BREAKING: Memphis mourns passing of Civil Rights icon D'Army Bailey

The late D'Army Bailey

      Editor's Note: D’Army Bailey’s ongoing journey to make Greater Memphis and the country a better place to live, especially for African Americans, ended Sunday.

      A mentor and inspiration to many, Mr. Bailey – attorney, former judge, author, founder of the National Civil Rights Museum and always an activist – passed away at age 73, succumbing to cancer.

      The New Tri-State Defender will chronicle the passing of Mr. Bailey in this week’s edition. The newspaper’s archives include this 2010 story about Mr. Bailey’s book “The Education of a Black Radical.” The story features a Q&A with Mr. Bailey in which he shares details about the person so many grew to love and respect. We reprint it here in respectful tribute.

D’Army Bailey: Once a radical, still an activist

      Some of the battles he fought are duly noted in his latest book, “The Education of a Black Radical: A Southern Civil Rights Activist’s Journey 1959-1964.”

      The book follows the journey of a boy from the LeMoyne Gardens housing project who became a successful lawyer, actor, judge, author and activist.

      It tells the story of a man who courageously took a stand even when there was a price to pay.

      At Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., he was expelled for leading a boycott protesting the administration’s views on segregation.

      He enrolled at Clark University in Worchester, Mass., and then at Yale University, where he received a law degree.

      In 1971, Bailey entered politics and won a seat on the Berkeley City Council, but was recalled in 1973 after conservatives and moderates, angered by his outspokenness, targeted him. He returned to Memphis a year later, where he noticed that the political landscape had changed, but not to his satisfaction.

      In 1983, Bailey ran for mayor in a race that included African-American political heavyweights John Ford and Otis Higgs, with Dick Hackett emerging as the eventual winner. Seven years later, Bailey won a seat on the bench of the Circuit Court of Tennessee.

      On Sept. 15 of last year, Bailey retired as judge and now practices law with Wilkes & McHugh. His book is on sale in the bookstore of the National Civil Rights Museum, which he founded.

      In the following Q & A, Bailey offered a glimpse of what moved him into activism and what lessons others can learn:

      Tri-State Defender: Your autobiographical book “The Education of a Black Radical” gives us a glimpse of your life between 1959-1964. What inspired you to tell this story and the planned second and third installments?

      D’Army Bailey: The written word is a powerful force to educate and energize people. When in high school, I had a Remington typewriter and wrote for the Booker T. Washington High School newspaper, and the Tri State Defender and Memphis World. It was a blessing for me to grow up during the burgeoning of the civil rights movement. My book, “The Education of A Black Radical,” is full of untold stories from the inside of the civil rights movement. One of the remaining two books I will write will focus on my experiences in later years, in the 1970s when I was deeply involved in progressive and radical politics in Northern California. The other volume will be the story of my return to Memphis, a look at some of the city’s political and economic power brokers, and the documented inside story of the founding of the National Civil Rights Museum. For me, writing is therapeutic. It allows a release and reflection on internalized experiences drawn into perspective.

      TSD: What was the spark that ignited your activism, your source of inspiration?

      Bailey: It may have been when during my teen years my daddy got fired from his job as a train porter with the Illinois Central Railroad and I called the company president’s office in Chicago. Daddy was reinstated but not because of my call. Or maybe my activism started when I was fired from my high school job as an orderly at John Gaston Hospital for speaking back to a white supervisor. Afterward, I sat outside the hospital boardroom waiting to protest but the board would not hear me. I didn’t get my job back. But, in both instances, I knew that the right thing to do – if you felt aggrieved – was to take your grievance to the highest level possible.

      TSD: Did you show independence and possess leadership skills at an early age?

      Bailey: My earliest leadership was probably as a patrol captain for the street safety patrol at LaRose Elementary. In high school, I was president of the Counts, a citywide teenage men’s club, and “Sweetheart” of a girls social club centered mostly at Carver High School. I also did a teenage radio show three days a week, 15 minutes a day on WLOK.

      TSD: Was civil rights and the pursuit of freedom and equality talked about in the home while growing up with your mother and father?

