#MLKDay: White Terror and Black Triumph

Below is the text of a speech I gave at the 47^th Annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition that celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Also honored that day were the “Memphis 13”; African Americans who integrated the public school system in Memphis.

by Rev. Earle Fisher

To President Kyles and Pastor Kyles; to all of our dignitaries, elected officials, civil service workers, and citizens of this great city….

If someone were to say we are living in peculiar or perilous times that would be a gross understatement.  Interestingly, our times are not only peculiar and perilous but also rather paradoxical.  We gather today to celebrate the life, love and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  And while we gather, tragically, many if not most of us (even our politicians and civic leaders) remain committed to concepts, principles, and policies that Dr. King gave his life fighting against.  Almost 50 years after King’s untimely assassination, in spite of his dreams of equality, justice, and liberation for black people we have those who evoke King’s name, soundbite his speeches and sermons, and attend or even host functions in his honor all the while posturing and promoting economic exploitation, racial discrimination and educational gentrification.

50 years after King’s transition from labor to reward, in a city 65% black, our city’s leadership is being white-washed in the name of diversity, while black citizens continue to encounter corporate and social taxation without any adequate political and communal representation – that’s economic exploitation.

50 years after King was crucified on a balcony on Mulberry, laws that target people of color, making it a continual crime to be black in public, are still on the books.  Meanwhile black kids like Darrius Stewart are killed with impunity; one in three black people are in danger of being victimized by a criminal injustice system, while body cams are being delayed in perpetuity and black folks are told to hold their breath until justice flies in on the wings of inevitability.  Simultaneously white boys can avoid jail time by pleading affluenza – that’s racial discrimination.

50 years after Dr. King had the breath zapped from his lungs and along with it the brilliance from his brain, a brain cultivated in the compassionate confines of public institutions of primary and higher education, we have a undeclared war on public and neighborhood schools, an unpaid debt to our children, and people lining the pockets of special interest groups while rich kids are being taught but poor kids keep getting tested – that’s educational gentrification.

The irony regarding this psychic and physical terror is that in spite of its vitriol and seemingly insurmountable oppression, courageous and compassionate black folks have continuously stood up against the rising tide of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia and other social ills.  Sometimes it has been young children who have answered that call of black liberation and pressed pass angry mobs in order to access the hope and promise of brighter futures. I want to stand today an honor some of these courageous souls.  I stopped by to lift up the life, love and legacy of some living legends amongst us. I want to applaud and appreciate the Memphis 13 – 13 young children who broke through the mold of white terror and achieved black triumph.  These beautiful people battled unexplainable conditions in order to attain access to an education that they rightfully deserved and many of them still bear the scars, wounds, and trauma of the terror they had to endure.  The Memphis 13 deserves our continued gratitude, unyielding support, and unwavering commitment to the principles they promoted – they deserve it even if they don’t demand it themselves.  I want to suggest that it time for us to affirm them more fully and more publically.

Too often, as I drive through the city, I continue to see signs and symbols of white terror.  Gratefully, there are efforts underway to offset this.  A few weeks ago I gathered as part of an ecumenical and interfaith vigil downtown near a sign that suggests Nathan Bedford Forrest “came to Memphis where his business enterprises made him wealthy.”  As David Water has noted, the sign fails to cite that his business was trading, selling, and exploiting black bodies for profit (a practice that continues today).  So this group, in concert with Facing History and Ourselves, as well as other groups and efforts to reclaim a commitment to truth, asked that the sign be changed so that black truth and triumph can offset the historical white terrorism.  We’ve also asked that markers be erected that honor the individuals who were victims of lynchings in this city.  These would serve as symbols of black truth in a city wrought with symbols of white terror.

Not long after that vigil, the Memphis Grassroots Organizations Coalition and our supporters gathered downtown at a statue that has sent the city council into a stalemate, a statue that honors white terror; we gathered there to honor the life of Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Mike Brown, Freddy Gray, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, LaQuan McDonald, Darrius Stewart, and all of the other black and brown people whose families are still longing for justice.  We prayed, cried, and cussed while asking for the strength to continue proclaiming #BlackLivesMatter (because some of our leaders still don’t seem to get that).  We were clear that we needed proclamations, signs, and symbols to offset and disrupt the perpetual white terror amongst us.

I want to suggest, today, that instead of simply making Dr. King a prop, a talking point, or a poster child of political erasure that we actually honor and live into his prophetic mandate of justice, truth, and love.  That’s why I want to call on all citizens of Shelby County, all elected officials, and all members of historical commissions to erect a monument (or monuments) that honor the life, love, and legacy of the Memphis 13.  It is loving, just, and truthful to do so.  We should not have to wait until they all die to give them their flowers.  We owe them this much.  We need to honor the black triumph that they gave us and continue to give us.

In the ancient African tradition we honor our elders and ancestors by calling their name.  Therefore, in the spirit of gratitude I want to conclude by calling the names of the Memphis 13:

Thank you —

1. Dawania Kyles
2. Alvin Freeman
3. Pamela Mayes Evans
4. Menelik Fombi (Michael Willis)
5. Clarence Williams
6. Harry Williams
7. Shelia Malone Conway
8. Sharon Malone
9.  Deborah Ann Holt
10.  Jacqueline Moore
11.  Leandrew Wiggins
12.  Joyce Ann Bell
13. E. C. Freeman Fentress (deceased)

Earle Fisher is a R3 Contributor

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