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.

Young Actors Guild of Memphis Celebrates 32 Years as the ‘Harriet’ Comes to Life

Kirsten Harrell, seen here practicing her dance moves, is an
18-year-old Middle College High School student in Memphis and
a company YAG dancer. (Photos by Wiley Henry)

Josie Aldridge, a 13-year-old eighth-grade student from Olive
Branch, Miss., performs spoken word art during a rehearsal
at the Harriet Performing Arts Center.

MEMPHIS, TN – The Harriet Performing Arts Center is home to the Young Actors Guild (YAG) of Memphis. On Feb. 19, the day YAG was born 32 years ago, Chrysti Chandler will celebrate the art center’s second grand opening at 3 p.m.

Located at 2788 Lamar Ave. and Pendleton Street in the historic Orange Mound/Bethel Grove community, this grand opening completes the second round of renovations to the Harriet, which had been an old vacant fire station that Chandler purchased in 2019 from the City of Memphis for $1. 

“All we had to do was renovate it,” she said. 

Chandler contacted three architectural firms to convert the 4000 sq ft. Fire Station No. 22 into multi-purpose studio spaces for three-to 18-year-olds to practice their craft: performing arts, creative arts, theatre, writing, etc.

They all turned her down, she said. “They didn’t think we had the money – which we didn’t.” After running into one of the principles at Self+Tucker Architects, the firm offered to help. 

“We knew we were going to persevere,” she said.

Chandler raised more than $200,000 from the sale of hotdogs, hamburgers, and popcorn at FedExForum to renovate the fire station’s interior first. “We did carwashes and the parents donated too,” she said.

The second phase – the facade – “was completed this week,” said Chandler, and cost around $200,000 as well. Landscaping, lights, a freedom path walk, and signage, which Self+Tucker is designing, will complete the third and final phase sometime in January 2024. 

Although the arts center is named after Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist who freed dozens of slaves via the Underground Railroad, Chandler was inspired to open the Harriet after visiting the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles, Calif. 

“We took students there on a college tour in 2018,” she said. “When we drove up, we were right in the ’hood just like we’re in the ’hood in Orange Mound. Those kids that came to her studio were so happy.”

Chandler was confident she could do the same thing in Orange Mound, where she grew up, that Allen had done in California. When she returned to Memphis, she began the arduous work of bringing the Harriet to life.

Since 1991, the year Chandler founded YAG, countless students practiced each Saturday and sometimes on Sunday to hone their talent, to sharpen their skills. The youth group has flourished since then, even without a facility to call their own.

The LeMoyne-Owen College Student Center Little Theater was YAG’s first location. There are two satellite locations: one at 619 North Seventh St. and the other at 1926 First Commercial Dr. N. in Southaven, Miss.

Students come from as far away as Mississippi and Arkansas and other places outside of Memphis to be a part of YAG. Their parents and grandparents lend a helping hand as well, Chandler said. 

Josie Aldridge, a 13-year-old eighth-grade student at Center Hill Middle School in Olive Branch, Miss., joined the group when she was seven years old. She’s on the cusp of doing something great.

An aspiring writer and spoken-word artist, Josie is a little shy – until she takes the stage and delivers a panoply of poetry. But Chandler and her team first helped Josie to release her inhibitions. 

“It helped me come out of my comfort zone. Without it, I wouldn’t have shared any of my writings in the first place,” said Josie, who was inspired to write after listening to the art of spoken word.

“Originally, I was writing songs. But I stopped doing that because I heard other spoken word [art] online, especially during quarantine,” she said. “So, I started writing my own.” 

“They come alive on stage,” said Chandler, referring to Josie and other standouts who shine when they’re facing an audience.

“Josie is phenomenal,” added Sabrina Norwood, YAG’s executive director. “We always tell young people to find their purpose.”

Many of them did – and excelled. 

Gideon McKinney was a 2006 semi-finalist in Season 5 of American Idol; Kris Thomas competed in Season 4 of The Voice in 2013; and Evvie McKinney, Gideon’s sister, won the first season of The Four: Battle for Stardom in 2018. 

