Legacy: D'Army Bailey: ‘It is a moral imperative that somebody keep up the fight’

     

The late D'Army Bailey: Nov. 29, 1941 - July 12, 2015 (Photo: Tyrone P. Easley)

      D’Army Bailey’s storied life had public servant stamped throughout and yet he was much more than that.

      “He was truly a renaissance man,” said Mayor A C Wharton Jr., sharing a reflection of the late Mr. Bailey whose myriad spheres of influence included scholar, author, actor, civil rights activist, jurist, husband, father, mentor and – some would say – at times the “conscience” of Memphis.

      To Mr. Bailey, the husband of Adrienne Bailey and father to sons Justin and Merritt, public service and family life were inextricably linked, Justin Bailey said. “He was only here for 73 years, but he packed a lot in those 73 years.”

      Mr. Bailey died of lung cancer on Sunday, July 12.

      “My relationship with D’Army was a little different than my siblings and cousins,” said Javier Bailey, a nephew. “He stressed to me community activism. He said, ‘It is a moral imperative that somebody keep up the fight.’”

      Bailey described his uncle as ferocious, “one of the strongest fighters I had ever seen.”

      Mr. Bailey’s accomplishments were life-lessons for Justin Bailey, who recalls his father taking him through each step of the process when he founded and developed the National Civil Rights Museum. He and his brother were introduced to some of the top-tier players in the civil rights movement.

      “He showed us a lot. I used to joke with my dad. I called him the Black Forrest Gump because he was in the middle of everything,” said Justin, recalling a weeklong trip that he and his father took to Havana, Cuba in 2010 to meet the court president of the People’s Supreme Court, Cuba’s highest court.

      But it was the building of a museum from scratch that would remain an integral part of Justin’s life. “It’s an important piece in my lifetime,” he said.

      The National Civil Rights Museum encompasses the former Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Decay and neighborhood blight diminished the motel’s appeal and its owner became engulfed in debt.

      Seeing what had become of the motel, Mr. Bailey sprang to action and corralled people of means to save the motel from being auctioned off on the courthouse steps. He envisioned transforming it into a tourist attraction where the history of the civil rights movement and Dr. King’s legacy would be preserved.

      “Judge Bailey was a man of action,” said Beverly Robertson, who served 16 years as NCRM’s president. “He knocked on doors in Nashville to get support. He was a special person, a courageous foot soldier who never took no for an answer.”

      Noting that it was Mr. Bailey who stepped up to raise funds and secure state, county and city government help to bring about the National Civil Rights, Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis said Mr. Bailey’s vision and lifelong commitment to civil and human rights will not be forgotten.

      The NCRM opened amid nationwide fanfare in 1991.

      “As long as that museum lives, he will live,” said Robertson. “We’ve lost a unique individual whose legacy will long be remembered.”        

      Shelby County Mayor Mark H. Luttrell Jr. pointed to Mr. Bailey’s dedication to public service as his lifelong pursuit. “He served with fairness and professionalism in the judicial arena. Moreover, his guidance and expertise on civil rights and other community initiatives led to greater opportunities for the citizens of Shelby County.”

      Mayor Luttrell said Mr. Bailey had two admirable traits: “He knew exactly where he stood. And he was straightforward.”

      Early in his legal career, Mr. Bailey served as Mayor Wharton’s assistant when Wharton was chief public defender. He had the awesome responsibility of defending indigent individuals in death penalty cases, said Wharton.

      “As an attorney and judge, the North Star of his universe was an unshakeable belief that our government, particularly the judicial branch, had as its scared responsibility the protection of the powerless from the powerful.”

      Mr. Bailey practiced law for 16 years and served 19 years as a circuit court judge. He retired from the bench in 2009, went to work for the law firm Wilkes & McHugh P.A., and was elected again to the office last year.

      “His life was dedicated to the service of others from his early fights during the civil rights era to his last days defending the most vulnerable in Tennessee courtrooms,” said state Rep. Brenda Gilmore (D-Nashville). “He is a legend whose example we must never forget.”

      State Rep. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) said she grew up watching Mr. Bailey and followed him into the field of law.

      “His passion for not only the letter of the law, but the real people whom it impacted made him both tough and compassionate,” she said. “He believed in people and fought for them his whole life.”

      State Rep. JoAnne Favors (D-Chattanooga), said, “As a state, we are the eternal beneficiaries of his vision. As a nation, we are the beneficiaries of his life’s work. He was a legend.”

      Attorney and Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey said he and his brother “were inseparable in terms of our approach and beliefs. We fed off each other in our thoughts and ideas. His convictions and energies had a toxic effect and inspired other people.”

      He called his brother a “patriot” who was “committed to social change and took means and measures to execute those social changes.”    

