Meeting to Discuss a Third Political Party Draws Scant Support for Now

Dr. Carnita Atwater tries to drum up support for a third political party
that she's calling The People's Party. (Photo by Wiley Henry)

MEMPHIS, TN – Candidates vying for the office of Memphis mayor, city court clerk and all 13 city council districts will stump for votes leading up to the Memphis Municipal Election on Oct. 5.

Dr. Carnita Atwater, however, is miffed with the election process and the two-party system. On March 5, she organized a “political consortium” at The Kukutanna African American History and Cultural Museum in North Memphis to discuss “the root issues of our democracy.”

Much to Atwater’s chagrin, the consortium drew a sparse crowd of 30 people to the first public meeting to discuss the mechanics of legitimizing a third political party that she’s temporarily calling “The People’s Party.” 

“I invited whites, Blacks, Jews and Hispanics. Why didn’t they come?” Atwater asked those in attendance listening intently as she expounded on the need to introduce a third party.

“My own political party did not embrace me when I ran for governor,” said Atwater, who loss the Democratic primary last year. “I learned that we have a problem in our political party. So, we have to write our own narrative.”

Atwater said the idea of launching a new political party was birthed a year ago with at least 25 founding members that she would not name. She’s keeping the names a secret for now.

Because The People’s Party is still in its infancy stage, Atwater urged anyone who is disenchanted with the two-party system to help her build the organization. She plans to have it up and running nationally within six months. 

“If you’re tired of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Libertarian Party, or the Green Party, come on,” she beckoned. “We’re going to embrace you. We’re going to be a political party with integrity.”

The party will also be identified by its mascot – a rooster. “Roosters are the forgotten animals, like the poor people, the LGBTQ people, the transgender people,” Atwater said. “They have thrown these people away.”

Atwater said no one political party should dictate who is important. “Our party will invest in every citizen,” she said, and stressed that PAC (Political Action Committee) money will not be accepted. 

Dorothy Cooper commended Atwater on implementing an “excellent idea.” 

“It’s outstanding – the layout. But it’s a lot of work,” said Cooper, president of the NAACP in Crittenden County, Ark., and the former mayor of Turrell, a city in Arkansas, also in Crittenden County.

“I’ve always loved a challenge,” Atwater replied.

In her take on the emergence of a new political party, Reasal Catron said accountability is very important to her. “Your word is your bond,” she added. “Politicians need to be accountable.”

A prophetess and advocate for domestic violence victims and inmates that she opines are unfairly treated in the penal system, Catron said she’s not seeing the work from politicians. 

“Don’t tell me about what you’ve done, tell me what you’re doing now,” she said.

Catron is simply disillusioned with politicians and reluctant to vote for them unless they earn her vote.

“If someone wants me to come out of my house and wants me to vote for them, I want to see change,” she said. “We need representation all over.”

Atwater said if people believe in the message espoused by politicians, “they will vote for you.” 

She pointed to the more than 56,000 votes that she amassed in the gubernatorial primary as proof that her message about homelessness, poverty, and economic disparities resonated with voters.

Ann Yates added: “People will vote if they feel like they belong.”

A longtime business owner, Yates said the two parties have forgotten about people. “They don’t go into the neighborhoods and talk to people,” she said.

Atwater said “the people” will select the candidate instead of the party. 

She loathed the number of candidates who joined this year’s Memphis mayoral race as an example that too many contenders can thwart opportunities for the best candidate to win. 

“There should be a consensus candidate,” she said.

Activist Georgia King Only Thought About Helping Others

 

Activist Georgia King stands before a large-scale photo
of striking sanitation workers carrying "I AM A MAN"
signs in front of Clayborn Temple A.M.E. Church.

MEMPHIS, TN – One of the biggest fights that Memphis activist Georgia Anna King was involved in was with Memphis Housing Authority (MHA), a federally-funded housing agency.

Never one to shrink from a fight, the longtime activist, known as “Mother Georgia King,” gave it her best on the battlefield for the poor and downtrodden. She died Feb. 7 at the age of 82.

King was moved to action after learning that MHA had begun the process of relocating senior residents from several public housing developments after opting into the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program.

RAD allows private ownership of public housing properties to be converted into Section 8 housing. King also had to vacate her home in Jefferson Square, in Downtown Memphis. 

King’s tenacity and determination to get things done was widely known and undergirded by other activists and friends. It wasn’t unusual for King to organize and rally the community around causes she championed.

“Here was a woman whose health was horrible, but she kept a sham of it because of what she wanted to do for the people,” said Ann Yates, who’d known the activist since 2010.

“She was always wallowing in trying to help the downtrodden,” said Yates, owner of The Bazaar that King frequented. “She was like my ‘ace boon coon,’” and added, “We had a saying that ‘I’m only a phone call away.’”

Yates was indeed a phone call away when King needed her for any given reason – perhaps to talk about the vicissitudes of life, or maybe a campaign that she was involved in.

Since King was a bus rider, Yates would often transport her to events, including “all my birthday parties I gave. In fact, I have more than 70 pictures in my [cell] phone of places me and Georgia went to together.”

King always found a way to get to her destination – even if she had to ride the MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority) bus. In 2012, she founded the Memphis Bus Riders Union, a grassroot organization fighting for better public transportation.

In 1989, King and other leaders led a contingent called the New Exodus Walkers on a 250-mile walk from Roanoke, Va., to the steps of the Capitol to urge Congress to make the homeless a priority.

King had fought for the homeless since 1960 when she was 20 years old. She also worked with the mentally ill and the chemically dependent and sought to open a mission for the homeless.

 Ondera Heggie, King’s eldest daughter, said she and her sister would accompany their mother to events when they were children. “Being a child, we accompanied her to a lot of places.”

Heggie said she watched her mother evolve from the entertainment world to civil rights activism to a spiritual person who loved the Lord. “It allowed her to cross all racial and ethnic lines,” she said.

“My mother didn’t see color or race,” added Marlena McClatchey, King’s other daughter. “She helped everybody; she loved everybody. Even if you were no good, she found the good in you anyway.”

McClatchey said she’s “just floored and honored” seeing the impact that her mother had made in the community and the many lives she had touched including the motherless and the fatherless.

When Stanley Campbell loss his mother in 2020, King stepped in to fill the void and ease the pain. “She said, ‘Cam, I think your mother wants me to be your mother figure here on earth.’”

Nicknamed “Cam Mtenzi,” Campbell is a community activist and proprietor of the House of Mtenzi, a word meaning artist in Swahili. He’s known King for more than 20 years.

“My mom is gone; now Mother King is gone,” he said, and referred to King as his “guardmother (sic).”

Campbell remembers speaking with King a month ago when she was gravely ill in the hospital. “She would call me and say, ‘Cam, what are you doing? What’s next on the agenda.’” 

King always thought about others, Campbell said. “In her last days, she was a giver on her sick bed. She wasn’t thinking about herself.”

Heggie added: “She was just little Georgia King who loved God and loved His people.”

“She will be truly missed,” McClatchey said.