestine and Hazels — and the trolleys were what tied all of those things together.”

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

The National Civil Rights Museum Brings “Black Angels Over Tuskegee” to The Orpheum

Screen_Shot_2014-08-29_at_7.39.10_AM.png

The National Civil Rights Museum is bringing Layon Gray’s play Black Angels Over Tuskegee to The Orpheum Tuesday, September 16. Black Angels tells the story of WWII heroes, the Tuskegee Airmen, and their contributions, sacrifices, and struggles against prejudice.

Details, here.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Q&A with New National Civil Rights Museum President

When long-time National Civil Rights Museum President Beverly Robertson ends her 16-year tenure this fall, she’s leaving big shoes to fill. But after a seven-month search, the museum’s board has selected the woman they believe can meet that challenge.

Her name is Terri Lee Freeman, and she’s spent the past 18 years running the Washington, D.C.-based Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, a public foundation serving the District of Columbia metro area.

Freeman focused her time at the Community Foundation on helping to provide economic stability for the region’s residents. She started a successful September 11th fund for victims of the attack on the Pentagon, and she led a series studying the impact of race on education.

She paid her first visit to the National Civil Rights Museum shortly after the grand reopening following the $27.5 million renovation.

“I come from a town where there are a lot of museums. I’ve never had the experience of being physically moved by a museum like I was the first time I came here,” Freeman said. — Bianca Phillips

Flyer: How did your role at the Community Foundation prepare you for this?

Freeman: Part of what I did at the Community Foundation was to create an agenda around issues of economic security for folks in the metropolitan Washington region. I’m not fully aware of the stats around Memphis’ community yet. But I have a feeling that they aren’t that different from what we see in metropolitan Washington, where we have a bit of a gap between those who have and those who don’t.

The current-day civil rights issues stem around education, economic justice, and voting rights. We want to use this beautiful asset of a museum to elevate that conversation. Part of what I did while I was at the Community Foundation was to raise a dialogue on issues related to economic injustices and racial injustices.

At the Community Foundation, you led a series called “Putting Race on the Table.” Can you tell me about it?

We looked at issues affecting the achievement gap in metropolitan Washington. We knew the achievement issues were falling on race and ethnicity. Those brown and black kids were not doing well, whereas the white kids and the Asian kids were. We wanted to find out what was going on, and we wanted to talk about it from a national perspective and bring it down to a local level. It lead to us creating a council that looks at education from preschool all the way through college.

And you also started a September 11th fund?

We worked in collaboration with a private foundation to establish a survivor’s fund at the Community Foundation. We were able to put some monies in trusts for educational purposes for some of the youngest survivors whose parents perished in the incident. We ended up distributing between $25 million or $26 million to hundreds of individuals, from those who were in the Pentagon or those who were related to people who were on the plane, to those who were first responders and those who worked for the airline.

What are your initial goals for the museum?

My immediate goals are to meet the team and get to know who they are and what they do, to get to know the board and hear about their priorities for the organization, and to get to know the community. I have been in one place for more than 30 years. I have to learn a whole new place to call home. If I came here and said, I have a 10-point strategy of what I want to do, you should be wondering what’s going on.

What role does the Civil Rights Museum play in current-day civil rights struggles for LGBT equality and immigrant rights?

I was really happy to see those pieces incorporated into the museum’s [redesign]. Civil rights are civil rights, and while it was racial in the time the museum’s history covers, the gender, culture, and sexual orientation issues that have cropped up are really important, and they are teaching moments. Ultimately, as you look at civil and human rights, which is what the museum is all about, it’s the human-ness that we are trying to convey. I think for young people now, however it comes to them, the connection between what that movement did in the ’50s and ’60s and how people can mobilize and organize and be proactive in protecting their rights is important.

Categories
Book Features Books

Bucket List, Memphis Style

Graceland? Been there, done that, you say. Beale Street? Ditto.