      Bailey: In my home on Sundays we would listen to “Brown America Speaks” with Nat D. Williams on WDIA. Professor Williams was an early 1950s voice for the dignity and rights of black people. When blacks boycotted The Commercial Appeal newspaper because the newspaper would not use courtesy titles in referring to blacks, and to get the paper to stop running the daily Hambone’s Meditations, which caricatured blacks, my family stopped taking the paper, and only later resumed taking it once a week. When my mother took us downtown she wouldn’t let us eat in the white stores where blacks had to stand because, as she explained, “We weren’t horses and shouldn’t have to eat standing up.”

      TSD: In Memphis, the Tri-State Defender was there to report and photograph the good, bad and the ugly side of the civil rights movement. Were you inspired by some of these stories to pursue justice for African Americans?

      Bailey: The Tri State Defender and other black publications informed and inspired me with their detailed stories about the killing of Emmitt Till, the white riots to keep black kids out of Central High School in Little Rock, and the courageous struggle of Negro leaders like King, Rosa Parks and Roy Wilkins who spoke up and took to the front lines in the fight for racial justice. One of my most important friends and mentors in high school was Thaddeus Stokes, a leading black journalist who left the Atlanta Daily World to lead the Memphis World newspaper.

      TSD: Would you say you were rooted in civil rights activism?

      Bailey: In high school my brother, Walter, and I did volunteer work with the Shelby County Democratic Club, the vanguard black civil rights organization in this city, which took the lead in mobilizing black voters around a civil rights agenda. We were inspired by the dedicated, courageous and visionary leadership of Russell Sugarmon, A.W. Willis, Jesse Turner, O.Z. Evers, Vasco and Maxine Smith, Melvin Robinson, Fred Davis and others. Some of these leaders came, in later years, to greatly disappoint me as narrow and self-serving. I will talk about some of that in my book on Memphis.

      TSD: Forty-two years after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., have things changed for the better for African Americans?

      Bailey: The economic, educational and social status of blacks is worsening and we are statistically worse off now than we were 10 years ago. By the time of his death, Dr. King knew that structural inequality was unyielding for black Americans. In 1967, (Dr. King) spoke: “For years I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of the society, a little change here, a little change there. Now I feel quite differently. I think you’ve got to have a reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values.”

      TSD: Where do we go from here in a diverse society?

      Bailey: If we continue on our current trend, a small number of us will slip through and be absorbed with token jobs and more pay, but an increasingly greater number of our people will fall through the cracks. Then those who think they made it upwards will come to the rude awakening that they have been isolated, marginalized and will get kicked in the butt at the will of the corporate establishment. We must first rebuild our respect and faith in ourselves and move from materialism to self-sacrifice and renewed struggle for racial, social and economic justice, and in the words of Dr. King “reconstruction of the entire society.”

      TSD: Is race still a hindrance in today’s politics?

      Bailey: When Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers and the activists in Selma and Mississippi and other places fought for the right to vote, it was so we could get officials in office who would be dedicated to fighting for the rights of our people. Now, too many black officeholders use politics for their own economic and personal advancements and are silent on the real issues disproportionately affecting black communities. We need to step back and realize that money and special influence control many black as well as white politicians. We have got to mobilize, get back on the streets and in the public meetings so we will know first-hand what’s going on, and keep pressure on these politicians to keep them honest and accountable.                     

Brooks on Brooks!

If the Shelby County Commission chamber had been a classroom and Commissioner Henri Brooks had been Pablo Pereyra's teacher, the admonishment that she directed at the real estate agent during a May 12th Commission meeting likely would not have caused such a firestorm.

But that was not the scenario that played out. Brooks' upbraiding of Pereyra was a key element in a scene that set off a chain reaction, including calls for Brooks' resignation, an apology from her, or a resolution of censure from the Commission.

     During a meeting Tuesday afternoon with the editorial staff of The New Tri-State Defender, Brooks moved to put the swirling controversy in what she considers the correct context.

Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks makes her point.

"Any move to do anything to me can't be done. Nothing can be done to me," said Brooks, noting that she was right for admonishing Pereyra, asserting that her "detractors" and "opponents" are stirring a media firestorm in an effort to singe her chances of winning the race for Juvenile Court clerk.

