‘Christmas With a Cause’ Made the Holiday Season a Little Brighter for Families

Keilah Jones, 28, took advantage of a Christmas shopping
spree that enabled her to take home a boxful of merchandise
for her children for a mere $25. Photos by Wiley Henry

Tiara Caswell (right), executive director of Legacy Impact 
Community Resource Center and daughter of Commissioner
Charlie Caswell, mingles with shoppers who came out for
“Christmas With a Cause.” 

MEMPHIS, TN – When Keilah Jones learned that families with limited resources could shop for pennies on the dollar, she took her two children to Legacy Impact Community Resource Center in the Frayser community on Dec. 16 to take part in “Christmas With a Cause.”

From noon to 4 p.m., parents and their children made their way to the resource center, where thousands of items were available for their choosing and to help make the holiday season a little brighter – particularly for the children.

Hosted by Shelby County Commissioner Charlie Caswell Jr. and radio and TV personality Dr. Telisa Franklin, Jones and other parents donated $25 at the door in exchange for merchandise valued at $100 or more.

“We are raising funds to finish the renovation of the Legacy Impact Community Resource Center,” said Tiara Caswell, the executive director. She also heads Legacy of Legends Community Development Corporation.

The 58,000 sq.ft. facility serves as a hub for resources and houses the Reverend James E. Smith Freedom Fighters Gallery, the Keiya Graves-Garrett Training Academy, the Legacy Impact Performing Arts Center, and more.

It is home to other organizations and programs as well. 

The sponsors of “Christmas With a Cause” included the S.O. What Foundation, Legacy of Legends CDC, Beyond Educating Foundation, I Am She, and Caswell Group Consulting. 

“I thought this was a very awesome event for kids to be able to get things for Christmas at a very affordable price,” said Jones, 28, an Orange Mound resident and reset teacher for Shelby County Schools.

On display were a mix of new shoes, books, jewelry, bicycles, clothes, undergarments, toys, household items, and other merchandise that parents like Jones were all too happy to receive.

The merchandise – clearance sales and out-of-season items valued altogether in the thousands – were provided by Walmart, Burlington, Target, and other stores, Caswell pointed out.

The public was asked to donate items as well.

“We're using this to be able to give our residents in Frayser the opportunity to have brand new items that are conveniently located in their neighborhood and not [sold] at a retail price,” she said. 

Caswell, 27, is the daughter of Commissioner Caswell, who represents District 6 in Shelby County. He is a pastor, founder and CEO of Legacy of Legends CDC, and a longtime community activist in Frayser. 

“We understand that Frayser is like the second poorest zip code (38127) in the city of Memphis,” the commissioner said. “And being here for so long, we know there are many struggles that families and children deal with daily.”

He said the idea is to help families and to give them hope at Christmas time.

“Economically, we know that many people in this community suffer from poverty,” said Commissioner Caswell. “This is a blessing to the community…to be able to give them the capacity to get more for less.” 

Jones took home a boxful of gifts for her daughter, Cailey Owens, 9, and her 5-year-old son, Cortez Taylor. “It helps me out a lot to get a lot of things at an affordable price,” she said.

Caswell reflected on his youth when he and his 16 brothers and sisters went lacking many times at Christmas. 

“We were such a big family,” he said. “So, I know that feeling on Christmas not to have much.”

Copyright 2023 TNTRIBUNE. All rights reserved. 

LINCS Helped Meishal Henry to Overcome Her Addiction

 

Wanda Taylor-Wilson (left), founder and CEO of Ladies 
in Need Can Survive, Inc., helped to transition Meishal
Berniece Henry back into society after her struggle with
alcohol and drugs. Photo composite by Wiley Henry

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final installment of a two-part series about a woman who was able to harness her addiction and begin life anew.

MEMPHIS, TN – In all her 62 years, Meishal Berniece Henry had never owned anything with her name on it, such as a driver’s license, automobile, insurance, and a home. The one she once lived in bore her ex-husband’s name.

That’s because Henry was battling alcohol and drug addiction for 35 years and succumbed to the powerful lure. She couldn’t shake it, nor could she eradicate it. Not on her own.

Then she met Wanda Taylor-Wilson, founder and CEO of Ladies in Need Can Survive, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) transitional home in the Frayser community for women grappling with substance abuse, homelessness, and domestic violence.