Defending Nathan Bedford Forrest

     

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. (Photo: Wiley Henry)

      Calling for the removal of the Confederate flag and the disinterment of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate general and grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, is conjuring up mixed feelings and myriad opinions.

      The quagmire has even snagged the attention of an African-American professor at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas, whose opinion may surprise those on both sides of the debate when putting the legacy of Forrest and the Confederate flag in context.    

      “It’s sad in a way that they’re bringing down the Confederate flag,” said Stan Armstrong, an instructor in African-American Film and Ethnic Studies at UNLV and an African American and Choctaw filmmaker.

      “The Confederate flag is a religious flag,” said Armstrong, noting that the “stars and bars” design is an X-shape crucifixion of St. Andrews. It also was the battle flag of the Confederate States of America and used by hate groups as a symbol of racial hatred and bigotry.

      “It’s sad that people are being forced to do something that they don’t want to do. I’m neither pro nor against the Confederacy. It’s about understanding culture,” said Armstrong, who has studied the Civil War extensively and wrote his thesis on Forrest.

      The flag debate has been simmering since Memphis removed a huge granite marker to Forrest in January 2013 and since the city renamed three Confederate-themed parks in advance of a legislative vote to block the name changes.

      Republican state legislators subsequently filed The Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2013, but not before Confederate Park was changed to Memphis Park, Jefferson Davis Park to Mississippi River Park, and Nathan Bedford Forrest Park to Health Sciences Park.

      The descendants of Forrest also jumped into the fray. They vehemently resisted the removal of Forrest’s granite marker – paid for by the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) – and moved to stop the city in court.

      The Confederate flag debate, however, resurfaced after 21-year-old Dylan Storm Roof, the accused shooter of nine parishioners at historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., was seen in several photos waving the battle flag and burning the American flag in another.

      The Confederate flag has since caused a ripple of anti-sentiment and bitter discontent across America, particularly among African Americans, who are demanding the removal of all Civil War symbols from public places.

      South Carolina responded swiftly to the demand and henceforth ended the Confederate flag’s 54-year reign over the state’s capitol grounds. Memphis along with other cities are following suit to begin the process of removing anything that is deemed racist and offensive.  

      It is nothing more than a “knee-jerk” reaction to the horrific shooting of those nine African-American parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., said Lee Millar, a spokesman for SCV, a group of male descendants of Confederate veterans.

      “It is really, actually disgusting that people would use what happened to the nine victims to forward their own agenda about getting rid of the Confederate flag and other historic symbols like that,” said Millar, offering his condolences to the bereaved families and a sharp rebuke of Roof, who admitted that race motivated him to kill.

      “They ought to take the guy out and hang him,” said Millar. “Unfortunately, there are nut cases like that all over the country in all races.”

      The Confederate flag had nothing to do with the church shooting, Millar protested. He also said Forrest and his wife, Mary Ann, who are buried underneath a bronze statue in Forrest’s honor in Health Sciences Park, should not be disinterred. 

      Forrest died in 1877. He was originally buried in Elmwood Cemetery among other Confederate war veterans before his remains were moved in 1905 to the newly created Forrest Park. After the Charleston shooting, Mayor A C Wharton Jr. and City Council chairman Myron Lowery issued a proposal to have Forrest and is wife returned to Elmwood.

      In early July, the Memphis City Council voted unanimously to remove the remains of Forrest and his wife back to Elmwood Cemetery and to sell or relocate the equestrian statue of Forrest. The Tennessee Historical Commission and Forrest’s descendants, however, would have to grant the city permission before the move is made.

      “The city collectively as a whole has expressed concern about the presence of the monument,” said Wharton, following a recent news conference to talk about the burning of African-American churches. “It’s the right thing to do.”

      Plans also are afoot to remove the bust of Forrest from the Tennessee state capitol and to stop the state from issuing SCV vanity license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag, which Gov. Bill Haslam has said he supports.

      The whole Confederate shebang is throwing the country into a tailspin and leaving Millar and other Confederate supporters making a last ditch effort to save the last vestiges of the antebellum South from being banished to a museum.

      Millar is trying to make a case for the Confederate flag. “It means heritage. It does not mean hate. And it does not mean slavery,” he said, noting that 60,000 African-American southerners served among the Confederate forces, including those Forrest commanded.

      The facts surrounding the Confederate flag and Forrest’s exploits in and off the battlefield are often skewed. Millar and Armstrong, also a member of SCV, want to set the record straight. They’re trying to educate, clarify and debunk any myths surrounding the flag and the infamous general, slave owner and Klan leader.

      “The education system is very poor,” said Millar. “The kids in school learned that the South succeeded, that (President) Lincoln freed the slaves, and that the war was over. They don’t learn about the cause of the secession.”

