Thursday, April 10, 2008
Past and Present
Forty and counting: the dubious merits of being America's civil rights city.
Posted by John Branston on Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 4:00 AM
At a University of Memphis forum last week commemorating the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, a young man in the audience asked the panelists if Memphis was forever stuck in 1968.
The question was bundled with several others and didn't get answered very well, which was too bad because it was a good question, maybe the best of the day.
The 40th anniversary, of course, follows the 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, and 35th King anniversaries along with — since 1986 — the annual federal Martin Luther King holiday (January 21st this year), the local ceremonies marking King's birthday on January 15th, the NBA's sixth annual civil rights game, and the second annual Major League Baseball civil rights game — all within the space of 80 days. In the fall, the National Civil Rights Museum hosts the annual NAACP Freedom Awards.
How many times can a city review a man's life and rededicate itself to his ideals before inviting apathy, hucksterism, and self-indulgence instead of activism? Memphis has become America's racial guilt trip and America's civil rights city. Less would be more. Share the guilt. Atlanta, Detroit, and New York don't have racial histories?
Parachuting into Memphis last week were Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, NBC news anchor Brian Williams, New York Times columnist David Brooks, broadcaster and author Tavis Smiley, former Memphis Invaders, Bishop Charles E. Blake, and several others who knew King, marched with King, wrote books about King, or had something to say about King and 1968. It was, in its own way, a lineup to rival the roster of performers at the Beale Street Music Festival or the throng of sports reporters, ex-jocks, and coaches at the Final Four.
At a personal level, it's impossible to say how many lives are positively influenced and changed by the Martin Luther King Jr. revivals. The big picture doesn't look good. For all the talk of transformations and rededications, Memphis still moves backward.
The basic measurement of citizenship — voting in Memphis municipal elections — has declined dramatically since 1968, with the exception of the 65 percent turnout in the landmark 1991 election when Willie Herenton defeated Dick Hackett. From 1971 to 1983, voter turnout ranged from 50 percent to 57 percent. From 1995 to 2007, it ranged from 17 percent to 38 percent. The single-digit turnout in local special elections, virtually unheard of until 1995, has become commonplace, with 12 of them since 2005.
Nine out of 10 black students in city schools attend all-black schools, just as they did in 1968, four years before massive court-ordered busing.
The Memphis metropolitan area has the highest violent-crime rate in the country: 1,263 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. Memphis has the highest infant-mortality rate in the country: 14 deaths per 1,000 live births. Memphis is in the top 10 for bankruptcy, poverty, and sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers. The population is growing slightly due to annexation, but greater Memphis has fallen behind greater Nashville.
The event where the young man asked the "stuck-in-1968" question was, by turns, informative, boring, and weird. There is a wallop to hearing someone recollect something in person that you don't get from the printed page or a video documentary. Former Commercial Appeal editor Angus McEachran told about being Metro editor in 1968 and sending reporter Tom Fox to the hospital where King was taken. Fox conveniently had a "heart attack" that gave him an extra 15 minutes near King and a scoop. Although I used to work with Fox, I had never heard the story.
There was power and fire, too, in the words of former Memphis Invader Charles Cabbage, telling tales "for the 1,000th time," former Memphis policeman Ed Redditt, and labor leader Jessie Epps. The consensus of the panel, McEachran excepted, seemed to be that James Earl Ray, a convict from East St. Louis, didn't do it. Cabbage said the United States government should be indicted for the murder of King. Kevin Kane, head of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, gave plaques to Cabbage and the other former Invaders and lauded them as "heroes."
As University of Memphis student body president Gionni Carr noted, the crowd was small, probably under 50, and included very few students. Basketball fever? Apathy? Who knows? You certainly couldn't blame the student newspaper, The Daily Helmsman, which was a model of perspective. Above the front-page fold was a story on radical activist and King anniversary speaker Angela Davis. Below the fold was an exclusive, hard-edged story by reporters Casey Hilder and Jessamyn Bradley about the University of Memphis having the lowest graduation rate of any college in the Final Four and in the state of Tennessee.
"We learned some interesting stuff as we looked into Angela Davis, a lot of things we didn't know," said managing editor Travis Griggs. "I think it's good to re-address this and get people thinking about these issues, regardless of how you feel about her."
Circuit Court judge D'Army Bailey, an activist in his college days 40 years ago, participated in a panel with "Green for All" founder Van Jones and others.
"The anniversary is still a unique opportunity for the city to converse with the world on the issue of human rights," Bailey said. "The events can be meaningful if they provide the impetus to be creative and dedicated in tackling the issues of poverty, violence, alienation, and indifference on the part of the establishment to the raw and aching concerns of the inner city."
Bailey said there is a danger that resolve will fade when the celebrations end. "I don't want to sound the cynic," he said, "but the trench work required is done away from the glare of the media."