“Ms. Chrysti has a gift of putting people in the right place so that they can thrive,” said Norwood, adding: “We’re excited that young people have an awesome space to come to. We finally made our house a home.”

The Harriet’s funding sources vary. The major supporters are ArtsMemphis, which has naming rights to the dance studio; and Memphis Music Initiative, which has naming rights to the donor wall.

The Greater Memphis Chamber will snip the ribbon on Feb. 19.

Tyre Nichols’ Death Set Off Raw Emotions and a Change at MPD

 MEMPHIS, TN – The savage beatdown that five Black police officers inflicted upon Tyre Nichols during a purported traffic stop, set off a powder keg of raw emotions and a call for change at the Memphis Police Department.

When the city of Memphis released the video on Jan. 27, Bianca Baker said she wept. Then anger welled up in her and intensified. 

“You wouldn’t treat a dog the way they treated this man,” she said. “I have sons. What got me was when he called out for his mother.”

For Baker, the video was quite excruciating to watch. For Jacqueline Jordan, it dredged up painful memories of her own son, Brandon K. Jordan, who was killed in Nashville five years ago. 

Brandon, then 22, was a student at Tennessee State University during the day and worked at FedEx at night. He didn’t know the killer and his two accomplices. They didn’t know him either.

He never saw them coming on the night he was gunned down or knew their intentions. The killer just fired two rounds and snuffed out Brandon’s life and ended his dream of becoming a sports commentator.

Now Jordan wonders if Brandon had called for her like Nichols had called for his mother, RowVaughn Wells, who along with her husband, Rodney Wells, shared their pain with the media. 

Nichols’s desperate cry for his mother was ignored by the five officers who pummeled him to death less than a hundred yards from his home, ironically, in the same subdivision where Jordan once lived.

Wells said she felt pain in her stomach around the time when Desmond Mills, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin, and Tadarrius Bean roughhoused her 29-year-old son on Jan. 7. He died on Jan. 10. 

“Innocent people are always getting hurt,” said Jordan. “I know how Tyre’s mother feels. I am a mother too. Every day I think about my baby.”

MPD Police Director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis terminated all five officers on Jan. 18. Each one faces second-degree murder; aggravated assault, acting in concert; two counts of aggravated kidnapping; two counts of official misconduct; and official oppression.

Baker is calling for a charge of first-degree murder for each ex-officer. “They beat him and kicked him like he was a roach,” she said. “I think they intentionally tried to kill him.”  

On Saturday, Jan. 28, Davis disbanded MPD’s Scorpion unit after calls for its disbandment rose to a feverish pitch. The ex-officers posted bail; they’re scheduled to be arraigned in mid-February.

Bennie Cobb, a retired captain with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office who has 37 years in law enforcement, said Davis had done the right thing. He, too, had called for MPD’s Scorpion unit to be disbanded.

“What you have is these guys under the color of law running and gunning and stopping people, trying to develop probable cause,” Cobb opined. “The stop itself was a pretext stop.”

Cobb explained that a pretext stop in law enforcement is not unusual. “You make the stop and then develop a probable cause afterward,” he said. “That’s what they were doing.” 

He didn’t want to see the video initially. But when he was called upon by the media to give his expert analysis on Nichols’s fatal beating, he looked carefully at the video and analyzed it.

The charges are warranted, said Cobb, owner of Eagle Eye Security Consultant and Training, where he trains police officers, security personnel, or interested citizens. 

He also teaches self-defense classes, handgun safety, and de-escalation techniques, which the ex-officers didn’t employ, he said, adding, “Not one time did I see any real resistance. I didn’t see him fighting back.”

 

Cobb equates Nichols’s beatdown to a gang initiation when new members allow themselves to be “jumped in” as a sign of strength and courage. In her opinion, Jordan believes the ex-officers behaved like a pack of wolves.

Memphis set a record in 2021 with 346 murders, according to FBI data. Cobb said an enforcement unit is needed in such cases and believes the Scorpion unit will return most likely under another name.