"My campaign is focused on July 18 (early voting). I'm gonna get my base out and I will be winning. Juvenile Court can start packing up now," said Brooks.

Making it clear that she didn't want to dwell on what transpired at the Commission meeting or respond to sound bites, Brooks, however, did want to set the record straight.

"He (Pereyra) made a mistake and I corrected him," said Brooks, a former teacher.

During the Commission meeting, Brooks determinedly voiced concern about the awarding of a $1.7 million county roofing contract to a firm that employed 25 Hispanic roofers and no African Americans. At one point, Pereyra was given the floor, using the opportunity to draw upon his Hispanic background to make the case that Hispanics are the "minority of minorities" in Memphis. That's when Brooks unleashed a sternly-worded shot of her view of relevant history.

"You asked to come here. We did not, and when we got here, our condition was so egregious, so barbaric," said Brooks. "Don't ever let that (the minority of minorities reference) come out of your mouth again because, you know what, that hurts your case. Don't compare the two, they're not comparable."

In the session with the TSD editorial staff, Brooks said, "I knew something was going on when that man spoke. He didn't have to speak. He had the vote. He got up to talk about his experience and they knew that would push my button. It made me angry. What I said was a fact."

Brooks said she became suspicious of Pereyra after he acknowledged that he represented a real estate company in Nevada that purchased tax property from the Shelby County Land Bank, which the commission had approved by a vote of 4-3.

"He said he is the representative of Anthony Joseph Sy (also known as Anthony Syevades)," said Brooks, pointing out that Sy had acted as an unlicensed broker in 740 real estate purchase transactions on behalf of buyers at foreclosure auctions, which landed him in U.S. District Court.

"We're getting ready to take property away from a black man and give it to a man in Nevada who has 740 counts of fraud," she said.

The other issue that concerned Brooks was the $1.7 million roofing contract that the commission had awarded to B Four Plied Inc. to replace the roof on a county-owned building at Shelby Farms.

Brooks argued that B Four Plied Inc. should hire employees from the dominant ethnic group in Shelby County, which is African American. She said she advocates for African Americans who put her in office, and that the whole shebang is all about economics and fair play.

Q&A

The New Tri-State Defender: Was B Four Plied Inc. in compliance when the company received the roofing contract?


Henri Brooks: You can institute policy to implement a law and it would have a disparate impact on black folks. That's what's going on. We're not getting any contracts. The policy is cumbersome. We don't even get a piece of anything. If we do, they want to use our name only. Then they pay you off. It's a sad situation. It's going to get worse.

TSD: You took umbrage at the company that was awarded the roofing contract. Why?


HB: We are both ethnic minorities. The workforce should reflect the demographics of the county. That's fair. That's humane. That's equal. It has been my philosophy, my intent...and we've talked about it on the County Commission, that when a company receives a county contract or taxpayer dollar project, at least the workforce should reflect the demographics of the county.

This particular contract really caught my attention because it came down three times. We sent it back each time for the same reason, because it did not have any black employees. ... And black people are the dominant population here in this county. To ignore that makes me very uncomfortable.

We talk about the poverty in this city...we have to understand what the underpinning of poverty is. Those policies that we make to implement law, those are the kinds of things that are...malignant. For some reason, they don't understand. When we don't make money, we cannot pay taxes. When you don't pay taxes, then you're not a productive citizen.

You can have all kinds of small businesses and skip over black people, but you're in compliance with the law. So it's those policies that we use to implement the law. We're still in compliance with the law, but we're still having a disparate impact on another group of people. That statement in itself doesn't mean that you're trying to give special attention or preference. You're just trying to be fair.

We have a fiduciary responsibility to be good stewards of the taxpayers' dollars, to make sure it's evenly spread and that people who come here do not give the appearance of being discriminatory. Title VI and Title VII come into play here. No one has ever filed a lawsuit against the county; it is ripe for a Title VI lawsuit and a Title VII.

TSD: Explain the reason for the "sheet" comment regarding your fellow commissioner, Chris Thomas?