Henry met the criteria for admission to LINCS and spent 18 months of intense therapy, including a four-phase approach to reshape her life. Now she has a driver’s license, automobile, insurance, and her own home.

“I just feel so blessed and grateful to God that He loved me enough to give me time to see the person that He truly wanted me to be,” Henry resounded. 

Alcohol and drugs had robbed her of happiness, including her children, education, friends, and her self-worth. She had sunk to the depths of despair and found it difficult to free herself from the clutches of alcohol and drugs.

“I wasn't mentally stable,” Henry admitted. “I realized that I blamed myself and thought I was a bad person for a long time. But I realized that I was sicker than I ever could have dreamed I was.”

After coming onboard LINCS, Henry needed not worry. Taylor-Wilson is used to women whose travails are overwhelming and difficult to overcome without intervention. What she had done for others at LINCS, she would do for Henry as well.

But before Henry was admitted into the program, “she said to me, ‘Ms. Wanda, if you allow me in your program, I won't give you any problems.’ Then she said, ‘Ms. Wanda, is there any hope for me?’”

Taylor-Wilson responded with forthrightness. The women in her charge had been reduced to hopelessness prior to coming to LINCS, but they were hopeful that their lives would be transformed afterward, she said.

“She wasn’t in a good place at 61 [when she came to LINCS],” said Taylor-Wilson, speaking of Henry, one of the oldest residents to be admitted into the LINCS program. “She said, ‘What can I really accomplish in life at 61 years old?’”

Taylor-Wilson began with an Individual Service Plan for Henry. “This gives me the opportunity to guide women in the right direction,” she said, “and provide them with the skill set to obtain, sustain, and maintain them after they complete the program.”

After an ISP is completed, she said, the process of transitioning troubled women back into society begins. Henry was now set to begin the arduous journey to sobriety and freedom from drugs. But transitioning her back into society would take 18 months.

“Our program is only 12 months,” Taylor-Wilson pointed out. “But depending on the individual need, we can make some adjustments and extend the program for them.” 

She said Henry needed more time to begin the process of saving money, improving her credit score, purchasing a home, transportation, and other necessities before transitioning to her own place.

The four phases that Henry had to complete included a wide range of classes and therapy once a week, in addition to shifting her thinking of woeful thoughts and her relationship with God. 

“We provide them with case management, domestic violence education,” said Taylor-Wilson, “and classes like anger management, life skills, parenting, job readiness, financial literacy, and education assistance.”

And then there is the alcohol and drug intense outpatient program. “This helps them to understand the addiction,” Taylor-Wilson explained, “and how to live life without the addiction.”

Henry’s transition back into society is now complete. “I feel amazing! I am happy!” she exulted.

“I got her to the finish line,” said Taylor-Wilson, adding, “I’m the proudest CEO on this side of heaven, knowing that I was able to contribute something to help another woman turn her life completely around.”

For more information about Ladies in Need Can Survive, Inc., or to make a monetary donation, visit the website at www.ladiescan.org. Or contact Wanda Taylor-Wilson at 901-351-9864 or by email at ladiescan@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2023 TNTRIBUNE. All rights reserved.

Meishal Berniece Henry: The Road to Recovery

Meishal Berniece Henry has struggled with alcoholism  
for decades. Now her best life is coming into view.
Photo by Wiley Henry

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of a two-part series about a woman who turned her life around after a tumultuous battle with alcohol and drug addiction.

MEMPHIS, TN – Meishal Berniece Henry is deliriously happy. She earned a college degree in phlebotomy, makes a decent wage on her “dream job,” and purchased a new home in the Alcy Ball community.

“I’m doing awesome,” she said. 

But that wasn’t always the case. In fact, Henry’s journey to happiness didn’t come so easily. It was hampered by destructive behavior – a kind of self-inflicted wound that festered over time.

“I didn’t know that I was sick,” Henry confessed. She was an alcoholic stuck in a quagmire that kept her in a drunken stupor for 35 years. 

“I started drinking and experimenting in high school with my friends,” she explained. “But I think things went wrong when I met my husband and I got pregnant with my first child.”

Henry was 19; he was 27.

“He kept some things from me, and it kind of shook me up,” said Henry, now 62. “By the time I found out, I was already with child. Things went mentally downhill for me after that.”