One of the most important choices Memphis will make this year is the new superintendent of Memphis City Schools and its 115,000 students. A panel of the National Action Network 2008 national convention here last week included several big-city mayors and superintendents, including the dynamic team of Washington, D.C.: Mayor Adrian Fenty and schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, each 38 years old.
"Education is the civil rights issue," said Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City school system. "We've got to get it right in education or all these other issues will not be straightened out."
About 40 people attended the panel. Memphians stayed away in droves.
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John: Of COURSE Memphis is stuck in 1968, and ALL of us bear some responsibility for that. HOWEVER, the only way we're going to get "unstuck" is for local media to cover local events, particularly as they relate to the legacy of MLK. The 3rd Annual Candle on the Bluff Awards: Up From Here program was held on April 4th at Hope Presbyterian Church. It started at the exact hour that MLK was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital in 1968. The event professionally-produced. It featured the Morehouse College Jazz Ensemble (Morehouse is Dr. King's Alma Mater), the University of Memphis Southern Comfort Jazz Orchestra, the Memphis Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Tanjela Mathis, a 13 year-old dance prodigy from STAX Soulsville Charter School. The event was "pitched" to local media (all forms) well in advance, but received minimal ink or air time, EXCEPT for radio station WCRV AM 640, which happens to be a conservative Christian radio station. In spite of media's ignoring the event, a bi-racial crowd upwards of 1500 people attended. The program was aired live on Comcast from 7 to 8:30 p.m. It was also free and open to all who wanted to attend. The theme of the show was unbelievably uplifting and forward-looking. Morehouse College, through its Memphis Alumni Association, honored 3 legendary Memphians for their contributions to Memphis as "candles on the Bluff": U.S. District Court Judge Bernice Donald, Attorney James Jalenak, and businessman David Boyd (himself a Morehouse graduate). Local media didn't cover the event real time... period. Local media DID cover the morbid, repetitive, backward looking, conscience-soothing, sponsorship-selling events sponsored by what could be termed, "civil rights carpet-baggers". It's time for Memphis media to wake up fully and become GOOD CORPORATE CITIZENS. And you ask if we're stuck... :-)
To stop being stuck in 1968 is to move on. Sure there are a lot of things that have happened in this country that was wrong, or that hurt others. But at some point, you just move on. Not forgetting, but not letting it consume you and others.
A better question would be, "is America still stuck in 1968?" For all Memphis' faults, this city has to deal with race in a real way that most cities don't have to do. People elsewhere in this state and country can simply ignore the subject if they choose. We can't, for good or bad.
Pastor, your comment about the carpetbaggers.... That made me chuckle, because as I watched the major TV network coverage last Friday, that was the exact term that came to mind. It sickened me how the anniversary was used as an opportunity for presidential candidates to come & stump for their campaigns and whip out the race card in an effort to score brownie points with minority voters. In Birmingham, we deal with the same phantoms of the Civil Rights era... and people seem to want to dwell and rehash the past negativity instead of embracing the changes and the forward strides that have been made. How can any of us ever move forward if a certain sector of the population, fueled by media sensationalism, keep the wheels non-productively spinning in the muck? To continually focus on the negative sort of contradicts the whole spirit of what the Civil Rights movement was all about. To borrow a bit from the movement's mantra, when shall we overcome - and embrace progress?
PD: I really believe local media (no matter the city) can and should be more proactive in shaping a city's character. Most media types will tell you that their job is simply to report the "news", and that they approach their jobs objectively. Riiiiiiggghht! Memphis and Birmingham in particular owe their modern existence to the civil rights movement. Were it not for the sacrifices of Dr. King and others of all races and genders, both cities would have gone up in smoke, literally. Please join me in demanding that local media become GOOD CORPORATE CITIZENS. The truth is that media people (like most of us) are lazy by nature. We're only creative and courageous when our lives (or livelihoods) depend on it :-)
some AMERICANS just do not want to here or see how horrible and painful their ancestors REALLY treated AFRICAN AMERICANS,they want 'What Happened In The Past Should Stay In The Past',NOT!
Barco, During the civil war there were many in the South who never owned a slave that was beaten, raped, their houses burned to the ground, and some were even killed. I'm not talking about the men that were fighting the war, I'm talking about women and children. All of this for the freedom of people who's own countrymen were selling them as slaves. This is why we fly the stars and bars of Dixie! So that these folks are never forgotten.