But how about Graceland on the cheap? If you’re budget-minded, Samantha Crespo knows how to do it. Beale not by night but by day? Crespo says try it, whether you’re a tourist in town or a Memphian born and bred. Crespo has plenty of other ideas as well, and besides Graceland and Beale Street, check out the 98 additional entries in her bucket list of all things Bluff City: 100 Things To Do in Memphis Before You Die (Reedy Press).

Some of those sights to see — Sun and Stax, the Brooks and the Dixon, Overton Square and Overton Park — are no-brainers, but Crespo gives them a fresh spin. Some, however, may come as a surprise. Crespo recommends the “sonic massage” at the Memphis Drum Shop on South Cooper. Or the book club and speaker series at Elmwood Cemetery. Or an impromptu visit with the ranger at Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park. Or a hands-on tour of the St. Blues Guitar Workshop on Marshall. Or, see what’s in season and there for the picking at Jones Orchard in Millington.

Crespo’s also had some fresh ideas when it comes to promoting her book. Her signing at Burke’s earlier this month may have taken the traditional route, but she’s also had a recent reading at the Center for Southern Folklore and set up shop at the Cooper-Young and Botanic Garden farmers markets. On Saturday, June 21st, at 1 p.m., she’ll be at South Main Book Juggler (548 S. Main) as part of the store’s “After-Market” series of guest authors.

That series is timed to follow the weekly Downtown Farmers Market, and Crespo has timed her book to appear during the summer tourist season, tourism being Crespo’s specialty. She’s a former managing editor for a tourism publishing firm in her home state of Florida. She’s written for the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau. She’s been a blogger for the federal government’s “Discover America” tourist program. And she’s written for Tennessee’s Department of Tourist Development, with a focus on Memphis and West

Tennessee.

Crespo, who moved to Memphis four years ago when her husband took a job at Medtronic, wrote Things To Do in Memphis Before You Die with local readers, in addition to out-of-towners, in mind.

“That’s the true test for this book,” Crespo said by phone. “For Memphians to pick it up and say to themselves, ‘You know, I’ve always wanted to do that.’ So, I want people to understand that I very much wrote the book for locals. Yes, it’s a travel guide and I didn’t want to ignore the obvious, but I wanted to dig a little deeper. People who simply read the book jacket … they may think, I’ve done that. Or, I’ve lived here my entire life. I don’t need to do that. But the book is a celebration of the city and especially its creativity.”

Crespo doesn’t want any excuses. She talked to one Memphian who had never heard of the Four Way restaurant, another who had never been to the National Civil Rights Museum, and another confused by the location of Stax. You too? Doesn’t mean you’re a lesser person, Crespo, whose enthusiasm for the city is downright infectious, said. Just means you’re busy, she understands, and maybe you just need to break out of your routine. You have a bored child on your hands this summer? Take it from Crespo: “I’m going to have my own son open my book, and whatever he turns to, that’s what we’re going to do.”

It could very well be a visit to Overton Park. Crespo said it’s her number-one place in town to pass the time, and it’s not far from her Midtown home:

“When my husband and I moved to Memphis, we had one weekend to find a house. And when we saw Overton Park, we fell in love with it. We chose our house to be near Overton Park. It’s why the park gets five of the 100 things to do in Memphis — so many ways to enjoy it, whatever your budget, your age, or your interests.”

And whatever you do, don’t sell Memphis short on things to do. Crespo doesn’t. She’s got a running list already in mind for a future edition of Things To Do in Memphis Before You Die. Last count, she said, that list was up to 70.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fresh Look at History

CREDIT: Alexandra Pusateri

Alexandra Pusateri

The Civil Rights Museum’s renovated lobby

On April 5th, after more than a year of renovations, the National Civil Rights Museum will open the Lorraine Motel doors to the public once more.

The motel section of the museum has been closed, but the exhibits across the street, through the tunnel of the Legacy Building, have remained open for self-guided tours.

Major additions to the Lorraine Motel section include upgrades and expansions to existing exhibits, and utilizing as much of the space of the motel’s structure as possible, according to Tracy Lauritzen Wright, director of administration and special projects.

