Writing a new history for Memphis

One week from tomorrow, the world will mark the 40th anniversary of the day when civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 39. Many events are planned at the National Civil Rights Museum, which is housed in the former Lorraine Hotel, where King was shot. The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS will broadcast from the museum all next week as well.

But Memphis is looking forward even as it looks back. Spurred on by local newspaper columnist Wendi C. Thomas, bolstered by a dynamically diverse planning team, and using materials developed by Everyday Democracy, a wide array of Memphis residents are coming together to - as Commercial Appeal editor Chris Peck recently wrote - "work together to talk about race in Memphis, gain a better understanding of one another, and pledge to take on specific projects that can repair and restore race relations in this city - and heal the city itself." (Click here to read Peck's column about the new Common Ground project.) "As the 40th anniversary of the King assassination approaches, Memphis has a real chance to begin to write the future history of this place," he added.

About 100 citizens met for breakfast two weeks ago to kick off the initiative. Common Ground plans to continue by holding small-group sessions each Thursday night April 24 through May 29, followed by an action forum in early June.  "This isn't going to be namby-pamby stuff. This is going to be real, get-to-work stuff," said Lisa Moore Willis, a program coordinator, told the Commercial Appeal.

If you live in Memphis and you'd like to take part, you can get more information and sign up online. If you live elsewhere but you'd like to organize a similar community-building coalition around racism in your town, you can do these two things:

Check out the resources on our website. You can download (for free) or order ($5 each) copies of our latest Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation discussion guide, and read about how to get started.

Mark your calendar for Thursday, April 17, when our monthly DemocracySpace water cooler will offer an hour of live blogging for people in communities nationwide who are creating racial equity. All you need to do to take part is log on at 1 p.m. Eastern that day, right here at DemocracySpace. It'll be a great hour of learning and sharing with others across the nation who are building coalitions, talking the talk, then walking the walk on racial equity.

Update: The Common Ground project will be included in a story about Memphis on CBS Sunday Morning, as well as in an article planned this weekend by The Observer, a British newspaper. We'll add links here later. Congratulations to the Common Ground coalition for gaining national and even international media attention.

Comments

[Amy Malick]

Hooray for Wendi, who shows what a difference one person can make. And hooray for the diverse group of people who have rallied around the effort to get if off the ground. And hooray for Memphis, which is pulling together an impressive amount of celebration, reflection, and policy work to remember the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's assasination. May your work inspire all of us to take action in our communities.

[Julie Fanselow]

The Observer in the UK ran its 40-years-later story about Memphis this weekend. Here's a snip ... click my name for the whole story:

"Wendi Thomas, 36, is asking the race question in Memphis. She is a local black columnist on the city's Commercial Appeal newspaper who deals with racial issues. Now she is setting up a project called Common Ground to encourage Memphis citizens of all races to come together at weekly meetings and talk frankly about the race issues that bother them. At the end of it the 'graduates' will be encouraged to go out into the rest of the city and break down racial boundaries. Her first pilot scheme with 200 places has rapidly filled up and will begin meeting on 24 April. 'I just wanted to actually do something, rather than just write about it,' Thomas said.

"Memphis is a city much in need of such a project. The city is split almost 50-50 between black and white. Yet it feels like a segregated place whose two halves rarely meet, maintaining their own neighbourhoods, schools and parks. It is a city where the issue of race lies constantly under the surface, boiling below a patina of tourist-friendly Southern charm. 'Race underlies everything in this community. We need to have these discussions, even though they are painful and messy,' Thomas said."

Also, Wendi tells me that the CBS Morning News story on Common Ground will air NEXT Sunday, April 6.