HB: That resolution had been down three times. It was on its third hearing, and each time we'd send it back for the same reason. Each time during committee, Chris Thomas was the one who wanted to push it, always wanted to give a speech that we need to move forward, that we're complying with the law. When I referred to the sheet, I was talking about a cover-up.

TSD: How can you change a policy that you say is unfair to African Americans?


HB: We got to get the people with the courage to change it. Seven votes can buy Japan. You need seven courageous votes to take a stand for right. You don't have enough black people with backbone to stand up and speak the truth. I'm saying be fair and equal.

TSD: Is there a percentage of African-American businesses getting contracts in Shelby County?


HB: One of the certification agencies here, when that question is asked about doing business with black people, they aggregate the total number that certified companies are doing, and they say this is the amount of business that black people are doing. That's not the way you do it. That's making figures lie. What you do is, you take the number and you divide by the number of participation. I filed a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee in 1998 for contracts: 0.1 percent. It hasn't changed.

TSD: Is there a standing committee that oversees contracts?


HB: We all do that. All 13 of us can sit on and vote on every committee. Some of us are assigned to various committees as chairpersons. But we can all sit and have a vote on the committee.

TSD: It appears you're the only local leader leading the charge. Why?


HB: When you start talking about the money, the pocketbook, economic issues, people get a little crazy, and they'll pull out every rabbit that they can out of the hat to keep you from getting your fair share. That's wrong. We're not saying that anybody should get more than the other. It should be fair across the board. Nobody should discriminate – red, black, green, yellow. And then no one should be denied the opportunity to participate, particularly when you have a federal law, state law and county ordinance. So why won't other people say what I say? You think about it.

TSD: Is there a difference between minorities as it relates to the law?


HB: Quite frankly, there's an unspoken rule. Ethnic minorities do not compare themselves. If you look at Title VI, you'll find that Hispanics are mentioned and blacks are mentioned as protective beneficiaries. It just says that we have suffered discriminatory expenditures of federal dollars. So we're both in the same group. Title VI protects us both. So there's no need to compare each other.

TSD: Do you think your admonishment of Mr. Pablo Pereyra was misconstrued?


HB: In Memphis and Shelby County, the backdrop here...everything is about race, whether we want to admit it or not. It's just a fact. It's a reality. I'm not in denial. If most of us would come out of denial and deal with the substantive issues of race or talk about it in a substantive way, in a setting, then I think we might move a little further than where we are now. It takes individuals who are intelligent, who have knowledge of history...who have some self-esteem...who have knowledge of self to be able to talk about that. And I can do that.... As I expressed in committee, I am who I am and I am proud to be who I am. I am a black woman and I am proud of my ethnicity.

TSD: If the issue was the same and Mr. Pablo Pereyra were to address the commission again, would you respond the same way?


HB: Yes I would. I stand by my comments. I said nothing wrong. It was factual. It was correct. As a schoolteacher, I corrected a young man who made a mistake. If you get up in front of me and make a historical or factual misstatement, I will correct you. I would not want anyone to think that his condition, or his story...well, his experience here in America is just like mine. It's not. It's totally different. And I can say that in a non-confrontational way, in an instructional way. If he doesn't understand, he needs to understand. So I would like to think that I helped someone with an accurate knowledge of history.

TSD: Your "detractors" or "opponents" have called you a racist. Can you respond to that assertion?


HB: How can I be a racist? They need to go and look up the definition of racist. People are talking, but they don't know. They're speaking hateful terms or ugly terms... so their intent is to malign or marginalize me. But what they've done is marginalize their intellect because they're not taking the time to just go to Webster and look up the definition of racist. Now do I love my people? Of course I do...and proud to be a black woman...very proud to be black and, secondly, female. I support my people. I support the least of these. Some of the least of these are not my people. They don't look like me. They look like the gentleman who stood before me, that came before the committee.

TSD: Will the fallout jeopardize your chances of winning the Juvenile Court Clerk's race?


HB: This is not going to hurt nothing. My base is going to vote for me anyway. I have sense enough to know...I'm old enough and have seen the polls to know that white people in this town do not like opinionated, strong, intelligent black women who speak truth to power, know what they're talking about, and can back it up with research.