“We’ve tried to maintain the basic architecture of the motel — some of our beams, along with the carpet, outline where the original rooms were positioned — so you can tell each of these spaces was originally [the] motel,” she said.

The previous museum exhibit about the slave trade has been expanded to incorporate more visuals and include more information, with expansion work done by 1220 Exhibits, Inc. of Nashville. One addition is that visitors can now see and experience the cramped space of the ships that once transported slaves from Africa.

Alexandra Pusateri

exhibit

Lauritzen Wright said by expanding the slavery exhibit, a more complete foundation can be laid for visitors to understand the civil rights movement.

“You can understand the late 19th century and early 20th century better if you understand the legal progress that embedded slavery into the nation’s laws and economy,” she said. “We wanted to do a better job of interpreting the words of the movement, which begin the moment people are taken from their families and homes, never to be returned.”

Inside the new Brown v. Board of Education exhibit, a courtroom setting provides seating for visitors to watch a short documentary about the decision. Across the room, a touchscreen hangs on the wall across from a few old-fashioned school desks. The touchscreen explores how desegregation unfolded in the United States.

The museum has updated various areas with multimedia stations, either in theater-like settings, such as the Brown v. Board of Education exhibit, or in the space itself, as with a documentary playing against the side of a 1960s sanitation truck in the Memphis sanitation workers exhibit. Previously, the sanitation truck could be seen from a balcony, but the updated display lets visitors closer to the vehicle.

According to Lauritzen Wright, making the museum more immersive was important. “Here, we’re walking on the street. We’re walking alongside the sanitation workers. We’re a part of it,” she said.

On April 4th, the day before its reopening, the National Civil Rights Museum will hold a candlelight vigil in the courtyard for the 46th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

The NBA’s MLK Game: A Day for Tolerance

I’m blessed to have good friends in every time zone across the United States. On occasion, one of these friends will make an overdue pilgrimage to see what Memphis has to offer besides a big river and Jungle Room. And I’m always sure to take them to the National Civil Rights Museum. The catch, of course, is that the NCRM teaches lessons that transcend a single city, region, or even country. It’s a powerful experience, one that too often leaves my guests in tears as we pass Room 306 of the former Lorraine Motel. They’re all sad for what they know happened on that balcony. And some, it should be said, are mad. At Memphis.

Memphis, Tennessee, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will forever be linked by the horror of April 4, 1968. When James Earl Ray fired the bullet that killed the personification of America’s civil rights movement, a wound was opened in Memphis larger than the one that ended the life of an American hero. A city long strained by racial tension suddenly became, with one man’s murder, a crucible, one that represented a violent divide within a country built on the idea — no, the dream — that “all men are created equal.” Dr. King died in a pool of his own blood. And that blood was spilled in Memphis.

Deep breath now. And pause long enough to consider this connection. Dr. King called Atlanta home. And James Earl Ray was a common drifter, an openly racist hooligan arrested for crimes in California, Missouri, and his native Illinois before he managed to track down his famous target at the Lorraine Motel. Ray was less a Memphian than the thousands of Graceland pilgrims who spend a week in the Bluff City reflecting on the life of another icon who died here. Martin Luther King and Memphis will always be connected. But to blame Memphis for King’s murder — to somehow hold the city or region responsible — is to stretch the connection beyond its breaking point.

Monday at FedExForum, the Memphis connection to Dr. King will be celebrated once again by the city’s NBA franchise, as the Grizzlies host the New Orleans Pelicans in a nationally televised late-afternoon game. As part of the celebration, two basketball giants — Bernard King and JoJo White — will be saluted with the National Civil Rights Sports Legacy Award. This is the sporting event I’ve come to take the most pride in as a Memphian. Basketball played at its highest level, but with thoughts and memories of those who have sacrificed to help the world become a more tolerant place to live. A world where the color of a person’s skin is incidental to the value he or she brings a community, let alone a basketball team.