Henry found it difficult to cope, which caused her to spiral down into an abyss of emotional and mental distress. She also suffered from severe postpartum depression. 

“But I wasn't drinking when I had my children,” the mother of five conceded: Natasha, now 42; Ashley, 38; Erica, 36; Amanda, 33; and Christopher, 30. 

Then Henry’s brother died. He was her rock; she could lean on him for support. At that time, “It was just me, my mother, and my brother,” she said.

Henry’s father died, too, in the early 90s; she was in her early 30s. On top of that, “Me and my mom were sort of estranged,” she said unabashedly. “Everything wasn't her fault, though.”

Even so, Henry kept drinking in excess while trying to run a household. Her marriage was on the brink as well. “I was trying to be an adult with a child's mind,” she recounted, “and it was just hard.”

Thinking she was doing the right thing, Henry relinquished custody of her children to the state. But her son was separated from his sisters. 

“I didn't understand the consequences,” she said in retrospect. “Since he was so young, he ended up getting adopted.”

After the children were gone, Henry took to the streets, drank incessantly without fail, got hooked on drugs, and teetered in and out of relationships.

She also worked a job off and on to support her drinking binges and drug addiction. “I was pretty much a wild child,” she admitted, and struggled to keep a roof over her head.

“I tried to get back with my husband a couple of times. It didn't work,” she said. “And I bounced around with whoever I could live with.”

Henry was at a crossroad. She could succumb to her addiction or she could seek help.

She chose the latter and got herself admitted to Serenity Recovery Centers, a treatment facility in Memphis for alcohol and drug addiction. A sponsor got her a job. After six months of sobriety, she relapsed.

“I lost my job in 2013,” she said. “I couldn't hold the job any longer.”

Henry was broken, hopeless, at the edge of despair. Hitting rock bottom was closer than ever. After her brother died in 2014, suicidal thoughts emerged. In 2019, she had a heart attack.

“I couldn’t stop drinking; I didn’t want to stop drinking,” she said.

Henry had been staying with a man that kept her inebriated. She couldn’t break the lure of alcohol, the urge to drink. She needed to dry out. So, in 2021, she sought help at Alliance Mental Health Service.

“They put me on convulsive medication,” she said, “because I drank so much that I was in danger of going into convulsions.”

Henry decided to stop drinking. She could almost hear the cries of her children and her children’s children. She wanted to be a good example for them.

“My grandchildren and my children were a big inspiration to me – especially my grandkids – to stop drinking,” she said.

Henry wound up back at Serenity. From there, it was Grace House of Memphis, a home for alcoholic women. At Grace, her therapist recommended that she contact Wanda Taylor-Wilson, founder and CEO of Ladies in Need Can Survive, Inc., a transitional home for women.

“So, I asked Mrs. Wanda if she would interview me to see if I was a good fit for her program.”

That was 18 months ago. Henry is a different woman now. 

Copyright 2023 TNTRIBUNE. All rights reserved.

The Arts Could Help Adults With Disabilities Lead Independent Lives

Brian Armour Jr. poses for a snapshot with Cheryl Sutton
(left), Kathleen Henderson of Studio Route 29, and his
aunt Beverly Towns Williams. Photos by Wiley Henry

Jenni Clark, the founder and CEO of StarThrower  

Group, says Armour is ‘creative, clever and kind.’

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final installment of a two-part series about adults with special needs.

 

MEMPHIS, TN – “Are you proud of me?” Brian Armour Jr. asked his aunt after his performance at Studio Route 29 on Oct. 28 and after leaving the opening of his art exhibit at ArtYard, both in Frenchtown, N.J.

“Yes, I’m proud of you, B.J.,” Beverly Towns Williams assured her nephew on the way back to the house.

He’d asked Lionel Scriven, Williams’s partner, the same question before the “big day” had unfolded. “Are you proud of me, Uncle?”

Scriven answered yes.

Though Armour was the center of attention that day, he still wanted to know if he’d done a good job. 

Children and adults like Armour, who grapple with intellectual and developmental disabilities, may be impaired in one or several areas: physical, learning, language, or behavior.

Some of them may be more impaired than others.

Armour, however, is imaginative and creative. But he needed a structured program, said Williams, who was able to get him in the state’s pre-vocational program where he had trial work experiences.