I'm really clear about who my supporters are. This is not going to hurt my chances at all. The only thing that will hurt my chances is that our people won't come out to vote. ... I'm gonna get my base out and I will be winning. Juvenile Court can start packing up now. I've already started going down there.

People have been so supportive. And what has really been encouraging ... the black women who have been so supportive. Goodness gracious! What they've done is send people to my campaign headquarters. When black women support you, you know you're doing the right thing.

TSD: Will the fallout hurt other Democratic candidates if they align with you?


HB: I do not pay them (detractors) any attention. They're going to put the most negative spin on this as they can. I don't listen to them; I listen to the people who actually put me in office and have kept me in office for decades. This is not my first scrape. I have been burned in effigy at high noon on War Memorial Plaza for speaking up or for exercising my First Amendment right. And I'm going to continue to exercise my First Amendment right. It is not my intent to cause anyone to lose votes for aligning with me.

TSD: Do you think you need Hispanic, white and black votes to win the Juvenile Court Clerk's race?


HB: I need everybody's vote. I want everybody's vote, because what I'm doing is the right thing for families, youth and children. Remember, I'm the one who filed the complaint with the Justice Department in 2007 because of the violations of the constitutional rights of children. I didn't say black children. I said children at Juvenile Court. I need everybody's vote, because what I want to do is fix a serious problem that's been going on for decades.

TSD: Is the good ole boy network alive and well? And are you still fighting it?


HB: Sure. I've always fought the good ole boy network. That's who runs this town. I say that with knowledge because I've been sitting as a policymaker on the local level for eight years and I've sat as a policymaker on the state level for 14 years. And I do have a tendency to read; I can read. So I understand where the dollars are going. And I do follow the money, and the money is not coming into the black community.

TSD: Why is there so much media attention when you speak on issues affecting African Americans?


HB: The powers that be want us to be docile. They want us to be submissive and they want us to be quiet while they run around and do what they want to do...wreak havoc on families and children economically. I can't be quiet about it. I wasn't raised that way. I have to do for the least of these. So I can't do for the least of these if I don't speak up for the wrong that I see. ... It is incumbent upon me as an elected leader, as an elected official, as a policymaker, to ensure that the policies are fair for all citizens no matter what their ethnicities are – all citizens.

TSD: Do you believe in diversity?


HB: I think it should be a melting pot. In a melting pot, it all comes together and there's no fine line. With diversity, you got to have these lanes – some over here, some over there. I don't really like that word. It's so intentional, made up, so phony to me. Melting pot is real.

Memphis VA not immune from national scandal pushback

The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Memphis

By Wiley Henry

Before the VA hospital scandal made its way to Washington, D.C., and landed squarely on the desk of President Barack Obama, the Memphis VA Medical Center was mired in its own scandal in 2012, the year three patients died in the emergency room. An investigation ensued and the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) Office of Healthcare Inspections concluded that the deaths resulted from inadequate care.

Widespread problems with the nation's hospitals for veterans – including recent reports of delayed treatments, preventable deaths, and efforts to falsify records – drew a strong rebuke from the president: "I will not stand for it," said Obama, who met with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki in the Oval Office last week prior to a news conference.

The VA facility in Phoenix particularly drew the ire of the president and prompted the OIG to investigate. The inspector general announced the department's findings on Wednesday (May 28th): At least 1,700 veterans at the medical center were not registered on the proper waiting lists to see the doctors, thereby causing veterans to be at risk of being forgotten or lost.

A number of reports were released by the OIG within the last few days in response to a number of allegations that were brought to light by confidential complainants and substantiated by the OIG after concluding its investigations.

The sweeping allegations of misconduct and questionable medical practices at the veteran facilities have drawn sharp criticism from Ninth Congressional District U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who pledged his support to the nation's veterans. He has also invited Shinseki to come to Memphis to reassure the nearly 200,000 veterans served by the VA hospital here that their concerns are taken seriously.

On Tuesday (May 27th) afternoon, State Rep. G.A. Hardaway and State Rep. Karen Camper, a veteran herself, facilitated a town hall meeting for veterans at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library. They took notes and recorded the veterans' testimonies in hopes of locating resources that may be available at the local, state and federal levels.