“You have to have an enforcement unit with a clear mission statement, a strong supervisor, and address complaints as they come in,” he said, and added that Nichols’s death was a result of excessive force.

Master Chef Takes Cooking to a Higher Level

 

Fried catfish plate served at The Grilled Asparagus. 

MEMPHIS, TN – The little quaint restaurant sizzles on the inside where succulent cuisine is artfully created by a master chef – like DaVinci painting the “Mona Lisa,” for example. 

The cuisine is just as much a work of art as it whets the appetite. The master chef is Christopher E. Beavers. The quaint little restaurant, which Beavers is the sole proprietor, is called The Grilled Asparagus.

“It goes back to the name culinary arts. It is the art of cooking,” Beavers explained.   

Located at one end of a strip of small businesses, The Grilled Asparagus is south of Crosstown Concourse at 431 North Cleveland Street and Autumn Avenue, where the small businesses thrive.

The building’s exterior is painted charcoal gray; its facade is nondescript. But the aroma of mouth-watering food wafts within the cozy and elegant space. A sign bearing the name of the restaurant hangs overhead.

The Grilled Asparagus serves an array of dishes between soul food and specialized entrées that one may find on the menu at four-star restaurants. Whatever your palate craves – vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian – Beavers makes it happen.

In addition to the succulent meals that he prepares at the restaurant, Beavers is a well-known chef who personally cooks for celebrities, judges, attorneys, doctors, and others. His clientele varies. 

He is a culinary artist per se whose kitchen skills were sought by the late Bud Davis of Bud Davis Cadillac of Memphis, the late Lorenzen Wright and Rudy Gay, former standouts for the Memphis Grizzlies.

“My longest tenure was when I was a personal chef for the Memphis Grizzlies,” he said.

Beavers served as the personal chef for the Grizzlies for four years and R&B singers Anita Baker and Ginuwine. He also cooked for other NBA players, coaches, community leaders, Memphis City Schools, and politicians.

The Reeves Law Firm in Memphis is currently a client. “We provide food for them daily,” he said.

Beavers has built a steady clientele of celebrities whose taste buds vary as much as the diverse dishes he serves. But then he would like to attract more blue-collar workers and young people to the restaurant.

Not too many young people, he said. Either way, he’s familiar with various dishes when cooking for both celebrities and blue-collar workers.

“It’s kind of hard to find that medium,” he said, “where you’re attracting the clientele that I’ve built up, but also attract this new crowd that has money to spend.” 

So, what is Beavers’ style of cooking? “It's kind of hard to peg a particular style or class of cooking,” he said, choosing instead to be versatile and consistent when cooking for his clients. 

“I used to say versatility and creativity. But [the] clientele doesn’t want creativity, they want consistency. They don’t want a new macaroni and cheese; they want the same one from last year.”

Beavers’ interest in cooking began when he was a child growing up on Seventh Street in North Memphis. He graduated from Manassas High School in 1994 and chose to pursue a career in cooking.

“I just wanted to learn how to cook. It always interested me,” he said. “When I graduated from high school, I got a chance to go to culinary school. That’s how I got my culinary chef certification.”

Beavers earned his culinary arts degree from Kittrell Culinary School in Henderson, North Carolina, where he learned to develop his own unique style and flair. Then he began serving as a sous chef in five-star kitchens throughout Memphis.

“I became an entrepreneur in 2010, but I didn’t get a brick and mortar until 2019,” he said, referring to his little quaint restaurant, The Grilled Asparagus.

Success is not guaranteed, he said, although he’s been quite success thus far. But not all chefs are rated the same.

“I would say that more people underestimate how challenging being a chef is,” said Beavers, “even people who go to a culinary school to become a chef. They underestimate the tenacity, the strength that you’re going to [need] to do it every day.” 

Beavers said if a chef is cooking for hundreds, or thousands, it’s got to be right.

“You have to have the gift of taste to get it right,” he said. “It takes some intangible gifts to do this on a high level.”