“He worked at a food pantry,” she said. “He worked at a local department store. And he worked in an office setting just to see and measure what pre-vocational skills that he had.”

He needed a little more, Williams was told. “In these pre-vocational settings, it was only two to three times a week. Now he’s in a program with a combined internship with Studio Route 29.” 

The program spans the entire week, she said.

Developmental disabilities occur among all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Recent estimates show that about one in six (or about 17 percent) of children aged 3 - 17 in the U.S. have one or more developmental disabilities or other developmental delays.

The list varies: ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, intellectual disability, learning disability, vision impairment, and other developmental delays.

Williams and Scrivens would like to see Armour achieve independence some day and function within the scope of normalcy – if possible. That is their goal. But what is normal?  

Jenni Clark has the same goal for her three children – a boy and two girls. Each one is autistic, she said, and added: “It’s just that they’re high functioning.” 

Concerning her son, she asked, “Who’s going to take care of him? I want to see him set up and living in his house and he’s doing okay.”

Her aunt, whom she cares for, has special needs as well.

Clark is the founder and CEO of StarThrower Group, a non-profit that provides services to over 40 families in Hunterdon, Somerset, Warren, and Mercer counties in New Jersey.

Armour, a former Memphian, joined the group about a year ago. “He’s been so amazing,” said Clark, “because he’s so creative, and clever, and kind, and he really cares about everybody that he’s around.” 

A former schoolteacher, Clark launched the non-profit in 2018 after cashing out her Girl Scouts of Rolling Hills Council pension. She was the director of Volunteers and Training.

“We have people of all different areas of the autism spectrum,” she said about StarThrower. “We have people with Down syndrome, people with fragile X. There’s a lot of mental health concerns as well.”

Kathleen Henderson worked at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, Calif., for over 10 years before opening Studio Route 29 a year ago in Frenchtown, N.J. Both are progressive art studios and serve artists with developmental disabilities.

“Since I got here, I have found out that there’s an incredible amount of activism around youth with disabilities,” said Henderson, the founder and executive director of Studio Route 29. 

She’s also an artist from the Bay Area in California.

When Stacy Tuzik, the executive director of StarThrower Group, brought Armour to Studio Route 29, Henderson welcomed him to the program.

“B.J. comes to the studio every morning with a dream that he’s had,” she said, “and he starts right out with his dream. He tells us about his dream and he works on his dream.”

Armour said his ideas come from his mind, his brain. “Nobody else but me. It’s all me.”

He’s proud of himself now.

Copyright 2023 TNTRIBUNE. All rights reserved.

From Memphis to N.J., Brian Armour Jr. Has ‘Blasted Off’

Brian Armour Jr. performs to music that he wrote the lyrics
to at Studio Route 29 in Frenchtown, N.J. Photos by Wiley Henry 

Armour explains his artwork to a couple that admires one of 
his pieces on exhibit at the ArtYard.

MEMPHIS, TN – Former Memphian Brian Armour Jr. danced for more than 20 minutes at Studio Route 29 in Frenchtown, N.J. He whirled in a black cape, and his moves – smooth, fluid, robotic, theatrical, mimetic – drew applauses.

The music was refreshing and original, courtesy of Hop Peternell, an artist and the studio’s co-director. Armour lip-synched the lyrics to three pre-recorded songs that he wrote with audio assistance from Peternell.

Studio Route 29, a 501c3 non-profit organization, is a progressive art studio for artists with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Kathleen Henderson is the executive director and an artist herself. 

“Being in the studio with other artists, making surprising things, is just a joy every day,” Henderson said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

Armour’s performance, however, was the prelude to an art exhibit that followed.

Known as B.J., Armour led his admirers down a short, tree-lined path to the ArtYard, where he and Ricky Bearghost, a textile artist from Portland, OR., have works on exhibit until Jan. 21, 2024.

The ArtYard is an incubator for creative expression and a catalyst for collaborations that reveal the transformational power of art. Jill Kearney is the founder and executive director.

The two-man exhibit, “You Come to Life,” opened Oct. 28. Bearghost, however, wasn’t available for the opening, but Armour carried on nonetheless, mixing and mingling. 