Consider members of the home team who will take the floor against New Orleans, their primary objective keeping playoff hopes alive in a city still wanting to believe. You’ll see two guards from Indianapolis (Mike Conley and Courtney Lee) and a center from Barcelona (Marc Gasol). You’ll see another native of the Hoosier State (Zach Randolph) share the floor with a sharpshooter from South Dakota (Mike Miller). Off the bench will come players from Minnesota (Jon Leuer) and Washington D.C. (Ed Davis). Black and white will mean very little. It will be a day for the country to get more familiar with Beale Street Blue.

The Civil Rights Game — an exhibition between major-league baseball teams first played in 2007 at AutoZone Park — moved on after two years in Memphis, taken over by Major League Baseball. But the annual MLK Day game at FedExForum is here to stay. Look at the list of Sports Legacy Award winners over the last decade and it reads like a wing of the Basketball Hall of Fame: Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Julius Erving, Willis Reed, and George Gervin to name six. Throw in Jim Brown and Willie Mays and you could put together a Mount Rushmore of American sports legends, all attached to the civil rights movement. And now all attached to Memphis.

Dr. King spoke of a mountaintop during the last speech of his life, at Mason Temple, on April 3, 1968. It’s hard to measure when or if any of us have reached the level of human tolerance King envisioned. Beyond question, though, it’s worth the climb.

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Opinion

International Paper + Shelby Forest = A Match

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What’s a big corporation worth to Memphis?

International Paper is the least known of the three Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Memphis.

This is partly because IP is a relative newcomer (1986) that was founded somewhere else (Manhattan) and partly because IP chooses to keep a relatively low profile. FedEx is FedEx Forum and founder Fred Smith, AutoZone is AutoZone Park and founder Pitt Hyde, IP is some nice office buildings on Poplar Avenue and CEO John Faraci.

IP is in the news this week for seeking tax breaks to expand its local headquarters and prevent it from moving to Mississippi — a doubtful proposition at a glance, but who knows? Let the threats, the outrage at corporate welfare, the economic impact studies, and the cost-benefit analysis begin.

One thing IP should do is “adopt” Meeman Shelby Forest State Park or Overton Park or both of them. This should have been done a long time ago but it’s not too late. By adopt, I don’t mean ask for naming rights or permission to clear cut or manage a swath of forest. I mean become a corporate angel, and associate its name and give-back with a good cause and a place that could use some funds. This would benefit the company and the community.

Earlier this year I interviewed Faraci for a story in one of our sister publications, MBQ magazine. He was quick to accept the invitation, accomodating, and candid with his answers. One thing I asked him was to name his and IP’s signature local cause. He said the National Civil Rights Museum. That puzzled me. I don’t know the extent of IP’s support, but IP, unlike Hyde and AutoZone, had nothing to do with the founding of the museum and is one of dozens of partners that include individuals, celebrities, corporations, Major League Baseball, and the NBA. I sometimes wonder who is helping whom. In any case, IP is lost in the crowd and brings no special expertise or story to the table.

What IP knows is trees and forest management. At the end of our interview, Faraci, who joined IP in 1974, gave me a nice coffee-table book called “A Permanent Island: The Conservation Legacy of International Paper.” It is full of lovely color pictures of 27 of the forest holdings IP sold to various conservators, including Cumberland Forest and Dry Branch in Tennessee.

I suggested to an IP spokesman that the company do something with Meeman Shelby Forest, and he in turn suggested I write a letter to Faraci, which I did. That was the end of that, which was fine. Access and straight answers pretty much cover a CEO’s obligations to the local media. But with IP in the news now, seeking a handout in the eyes of many people, I’ll float the idea again.