Chef Christopher E. Beavers can be reached at 901-406-8581.

Trailblazing Pharmacist’s ‘Incredible Life and Legacy’ Spanned 65 Years

 

The late Dr. Charles A. Champion had served the Memphis
community since 1981, the year he launched Champion's Pharmacy
and Herb Store. Here, in this 2014 photo, he's mixing a gel-based
ointment with a spatula. (Photo by Wiley Henry)

MEMPHIS, TN – He was a “Pill-er of the Community,” one of several slogans Dr. Charles A. Champion used to promote Champion’s Pharmacy & Herb Store in the Whitehaven community.

A longtime independent pharmacist, Dr. Champion was widely known for dispensing both traditional drugs and herbal remedies. He’d spent more than 40 years building a loyal customer base. 

On Jan. 21, Dr. Champion died, bringing an end to a total of 65 years in pharmacy. He was 92.

The family expressed the loss of Dr. Champion in a statement to the media that underscores his “incredible life and legacy.”

“Dr. Champion spent his career creating and providing remedies to treat many common illnesses,” the statement reads. “His dedication and love for people and his community were evident in his work. 

“The joy Dr. Champion found in serving others was immeasurable, and we are grateful to everyone who trusted him and Champion’s Pharmacy & Herb Store with their health and wellness needs.”

The statement concludes with an appeal for the community to continue to carry Dr. Champion “in your hearts and continue to ‘Live Like A Champion,’” a recent slogan heralded by the family.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland tweeted his condolences to Dr. Champion’s family. “I was saddened to hear about the death of Dr. Charles Champion. He was a true champion.” 

Strickland presented Dr. Champion with the key to the city in 2019.

Dr. Willie W. Herenton, the former mayor of Memphis, spoke highly of Dr. Champion, calling him a trailblazer in his profession of pharmacy in Tennessee and throughout the nation.

“We have loss a trailblazer…” he said. “He was loved and respected by many. He and I had a great friendship over the years. I had great admiration and respect for Dr. Champion.”

Herenton shared fond memories of meeting Dr. Champion for the first time after speaking with a neighbor in the early years. 

“I vividly remember my neighbor saying, ‘There’s a Black man that’s a doctor with a white coat on down in the shopping center,’” he recalls. “This was at Katz Drug Store (which first opened in Memphis in 1954).” 

Herenton said he walked down to the drugstore to see for himself. “I’d never seen a Black man behind a drugstore [sic] with a white coat on. That’s when I first met Champion,” he said.

Dr. Champion worked 12 years at Katz Drug Store. He was the first African-American pharmacist hired by the chain in the city. Before then, he’d worked 12 years in pharmacy at the former John Gaston Hospital in Memphis. 

Before his foray into pharmacy, Dr. Champion matriculated at Xavier University College of Pharmacy in New Orleans and graduated in 1955. He also spent two years in Germany in the United States Army as a pharmacist.

Dr. Champion and his wife, the former Carolyn Bailey, whom he married in 1958, first opened Champion’s Pharmacy & Herb Store in 1981 at 1925 Third Street and moved 10 years later to their current location at 2369 Elvis Presley Blvd.

Mrs. Champion served as the pharmacy’s business manager.

In 2021, when Dr. Champion was 90, he spoke candidly to The Tennessee Tribune about his life and legacy. He was semi-retired then. His daughters – Dr. Carol “Cookie” Champion and Dr. Charita Champion Brookins, both pharmacists – were running the day-to-day operation. 

“It's a godsend situation,” Dr. Champion told The Tribune. “After we lost our daughter Chandra (in 2014), who was a certified pharmacy technician, she’d produced two children who are able to help us from a financial standpoint and from a scientific standpoint.” 

Dr. Carol Champion had said she hopes to expand what her father had built. “I want to expand our territory and be able to grow the online sales,” she had said in 2021, “and possibly open a west Tennessee location within two to three years.”

Right now, the family is grieving the loss of the trailblazing founder of Champion’s Pharmacy & Herb Store, Dr. Charles A. Champion. 