When observers asked Armour to explain his artwork, he processed the request and explained the curlicues, organic forms, splashes of color, and the subtle nuances in his artwork.

“I like the artwork,” said Armour, speaking candidly about his simplistic drawings and paintings from dreams. “Everything is precise; everything is locked in. It’s not out of order. Everything is solid.” 

Armour said he learned from the best. He credits his late mother and craft artist Deborah Towns Armour with passing on her artistic genes to him. He even assisted her in the studio and at art fairs. 

“When my mom was alive, she couldn’t finish the art thing and the singing thing,” said Armour, honoring her memories in his own way. “I don’t know if it’s my soul that connects to her or not.”

It’s conceivable. However, they were inseparable – even when the vicissitudes of Armour’s life tried to rock his world and thwart his burgeoning talent for making art and music. 

“Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” the late Harlem Renaissance poet and playwright Langston Hughes began his popular poem “Mother to Son.” 

For Armour and his mother, it wasn’t a crystal stair either. But they sufficed, to say the least – for she’d prepared him for a life without her.

Memphis was home to Armour since he was around six years old. Born in Germany, the doctors were unsure if he’d survive. That was 39 years ago. The malady he suffered at birth – including being born a preemie – was daunting and life-altering. 

After his mother’s death last year, in January, Armour’s maternal aunt, Beverly Towns Williams, and her partner, Lionel Scriven, stepped in to fill the void. So, he went to live with them in Lambertville, N.J.

“I fell in love with him,” said Scriven, an architect. 

Meanwhile, Armour is undergoing a rebirth, and Williams is amazed. But she was unaware that her nephew was drawn to music, moved by the dance, and immersed in drawing and painting.

Once Armour was settled in the home, Williams competed for services that the state of New Jersey offers for adults with special needs. “There are limited amounts of resources and a limited number of programs,” she discovered.

Williams wanted a comprehensive program that would teach her nephew independent life skills and skills to enhance his potentials. 

“I was looking for a program that would be compatible with the things that he says he wants to do in life,” said Williams, an attorney. 

She found it through the state’s Department of Human Services Division of Developmental Disabilities. It’s called the StarThrower Group, a nonprofit organization that renders services to adults like Armour with special needs. 

“Because he expressed an interest in the arts, he was able to get an internship with Studio Route 29,” Williams said. “From there, he has just blasted off.” 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of a two-part series about adults with special needs. 

Copyright 2023 TNTRIBUNE. All rights reserved.

Christen Dukes Launches Foundation to Help Others Like Himself With Debilitating Diseases

 

Christen Dukes decided long ago that sickle cell anemia
and cerebral palsy wouldn't be a barrier to keep him
from realizing his goals. Photo by Wiley Henry

MEMPHIS, TN – He wasn’t expected to live. But then Christen Dukes beat the odds –– a preemie weighing a mere 2 lbs. and 5 oz. But he couldn’t beat the agony of sickle cell disease and cerebral palsy.

He questioned God: “Why me? Why was I born with sickle cell and cerebral palsy? Why do I have to deal with this?” 

Then it dawned on Dukes that there is more to his life than grappling with his twofold malady. An accomplished trombonist, he would rather make music and help others with debilitating diseases.

On Sept. 15, Dukes is hosting a benefit concert at Stax Museum of American Soul Music, featuring Deonna Sirod, Adajyo, and Dukes’ friends. The doors will open at 6 p.m. for a museum tour; the concert will follow at 7.

Proceeds will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Hematology Clinic and Dukes’ newly founded “Arts Over Odds Foundation.” General admission is $30. Live stream: $15. Tickets are available at www.givebutter.com/artsforallbenefitconcert.

Dukes said the idea for his “Arts Over Odds Foundation” was revealed to him when he was a junior at Visible Music College in Memphis, where he majored in music engineering and production/performance.

He graduated from the college in 2019. Prior to that, he’d graduated from Craigmont High School in 2014. “I was really trying to find out my purpose in life and what I really wanted to do as a career,” said Dukes, 27.

The answer came to him during a 5 a.m. prayer service at his home church, Reformation Memphis. “I was really praying about my purpose and what I wanted to do,” he said, adding, “God literally showed me a vision of what my organization would look like.”

Dukes decided that individuals grappling with maladies such as his would be the foundation’s focus. But then he vacillated between people with other debilitating diseases.

