photo courtesy mika baumeister | unsplash
Memphis is known around the world for our rich musical tradition, world-class institutions like the National Civil Rights Museum, and our prominent location overlooking America’s mightiest river. We are headquarters to multinational firms like FedEx and International Paper. First-rate colleges and universities, hospitals, and sports facilities choose Memphis for their home. All the ingredients are present for Memphis to add up to one of this country’s truly great cities. “What does Memphis need, going forward, in order to grow into the best version of itself?” That’s the question we posed to insightful community and faith leaders from all walks of life. Here’s how they responded. Think of these ideas as blueprints for what’s next.
Terri L. Freeman
Terri Lee Freeman
Terri Lee Freeman, National Civil Rights Museum:
“Memphis needs three things: 1) Our city needs to approach building an equitable community using an effective three-sector approach — public, private, and nonprofit sectors. The investments made into private enterprise are fine, but an equal investment in the nonprofit infrastructure of the city is necessary. Nonprofits provide a large percentage of direct services to residents and the public sector needs to see these organizations as vital partners. 2) Memphis needs to re-imagine public transportation and implement something that meets the needs of the community. The idea that public transportation has to be delivered in 2020 the same way it was in 1970 is unreasonable. And 3) Leadership needs to be willing to take risks and question the status quo. (That can be hard if we ARE the status quo.) We need to be willing to train and mentor those bright lights that have the interest and ability to receive the baton. We should not be afraid to usher in new ideas and new approaches to problem-solving. Particularly if the old approaches aren’t working.”
Ekundayo Bandele
Ekundayo Bandele, Hattiloo Theatre:
“My profession is that of storytelling. Stories help us make sense of our world and share that understanding with others. Today, we are living in a time when the stories told by Confederate statues are being challenged. We are living in a time when stories of empathy are being told by wearing a mask. In Memphis, we are living in a time when stories of Black struggle and pride are being borrowed and told through a voice that can’t authentically carry the tune Black folk have been singing. So, we need more Black voices telling Black stories. We need non-Black people to sincerely say, ‘I want to hear your story.’”
Photo courtesy of Power Box
Tami Sawyer
Tami Sawyer
Tami Sawyer, Shelby County Commission:
“I want to build a Memphis that is truly for ALL of us. That means a Memphis where Black and Brown children have the same access to fresh food, transportation, safe and quality school buildings, a quality education, safe places to play, and minimal intersection with policing and incarceration. I also want a Memphis where instead of resisting when racism and other inequities are called out, we actually rise to the occasion and make change.”
Micah Greenstein was named this magazine's 2013 Memphian of the Year.
Rabbi Micah Greenstein, Temple Israel:
“Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968 froze Memphis and sent Downtown into nearly 50 years of stagnation — until just before the pandemic when we finally came out of it, after facing history and rebuilding this resilient city whose streets are paved with soul. What Memphis needs now is the empowerment of younger adult leaders in all sectors — business, civic, faith, and community leadership. Young people have always been the prime catalysts for transformative change. Bakari Sellers reminds me that those a little younger than me — the thirty- and fortysomething Memphians — are not yet frozen in their formative years as we all eventually become. We need to elevate millennials because they are not really the leaders of tomorrow. They are the leaders of right now. Harnessing the best younger minds will transform the Memphis of today into the Memphis of tomorrow.”
Boo Mitchell, Memphis magazine's 2019 Memphian of the Year.
Boo Mitchell, Royal Studios:
“I would want to see a Memphis that has the history of Memphis music taught in all schools. A Memphis where our citizens are aware of and empowered by our legacy.”
Mick Wright, Shelby County Commission:
“Memphis needs the courage to set a standard, the confidence to reach for it, the commitment to point others to it, and the compassion to comfort those who fall short of it.”
PHOTO BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
Gayle Rose
Gayle Rose
Gayle S. Rose, Rose Family Foundation:
“Let’s get serious about poverty, and not just wringing our hands and spouting statistics, but to engage in real committed action. To do that we need to get honest about our history and be willing to examine the through-line connecting that history to people’s lives today. Of all places on Planet Earth, and in the shadow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Memphis needs to be a drum major for economic and racial justice.”
Henry Turley
Henry Turley, Henry Turley Company:
“We Memphians should invest in encouraging and enabling our African-American population (most of us) to realize their full potential. We should work with the same creativity, intensity and sophistication that we used in discouraging them during the years of Jim Crow. Imagine the talent we will unleash!”
Dr. Stacy Spencer, Metropolitan interfaith coalition for action and hope (MICAH):
“Memphis needs to change this narrative of a city impoverished by plantation economics into a city of equity and prosperity for all, especially Brown and Black people.”