Funeral arrangements: A wake for Dr. Charles A. Champion is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 29, from 2 p.m.-6 p.m. at Mt. Olive Cathedral CME Church, 538 Dr. MLK Jr. Ave., Memphis, TN 38126. The funeral is Monday at noon, Jan. 30, also at the church.

Tracy Bethea Makes History as WDIA’s New Program Director

Tracy Bethea

MEMPHIS, TN – Tracy Bethea has a few ideas in mind to expand WDIA’s reach into the community, such as taking The Bev Johnson Show on the road or Stan Bell showing up in a neighborhood park and playing music.

“WDIA [1070 AM] is a community station. It always has been. That's why they were the goodwill and good times station,” said Bethea, referring to a slogan the radio station used decades ago to promote its community involvement. 

Bethea now has an opportunity to implement her own ideas, forge her own path, as WDIA’s newest program director, a position that had been vacant since the death of Bobby O’Jay in May of last year.

Since Bethea is the program director and on-air personality for 95.7 Hallelujah FM, WDIA’s sister station, she had been “helping out” at WDIA before Sue “Big Sue” Purnell, senior vice president of programing for iHeartMedia Memphis, offered her the position.

“I was already doing things that programmers do anyway,” said Bethea, adding that a job search for the program director’s position had already been initiated before she was tapped for the job.  

Feeling a sense of joy and pride, Bethea still had to think about the offer and talk it over with her husband. It meant extra work, she said. [But] then she prayed about it and decided to take the job. 

“I said, you know what? This is a full circle moment for me. And to continue the legacy [at WDIA], it's my honor,” said Bethea, also giving honor to O’Jay for his groundbreaking work at the station.

“I learned a lot from him,” said Bethea. “And so, when I became a program director at Hallelujah FM, he would tell me, ‘Tracy, I'm so proud of you.’” The compliment still warms her heart.

Bethea’s “full circle moment” began in 1987 when she interned in the newsroom at WDIA, the first radio station in the country to switch its format in 1947 to all-Black programing and all-Black on-air personalities.

“I worked there for 10 years overnight and on Sundays,” said Bethea, mulling over her ascension at WDIA. Over the years, she was dubbed “The Young One,” the female voice of gospel.

She continued to climb the proverbial ladder one rung at a time. Her passion for the job soon blossomed into opportunities. One of them was launching the 24-hour gospel station KWAM 990 The Light, where she served as chief operator.

In 2002, she played an integral part in Clear Channel Communication’s launch of Hallelujah FM, also a 24-hour gospel station, before Clear Channel was rebranded iHeartMedia, Inc. 

Bethea has been with Hallelujah FM since its inception and has been programing since 2016. “We just celebrated 20 years on the radio,” she said, then touted the station’s rank among the top five in Memphis.

“We also have Hallelujah radio stations throughout the Southern region, including St. Louis; Jackson, Miss.; New Orleans; Birmingham, Ala.; Mobile, Ala.; Montgomery Ala.; and Savannah, Ga.”

iHeartMedia, Inc. syndicates Bethea’s mid-day show throughout the Southern region. She wears several titles now: Hallelujah FM’s program and music director, music supervisor of gospel for the iHeart Media Custom Brand, and now WDIA’s program director.

“I'm passionate about the station,” said Bethea. “I grew up on WDIA… and I want to take it higher. My plans are to first and foremost continue to be the heart and soul of Memphis.”

“The Heart & Soul of Memphis” is WDIA’s current slogan.

“Overall, the community is my biggest thing,” she said. “I want us to show up more in the community. But the music won't change because people love the music.”

Bethea has more than 30 years in radio. She is a two-time Stellar Award-winning “Announcer of the Year” and was inducted by the Stellar Awards in 2002 and 2016. She also accepted the award for “Radio Station of The Year” three times.

In 2015, Bethea was inducted into the Emissaries of Memphis Music, which was presented by the City of Memphis. She also served on several boards. Now she’s the first Black woman to take the helm as WDIA’s program director.