“After talking to some people and thinking about my overall story, I had to realize that I’m not just dealing with sickle cell. I’m dealing with cerebral palsy,” said Dukes, who has hosted benefit concerts for St. Jude before.

The last benefit concert was in 2019. This one is different. It’s Dukes’ official launch of his “Arts Over Odds Foundation.” And he hopes to reach as many people as possible via the arts.

“I always had a deep passion and love for the arts,” he said, familiarizing himself with several musical instruments –– including the baritone and percussions –– as early as eight years old. 

He’d become more attentive to the trombone instead and honed its sound into a melodious blend of R&B, funk, and jazz fusion.

A former student of Stax Music Academy, Dukes has traveled and played his trombone. “Going to Stax as early as I did helped me to go to college,” he said, “and doing what I’m doing now.”

Dukes was also fortunate to attend Berklee College of Music’s five-week summer program, thanks to an award that he received in 2017 from the Memphis Beat the Odds Foundation.

He wants his own foundation to be art-based, not just about music. And he envisions a facility with recording studios, art studios, photography studios, editing rooms, and sound stages.

“I think we will be something special –– not just for this city, but for this region or even farther,” he said.

The “Arts Over Odds Foundation” is nonprofit and has an 11-member board so far. Dukes is the founding president.

The foundation’s mission is “to teach youth and young adults with health disorders in multiple fields of the arts and inspire them to work toward and believe in a thriving future.”

Dukes has had some challenges. But he’s not ready to quit. “I didn’t want sickle cell to become a barrier and not go after what I wanted to do,” he said, “and not try my hardest to do it.”

Memphis VA Medical Center Changes Name to Honor Tuskegee Airman, Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr.

The family of Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. joins U.S. Rep. Steve 
Cohen (TN-09), left, and Joseph P. Vaugh, third from left, at the VA
Medical Center during the unveiling of a newly minted sign
honoring their famous father. Vaugh is the medical center’s 
executive director. (Photo by Wiley Henry)  

 

Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr.

MEMPHIS, TN – It’s official! The Memphis VA Medical Center (VAMC) has been renamed the Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. VA Medical Center. The dedication ceremony was July 24.

This is the first name change for the VAMC since it was established in 1922. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09) introduced a bill in the 117 Congress on Feb. 28, 2022, to add Weathers’ name to the medical center. 

H.R. 6863 passed both chambers of Congress in 2022 – the House on Nov. 14 and the Senate on Dec. 6. President Biden signed Public Law 117-236 on Dec. 20. 

“I am truly excited to share this day with you, a renaming day, where we officially become bonded perpetually to Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr., a truly inspiring veteran,” said Joseph P. Vaugh, the medical center’s executive director.

“This is a great story for America,” Cohen said. “This story should be directly sent to [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis. You don’t eliminate history. You learn from it and make people stronger and better.”

Weathers made history as a fighter pilot in WWII as a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, or “Red Tails.” His acts of heroism are recorded in the annals of U.S. military history.

He was credited with shooting down several German fighter planes, including two fierce Messerschmitt 109 fighters, while escorting a damaged B-24 bomber over Italy in 1944.

“He was a hero to this country and a hero to this city,” Cohen said. 

Luke Weathers III, the oldest of his father’s five children, said his father would have been humbled to see his name attached to the VA Medical Center and the fanfare surrounding it.

Weathers just didn’t talk about his heroic exploits as a combat fighter pilot with the 332 Fighter Group’s 302 Fighter Squadron, better known as the Tuskegee Airmen, his son said. 

“Dad never spoke about that,” he said. “He was very quiet. He just wanted to do his job. When he was around 70 or 80 years old, he would have discussions if you brought it up.”

When a group of Black coworkers refused to believe that Black fighter pilots existed in WWII, Luke Weathers III launched a search in 1975 and learned more than his father had ever told him and his siblings.

They weren’t born when their father and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen commanded the skies in WWII. They would learn that he was a decorated war hero who served his country valiantly, even when segregation was the order of the day back home in Memphis. 

“Before he could fight the Germans, he had to fight America, a segregated America that existed…that still goes on to some extent today,” Cohen said.

The ceremony and special attention to Lt. Col. Weathers stirred Renee Weathers emotionally. “I miss him,” she said, and added: “I will never forget this day in my life.”