Public parks need private dollars, as Overton Park and Shelby Farms have shown. To my eye, Overton Park is in pretty good hands with the Overton Park Conservancy. I’m sure it would welcome more partners, but Meeman Shelby Forest seems to me a better match for IP. Named for Memphis newspaperman and conservationist Edward Meeman, the park’s 13,467 acres in northwest Shelby County include bottomland hardwood forests, two lakes, trails and roads, ball fields, a boat ramp, disc golf, cabins, and a swimming pool. Some of it is public hunting grounds. One winter, I could have survived on the ducks, deer, and squirrels my son killed up there. The park is also a favorite destination of cyclists and a future link to the Harahan Bridge bike and pedestrian crossing and potential Mississippi River bike trail.

Calling out corporations and wealthy individuals on their community involvement and philanthropy can be crass and it’s tricky. Frauds and egomaniacs like Allen Stanford can throw other people’s money around and make a big splash with sponsorships and donations that don’t last while anonymous benefactors give away millions. FedEx, the Smiths, AutoZone and the Hydes get the balance of corporate marketing and personal modesty right and set the bar high. So do others, but to try to name them would be to leave someone out or overstate someone’s influence.

IP, however, has now asked for greater scrutiny. It’s just business. Everything is part of the picture, from the reported 2,300 employees to the capital investments to the requested 30-year tax break on new construction, to as-yet unspecified competing offers in other states to Faraci’s $12,935,541 compensation. IP is not the company that moved its operations (but not its corporate headquarters) to Memphis 26 years ago when mayors Dick Hackett and Bill Morris courted IP and CEO (later U.S. Treasury Secretary) Paul O’Neill. It has sold forest holdings, acquired competitors, adjusted to businesses that don’t use as much paper, and on any given day is probably more interested in what goes on in the hinterlands of India and Russia than Memphis.

But let’s assume its corporate leadership is as community-spirited as the next person, that employees’ families have been raised in Greater Memphis, ties have been established, and that Tennessee with no personal state income tax offers some advantages over Mississippi, financial and otherwise. IP could improve its image and its community ties with a signature pet project. Meeman Shelby Forest would be a match.

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News The Fly-By

Portrait of a Movement

There are likely hundreds of old photographs from the civil rights era gathering dust in Memphis attics, but the National Civil Rights Museum is asking residents to dig out those pictures for an upcoming exhibit.

“Portrait of a Movement: Building a Museum,” part two of a three-part 20th-anniversary exhibition series, will feature artifacts from the Lorraine Motel in the days before the fatal shooting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The exhibit will also display posters, documents, and memorabilia from the civil rights era. The exhibit opens June 15th and runs through August 14th.

“We want to provide people a chance to look back while we encourage them to look forward,” said Barbara Andrews, director of education and interpretation at the National Civil Rights Museum.

So far, Andrews said the museum has received photos of individuals at the Lorraine Motel, old receipt books, menu cards from its cafe, and documents of its history and purchase. They’re still seeking donations and encourage people to contribute anything they think may benefit the exhibit.

Marty Spence, the daughter of Memphis Press-Scimitar reporter John W. Spence, donated a poster created to promote King’s Poor People’s Campaign of 1968.

Spence’s father worked with King for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1968 and marched during the sanitation workers’ strike.

The black-and-white poster features pictures of people of different races surrounding an image of King. “Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” a prominent organization involved with the civil rights movement, is printed on the bottom of the poster.

“They want the museum to be known for the civil rights movement and not just known as the place of Dr. King’s death,” Spence said. “I hope the exhibit will help the museum continue to grow and be a great symbol for people.”

The “Connecting People and History” series launched in January with the exhibit “Fine Art from the Collection,” which featured vintage artwork from the museum’s archive.

The National Civil Rights Museum is currently raising money for planned renovations to make the museum more user-friendly.

Andrews said images of the proposed upgrades will also be presented during the exhibit. The museum currently has a $40 million capital campaign, of which approximately $26 million will go toward the renovation and the remainder toward an endowment campaign.

Andrews encourages the community to visit the upcoming “Portrait of a Movement” exhibit to learn more about King’s fight for equal rights.

Said Andrews: “[This exhibit offers] an opportunity for us to celebrate the birth of this organization and the accomplishments we have made, not just for the sake of the museum but for our community and around the world.”

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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.