It didn’t dawn on Bethea that she’d made history “until Bev Johnson reminded me of it.”

Three Documentaries to Kick Off Black History Month

Chuck O'Bannon and Rosalind Withers (left) produced the
film "SNAP: A Look at Injustice in America." Annie Robinson and
O'Bannon (right) produced "United Front: The People's
Convention 1991 Memphis." Courtesy photos)

Marie V. Pizano

MEMPHIS, TN – A documentary is a film or video about a person or event based on facts. A documentary should also educate and bridge cultural divides, added Maria V. Pizano, founder and CEO of MVP3 Entertainment Group, which focuses of film, music, and community.

“This is part of my plan,” said Pizano, who is presenting a Black History Month series via MVP3, featuring three Memphis-based films: “Shannon Street: Echoes Under a Blood Red Moon,” “United Front: The People’s Convention 1991 Memphis,” and “SNAP: A Look at Injustice in America.”

“United Front” is screening Wednesday, Jan. 18, and “SNAP” is showing Wednesday, Feb. 1. “Shannon Street” was shown Jan. 11. 

The films are showing at Malco Paradiso, 584 S. Mendenhall Rd., with a meet and greet at 5:30 p.m., showtime at 6:15 p.m., and a panel discussion from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The Black History Month series benefit the South Memphis Alliance, which serves youth in foster care and families in need through social services, mentoring and advocacy.

“Shannon Street” digs for answers to that fateful night of Jan. 11, 1983, when a tactical squad from the Memphis Police Department stormed the home of Lindberg Sanders and killed seven Black men, including Sanders, after their hostage, officer Robert S. Hester, was beaten and heard pleading for his life.

“This is the 40th anniversary of Shannon Street,” said Pizano, an author, director and producer of the 90-minute documentary. The film’s grueling details, with reflections from both sides of the police-involved shooting, stir the conscience of those who remember the carnage.

“United Front” commemorates the 30^th anniversary of the 1991 African-American People’s Convention at the Mid-South Coliseum and the “people’s” selection of a qualified Black consensus candidate to take on the white incumbent Memphis Mayor Richard “Dick” Hackett.

Using the Democratic Convention as a model, Dr. Willie W. Herenton, formerly the superintendent of Memphis City Schools, emerged the victor and went on to eclipse Hackett for the office of mayor by a mere 147 votes.

Anniece Robinson, one of the convention’s “architects and conveners,” is the “United Front’s” executive producer. Chuck O’Bannon is producer and director of the 67-minute film.

“SNAP” gives us a glimpse in the life and legacy of Dr. Ernest C. Withers Sr., one of this nation’s most celebrated civil rights photographers. The film underscores the historic significance of Dr. Withers’s photography and what they really show.

An iconic photojournalist, Dr. Withers’s vast collection of images include the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, in Sumner, Miss., who were acquitted of killing Emmett Till, the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968, the Montgomery bus boycott, Negro league baseball, and others.

“SNAP” is presented by The Withers Collection and produced and directed by Chuck O’Bannon. Rosalind Withers, Dr. Withers’s daughter, is the film’s executive producer.

Pizano believes there aren’t enough people in Memphis who know about The Withers Collection. “It’s been here,” she said, “but what about the students? They don’t understand all this; so I want them to learn.”

A connoisseur of history, Pizano says Memphis fascinates her – which makes it “a perfect fit for me to show Shannon Street and to show these other films [United Front and SNAP] to build up toward Black History Month.”

For their work, Pizano said MVP3, her entertainment group, is honoring Anniece Robinson for “United Front,” and both Rosalind Withers and Chuck O’Bannon for “SNAP.”  

“This is history,” she said. “This is the first annual [Black History Month series]. I’d like to kick this off each year in January and build up toward Black History Month.”

Maria V. Pizano can be reached at 901-634-1724. Tickets to the Black History Month series are available, with contributions to South Memphis Alliance, at https://smaweb.harnessapp.com/wv2/donate.