Tag: rainbow crosswalk

Memphis City Beautiful commissioner and founder of the Rainbow Crosswalk Project Jerred Price announced that the remaining three sides of the rainbow crosswalk of the Cooper and Young intersection will be installed on Saturday, October 8th, and Sunday, October 9th.

In May 2022 Flyer writer Toby Sells wrote that this project was initially approved in 2019, when Price made a change.org petition to paint one side of the crosswalk. The project was painted in November of 2019. According to Price, Memphis is the first city in Tennessee to adopt a project like this. 

“In 2019, I thought, ‘Why doesn’t Memphis have anything that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community that we have, especially in the Cooper-Young neighborhood?’” says Price.

According to Price, the Cooper-Young neighborhood has one of the highest concentrations of “same-sex identifying households in the southeast United States.”

“With a community like that, and its diversity, support, inclusion, and equality, I thought it would be nice to have something that showcases that, and lets people know that we embrace that.”

Price says that he partnered with the Cooper-Young Community Association, who offered “overwhelming support for the project,” to bring this idea to Memphis City Council. Price also states that this was the first project to be heard by the new Public Art Oversight Committee.

Price believes that this project will showcase Memphis as a “safe haven for diversity.”

“People see that and they’re like, ‘Okay, Memphis is really leading the way here in the state because we made state history by installing that crosswalk,’” Price says. “The city has always been at the forefront of equality and standing for equality and equal rights, so I felt like Memphis needed to lead the way again, in showing the state and the LGBTQ+ population of our state and city that we do support diversity, we do support inclusion, we do support equal rights. The crosswalk, I think, when people see it, it gives them a sense of inclusion, that their city welcomes and supports inclusion and diversity.”

Once the project is completed on Sunday, there will be an outdoor drag show and installation ceremony at 3 p.m.

“What we’ve created is going to be celebrated, and we want everyone from every community there. It’ll be a fun, family-friendly show, and it’ll be a celebration of the intersection, becoming a four-way rainbow crosswalk,” says Price.

Price says that he is currently in conversation with “local CDCs in Whitehaven to make an artistic crosswalk in Whitehaven.” In partnership with Commissioner Britney Thornton, Price founded an organization called “Crosswalks For A Cause,” where they share the vision of having an “artistic crosswalk,” in each community around Memphis. Price says they intend to put plaques up by these crosswalks to teach people about the history of those communities.

“After we have a network of crosswalks throughout Memphis, we want to create an online or self-guided tour that will lure people away from the known attractions in Memphis, like Beale Street and Graceland,” Price says. “We want people to learn more about the communities that make up Memphis.”