Renee Weathers was her father’s caregiver in Tucson, Ariz., where she resides with her family.

“Lt. Col. Luke Weathers Jr. was a hometown hero,” Trina Weathers-Boyce said. “But to our family he was gentle, stoic and a patriot that we simply knew as daddy and granddaddy.”

Weathers-Boyce described her father as a confident man who was strong and humble “in spite of his accomplishments.”

He earned several military awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with seven Oak Leaf Clusters, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

The City of Memphis proclaimed June 25, 1945, as “Captain Luke Weathers Jr. Day” and presented him with a key to the city. He was the first African American to receive such an honor.

In 1965, Weathers became the first African American Air Traffic Controller in Memphis. And on March 29, 2007, Congress honored him and all Tuskegee Airmen with the Congressional Gold Medal.

“We’re honored Lt. Col. Weathers’ family has lent us his name,” Vaugh said, “and we promise to live up to the legacy as we service the finest veterans in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, and the veterans who walk through our doors at all locations.”

Weathers died Oct. 15, 2011, at the age of 90 in Tucson. He was given full military honors at his interment – including an Air Force flyover – at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Jan. 20, 2012. Cohen’s office initiated the process.

New Book Explains the ‘Genocide’ of Black Baseball

Reginald R. Howard's book, "Baseball's Silent Genocide," expresses
his beliefs on why and how Black youth were kept from playing
the "Great American Game" called baseball.

MEMPHIS, TN – Before the wanning of Negro League Baseball, Black players with amazing athleticism excelled on the diamond with “speed, strength, quickness, and agility.” 

“[So] why is 75 percent of Blacks playing basketball, 65 percent-plus Blacks playing football, and only 8 percent of Blacks playing baseball?” Reginald R. Howard, an infielder for the Indianapolis Clowns in the 1950s, asked.

The league folded at the end of 1950. Howard calls this period and after “Baseball’s Silent Genocide,” the title of his new book, which GrantHouse Publishers in Memphis released in June.

The book’s subtitle – “How They Cut Black Youth Out of Baseball” – would be enough for Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to ban the book, according to Oscar-winning actor Lou Gossett Jr., who penned one of the book’s two prefaces.

Howard said it took more than 50 years for the book to become a reality. He began compiling information after a frank discussion with his father about the vicissitudes of Black baseball.

“He stopped me and said, ‘Look, they did their part on the field. You didn’t have the skill level to do it on the field. So why don’t you write about it.’ I said, ‘Nobody wants to hear what I got to say.’”

Howard, in fact, has so much to say about the subject. At one point he was on the verge of giving up. After chatting with his father, he felt compelled to write. 

“I got to get this thing done now before I die,” the 88-year-old said.

He needed to tell the story and proceeded with determination – with editorial assistance from Ilunga Adell, a television and film producer, screenwriter, and actor. 

“The stuff that I’ve been telling you about is not something that I’ve read, but something that I’ve experienced,” said Howard during an interview. “A lot of Black people [players] have just about died out.”

There aren’t many left, he added. 

Howard was born in South Bend, IN. He moved to Memphis in 1979. “I don’t want to die with this stuff in my head,” he wrote. “It would be a serious dereliction on my part if I did.”

What was in Howard’s head is now in print. It is a recollection of his experiences on and off the diamond, his relationship with players – the celebrated and the unsung – and what he believes led to the genocide of Black baseball.

The premise of the book is that the “majority” systemically kept baseball out of the hands of Black youth, fearing they would eventually dominate the game as Black athletes had done in basketball and football. 

“The first thing they did was to stop sponsoring baseball in the inner city.” Howard contends this was a “sophisticated and clandestine design to reduce the number of Blacks playing baseball.”

And then too, the equipment was expensive for the inner city’s poor Black kids, he said, and that coaches often steered them to other sports as his coach in South Bend had tried to do when he was in school.

“…all the Black students would be steered toward track and field because they didn’t want you playing baseball.”

Howard calls such practices little “nuances” which, he maintains, led to the withering of Black baseball.

The book is interspersed with the photos of Black players whose names are legendary and etched in the annals of history. The midsection is replete with a cache of individual photos, team shots, contracts, even a 1946 score card.