Barco, no one is saying that the past should be forgotten. Unfortunately, what happens is that the negativity is dwelled upon and played up so that all Southerners are categorically demonized with one broad swipe of a brush. We are portrayed as ignorant and racist... What good does it do? Is it a payback for the egregious wrongs that were done? To keep spinning the wheels in the past without embracing the future is an exercise in futility. Remember the past as a lesson; but by all means, don't keep one foot in it. I have taught my daughter about the Civil Rights movement. I taught her that Dr. King was not considered a hero back then. That baffled her. I explained to her that he was considered by man of the old generation to be a troublemaker. Just to illustrate how those times are gone... This generation only knows him to be the greatest humanist in recent history - and speak of him in a similar context as Ghandi, Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela. Don't forget the ghosts of the Old South, but at the same time, don't embrace them to the point where you totally miss Dr. King's message of unity, positivity, peace and progress. You can't move forward if you keep one foot behind you. Get the chip off your shoulder and move ahead with the rest of us to a New South - one that embraces the teachings of King.
Pastor, as a former member of the media, I can tell you that, as money-making ventures, the major thrust of the media is to sell advertising time or space - not to report news. Newspapers are not "as" guilty of this as broadcast media, however, they are guilty. I became quite disenchanted as a young journalist when I was not allowed to pursue leads of real news - as well as having stories edited and rewritten with more of a "hook" that totally misrepresented events by sensationalizing a small, innocuous fact. Our paper dealt with many angry city councilmen, mayors and other political figures as a result. One young, overzealous editor even rewrote quotes - a HUGE no-no. Everything I was taught about journalistic ethics and delivering the truth was thrown out the window when I began receiving a paycheck. My spirit was crushed to see how things really are. It wasn't about reporting the truth; it was all about selling papers. If the news is boring, people aren't going to read it - this is their theory. News outlets are often guilty of creating news. Notice on slow news nights how the headlines are sensationalized... and when you finally see or read the story, it's nothing like you thought. In the early 90's, the news media began competing with other sources of entertainment. That's when I began to see the disappointing shift. The media plays upon this voyeuristic society we now see with channels full of inane reality shows. It's all just one big reality show... Reality, only sensationalized and with key facts omitted. I was always sickened by the many true news stories that were backpaged or deep-sixed in order to juice things up. News should return to its journalistic roots and stop trying to entertain. Think about this point... you don't see many ugly female newscasters.... Barbara Walters excepted...
PD: Very well said. The media can change, and I believe they will when they catch up to Post 9/11 reality in our world. That was the day the "if it bleeds it leads" concept was forever corrupted by truth. Yes, the media can change. I think, though, that the only way to guarantee that change is for the every-day citizen, the common man/woman, the righteously indignant, and the innumerable poor people in our communties to DEMAND it. I am doubtful that will happen without effective leadership among the not-so-poor. Which leads to another question: Whatever happened to effective representation by elected officials?
Pastor, that's a great question you ask. Here in Alabama, we need an answer to that. We have a former governor - the best we ever had - who was wrongly convicted in a sham of a trial on charges contrived behind the scenes by Karl Rove. Former Governor Don Siegelman was just released on appeal; he appeared on 60 Minutes last week. The saga unfolds. Just before the 2004 election, I saw on Highway 78 at the Mississippi/Alabama line that state workers had removed Siegelman's name and put up a sign that said "Governor Bob Riley." I reported that to fellow Siegelman campaign workers. There was a Republican plot to tear Don down for quite some time. Stay tuned; there will be a huge blow-up in the national news over the Rove revelations. Corruption is rampant. Representation of the people to most politicians is not priority. Personal gain is. Evil prevails when good men and women do nothing. Someone has to be the first to speak up. The poor and disenfranchised feel they do not have a voice. When you have politicians who host $1,000 a plate political fundraisers, how can poor folks feel they matter? The only time these duds interact with plain folks is when it can benefit them & make them look good. Most are so out-of-touch with mainstream, hard-working citizens. We need STATESMEN - and less aloof, elitist politickers. It's an age-old problem that isn't just isolated in Memphis. We have it in Alabama. Right now, there are legislators being indicted left and right for double-dipping in our two-year college system. Money for nothing; calling it "consulting work." Getting paid, but never stepping foot inside the school or showing any proof of effort or results.
In the article, 'Is Memphis Stuck in 1968', the point is made quite well. The redundant worship of a religious leader (Martin Luther King) who is mere human, gets old. He was a great man, so let one day per year be sufficient acknowledgment. The Europeans came to this country and persevered in the sciences, arts, engineering, etc. and did not waste time dwelling on the past sufferings. The fact of the Blues genre and Beale Street are also illustrative of this point. The African Americans tend to do that and are the bulk are welfare dependent, such as New Orleans. Their demographics did rate highest (lately immigrants from Mexico) in crime statistics. There are many exceptions to greatness in the entertainment arena, yet this does not truly progress society in crucial areas. I find it ironic that we have such groups as BET, NAACP, ad infinitum, to promote this culture, and Affirmative Action does the same thing while violation our right of association.
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