How can Memphis deal with structural racism? The Atlantic, the mayor and experts weigh in

A panel at the National Civil Rights Museum on Tuesday brought together Memphians and people from cities such as Detroit and Chicago to scrutinize structural racism.

Rhodes College professor Charles McKinney said Memphis presents itself as a vibrant city to the outside world but actively disregards the majority of its population, with a mentality of “come to Memphis, you can pay your employees really low wages and your company can make a lot of money.”

“You can’t have it both ways,” said McKinney, who is also the Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana studies.

“We need to be able to name the head winds we face so we can confront them,” he added.

The Atlantic, along with the Shared Prosperity Partnership, held a forum on structural racism called "Building Opportunity for All" on Tuesday at the National Civil Rights Museum. The more than three-hour session touched on overcoming the past, combating poverty in a segregated city and building black wealth.

A Memphis mayoral election that’s less than six months away and a proposed comprehensive plan dubbed Memphis 3.0 are driving dialogue about uneven development throughout the city, where proposed and in-process projects represent billions of dollars of investment, largely Downtown.

Mayor Jim Strickland, whose common refrain throughout his bid for reelection has been "Memphis Has Momentum," said at Tuesday's panel that Memphis needs more diversity in the types of businesses that are owned by minorities and women.

For instance, the city contracts out for speed humps to go on Memphis roads, and Strickland said there isn't a company that is minority- or female-owned in that arena.

“We all know that somebody who looks like me has more access to capital than someone who looks like you,” Strickland said. “So that lack of capital is something that’s holding us back as a city. We’re 65% African American, and when you add up all the business transacted in Memphis, not by government, but by us as a society, only 1% goes to African American businesses. That’s not fair and it’s not sustainable for the city.”

The city launched the 800 Initiative last year, which has a goal of increasing local minority-owned businesses' collective revenue by $50 million.

Strickland called Memphis' population loss the city's biggest challenge.

"We’ve got to grow our population because no business, no church, no civic organization really survives with losing customers or members," Strickland said.

'We're able to create some hope'

An increase in wages won’t close a racial wealth gap, said Andre Perry, a fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.

“We are not going to create black wealth without a discussion around federal policy,” Perry said.

“The way we gave wealth to white people we can give wealth to black people,” through housing policy and business policy, Perry added.

During a panel on art and opportunity, Jamie Bennett, executive director of ArtPlace America, said there needs to be a larger focus on cultural displacement.

Victoria Jones, executive director of The Collective in Memphis, which aims to elevate black artists, said creating creative spaces and outlets in communities where other major services are lacking means “we’re able to create some hope while we’re maybe waiting for the city to do something.”

Jamie Munks covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jamie.munks@commercialappeal.com. Follow her on Twitter @journo_jamie_.