Perhaps the much-heralded Black baseball player ever was Jackie Robinson. He broke baseball’s color line in 1947 when he played Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

“They talk about Jackie Robinson like he was playing by himself,” Howard said. He wasn’t being resentful or begrudging but added: “There were 200-something players playing too.”

Many of those players are referenced in Howard’s book: “Baseball’s Silent Genocide.”

And many of them, he pointed out, were gifted with “speed, strength, quickness, and agility,” the four “attributes” for excellence.

For more information, or copies of the book, contact Reginald R. Howard at 901-487-5949. 

Fulton’s Artwork Highlights the Blues and Egyptian Culture

 

Artwork by Jerome Fulton, such as “Feeling His Music,” is on 
exhibit for six months at the Blues Hall of Fame Museum in
Downtown Memphis. (Photo by Wiley Henry) 

MEMPHIS, TN – When Kimberly Horton met Jerome Fulton at the 2022 King Biscuit Festival in Helena, Ark., in October, she was bowled over by the depth and intensity of his artwork. 

She had to tell Andrew Ross, director of the Blues Hall of Fame Museum in Downtown Memphis, which “exposes, educates, and entertains visitors with all that is blues culture.”

“I got the two of them together so he could curate an exhibit at our museum,” said Horton, president/CEO of The Blues Foundation, which has operated the museum since it opened in 2015.

“When she came back, she said, ‘We got our artist,’” Ross said.

Horton was swept away by one of Fulton’s pieces at the festival. “I talked about that piece,” she said.

Ross went on to curate an exhibit for Fulton entitled “Crossroads 2 Memphis.” It is a multi-media compilation of deep Southern culture and blues music, including ancient Egyptian and Nubian cultures.

Family, friends, art enthusiasts, and the curious strolled into the museum on opening night, June 30. They took note of the “blues” in two- and three-dimensional forms while bluesman Mick Kolassa sang and played guitar.

The music complemented Fulton’s artwork and provided some respite from the sweltering heat. “Crossroads 2 Memphis” will hang for six months and closes the end of December.

“I want to show a level of creativity that is different from a Southern perspective,” Fulton said. He has traveled the country and the world exhibiting his artwork at festivals, markets, conventions, and at other venues. 

“Crossroads 2 Memphis” is Fulton’s first full-scale art exhibit. The months-long exhibit exposes him to art appreciators and blues lovers alike. 

“He’s also the first Memphian and the first African-American artist, I believe, who has been with us on site here,” Horton said. “Most of the art that we have here has a direct correlation with the blues.”

“We’ve had great art in the past,” Ross added. “But there is so much going on in the pieces. It’s tangible. It gets at that connection between Memphis and the Delta in powerful ways.”

Fulton describes his artwork as folklore. It’s a retelling of stories with historical significance. Like the syncopated rhythm of blues music, the artist is not pigeonholed to how he creates art. 

He’s comfortable with creating cotton fields, shacks, or any other subject matter in watercolors, acrylics, tinfoil, metal, aged wood, window frames, burlap, and more. He said much of his artwork is derived from found material.

One such piece is an antique rocking chair. It would be a simple rocker if Fulton hadn’t embellished it with images from Egyptian culture, such as obelisks and the Eye of Horus (The Third Eye).

He also adorned the rocker with shacks, cotton fields, and guitars, bringing it up to the age of modernity.

“I also used these things called the four entities, or the four seasons,” said Fulton, a 1976 graduate of the Memphis College of Art. “So, on each chair, I put nations of music, which is jazz, blues, country and gospel.” 

He titled the piece “The Cotton Rocker.” The concept came from the tomb of Ramesses III during his dynasty, he said. 

“There are names under the chair itself that date from 1885 to 1965,” said Fulton, adding, “I’m incorporating everything to tell the story.”

Other works on exhibit are just as intriguing, such as “Feeling His Music,” a multi-media piece painted on rusty corrugated tin of a bow-tied blues player strumming his guitar with another set of hands stroking a keyboard. 

“Crossroads 2 Memphis,” the exhibit’s namesake, utilizes a pleated wooden window with images of guitars, a cotton field, a pyramid, and The Third Eye. The image of a person is also fused into the background. 

“Every time I look at the pieces, I see something new,” Ross said.

For more information, contact The Blues Foundation at (901) 527-2583.