Following the investigation of the Memphis facility a year ago, the inspector general mandated corrective action. The call for corrective measures came after an anonymous complainant alleged that a patient with a drug allergy was given the wrong medication and died. A second patient died after being administered multiple sedating drugs and left unattended. And a third patient with very high blood pressure died after treatment was delayed.

Last week, Tennessee's U.S. senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, inquired about updates on changes made at the facility via a letter sent to Robert A. Petzel, the Department of Veterans Affairs' undersecretary for health.

Changes at the VA hospital...

According to the Memphis VA hospital, changes have already begun in the emergency department. The hospital will spend approximately $5 million to renovate and expand the Emergency Department (ED) to improve urgent care delivery and access for its patients. The work will be executed in three phases and take about 1.5 years to complete.

One of the primary changes includes relocating the admissions area to the first floor of the Bed Tower. Structural changes also include closing some entrances and opening others to accommodate the flow of patient, employee and visitor traffic.
Only patients with "true" emergencies, or life-threatening issues, will be permitted to enter through the emergency room.

Other changes have already begun to take place, hospital officials said Wednesday in response to an inquiry from The New Tri-State Defender. A new nurse manager with ED experience, for example, has been hired along with 14 additional nurses. Training for the nursing staff also will be expanded to ensure they are competent and certified.

A Patient Care Assistant desk has been established that navigates 25 percent of patients with minor complaints to an appropriate provider instead of directly to the ED. And to expedite dispositions, patient flow coordinators have been established in the ED to communicate the status of patient tests with providers.

Additional administrative staff has been hired as well and an Admissions Office has been designated to coordinate admissions and transfers. Still other changes are being made as well to improve medical care for its veterans, according to the written response for the Memphis VA.

Reiterating his support...

Cohen said three congressional staffers at his Memphis office work daily on veteran affairs and that much of their constituent service is centered on veterans.

"With more and more of our nation's veterans returning from combat suffering from PTSD and serious injuries, I will continue supporting the president's efforts to make sure they are treated with the utmost respect and receive timely, high-quality care at the Memphis VAMC or any other VAMC," Cohen said.

Some of the problems with veteran hospitals could be solved if Congress appropriates more funding for more doctors and health care professionals, said Cohen.

There was a proposal to increase funding for the nation's veterans hospitals, he said, "but the Republicans refused to fund it. They stopped it in the Senate. Some of the problems are a lack of funding and the Republicans refuse to fund it."

Having their say...

The veterans who came out to the town hall meeting on Tuesday afternoon had much to say about the VA fiasco that is triggering calls for reform. Several were quite vocal about their own personal experiences regarding health care and other veteran issues.

Some of them talked about the city providing homes for struggling veterans and homeless people and using vacant school buildings, if they could be repurposed as transitional homes or facilities. One veteran spoke about his dissatisfaction with the VA hospital.

More than 70 veterans and their families attended the meeting.

"The goal was to get information directly from the veterans through their testimonies," said Hardaway.

Randy Wade, a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, advocated for veterans in his former job as district director for Cohen. At Tuesday's hearing he polled the veterans to ascertain the number who were dissatisfied with the treatment they've received from the VA hospital.

"About 99 percent are unhappy," said Wade, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the local VA hospital. Wade's former co-worker, Willie Henry Jr., Cohen's deputy director, was present and spoke briefly.

Hardaway said hospitals such as Regional One Health (formerly the Regional Medical Center) could stand in the gap for the VA hospital in terms of immediacy of services.

"We want to look to see what we can do to bring in the MED, Methodist, the University of Tennessee – whatever local medical services we have – to complement the services that the VA hospital isn't delivering."

The VA hospital, Hardaway said, should be held accountable for the job that it is charged to do to ensure accessibility and provide affordable care to veterans. He said the veterans' testimonies would be shared with some of the state agencies and made available to Sen. Alexander's office as well.

Hardaway's deceased brother was a Vietnam-era Marine and his father, also deceased, was a World War II Army veteran.

"It's personal to me," he said.

(TSD freelance reporter Ashley Grandberry contributed to this story.)