      Millar argued that the secessionists broke away from the Union to start an independent country. “They broke away because of what they thought was a tyrannical government – exactly what the colonists did in The Revolutionary War.”

      Forrest rose to the rank of general after displaying military prowess. His reputation, however, was sullied after the slaughter of African-American Union soldiers who were allegedly surrendering at Fort Pillow, a former Confederate stronghold only 40 miles north of Memphis.

      “It’s a shame that his record had to be blackened by events at Fort Pillow,” said Armstrong, noting that people often listen to sound bites and don’t seek the truth when historical events are called into question.

      Forrest’s slave-trading business prior to the Civil War is another serious bone of contention that is still troubling to African Americans. While the facts are indisputable to some people, Armstrong said Forrest was a product of his time.

      “To me, slavery was about status and classism…just like it is today,” said Armstrong, calling Forrest a “descent guy” and “humanitarian.” “He was a slave trader who didn’t separate families. A lot of slaves probably lived better than white trash in Memphis. When he died, he probably had more black people in attendance than whites.”

      Both Armstrong and Millar dispute Forrest’s complicity in the dreaded Klu Klux Klan, purportedly a “social club” that six ex-Confederate soldiers founded in Pulaski, Tenn. Forrest was not the founder, said Millar, pointing out that the general was recruited because of his influence.

      Armstrong backs up Millar’s assertion, saying Forrest, who was the grand wizard by proxy, led the group until he disbanded them after they’d begun running amok and wreaking havoc among African Americans.

      There were three Klans, Millar said. The first was formed after the Civil War in December 1865 as a secret social group; the second, created around 1915, attempted to scare immigrants and African Americans away from jobs; and the third, formed in the 1950s, morphed into today’s hate group.

      “If you look at that Klan, they carried the American flag. None of them carried the Confederate battle flag,” said Millar. “People remember the third Klan because they were so radical.”

      Armstrong said he’s always been fascinated with Forrest, even though votes have been cast to disinter Forrest and his wife and relocate his bronze statue. Moreover, in city after city, the Confederate flag is now becoming a museum relic. 

      “It’s sad that it took nine lives to bring down the Confederate flag,” said Armstrong. “I believe we’ll never understand the Civil War in our lives.”

Virzola Jo-Nan Law chosen to lead historically white church

The Senior Minister Search Committee of Lindenwood Christian Church recently
elected Virzola Jo-Nan Law as their first female and first African American senior pastor. 

Virzola Jo-Nan Law is the first female and the first African American elected to serve in a senior clerical position at Lindenwood Christian Church, a historically white church located at the corner of Union Avenue and East Parkway in Midtown Memphis. The church is deeply rooted in the Memphis community dating back to 1853, before The Civil War raged, when the church was founded as Linden Avenue Christian Church. 

The Senior Minister Search Committee has referred to Law’s election as a “bold” and “historic” move on their part. The vote was unanimous on Wednesday (June 17) to affirm Law as its new senior pastor based on her credentials, past speaking engagements and two sermons that she delivered on June 14. She will assume her pastoral duties on Oct. 4 after wrapping up as Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church’s (Disciples of Christ) associate minister.

“We are extremely excited,” said Adrienne Sloan, chairperson of the Senior Minister Search Committee’s Search and Call listing, the process used to vet candidates. “Not only did we come to a unanimous decision, we agreed to do something different and bold. It was not only a hire…but you’re supposed to be led by God.”

Sloan said Lindenwood’s Board of Directors and the church congregants have been impressed with Law for several years now. In 2012 and each year thereafter, Law was one of seven area ministers tapped to deliver brief mediations on the “Seven Last Words of Christ” on Good Friday preceding Easter Sunday. 

“Pastor Law was one of our favorites,” said Sloan. “We are relatively familiar with her. A lot of people in the church said she’s an amazing preacher and that it would be good if we got her.”

 They now have her as their spiritual leader.

“I dreamed of a multicultural church,” said Law, a single mother of 23-year-old daughter Jasmin Williams. God, she said, had called her as a young child who would oversee a diverse church of mixed-race congregants. 

“To get the call affirmed my childhood dream, my seminary writing and my pastoral vocation. It is a call that God has chosen me to lead a church that would reflect a beloveth community.”

Law has served on the pastoral team at Mississippi Boulevard for 12 years. She’d relocated from Houston, Texas in 2003 to accept her first ministerial position at the church and never looked back. She’d served four years as the church’s youth pastor and stints as campus pastor, pastoral care pastor, pastor of the women’s ministry, pastor of outreach, and finally an associate minister.

“It has evolved like a flower that bloomed,” said Law, who was recommended by a congregant as a potential candidate for the position. 

“It is difficult for women in fulltime ministry in general and for African American women in particular,” she said. 

Women comprised 50 percent of available profiles through the denomination’s Search and Call listing… “so electing to not consider female candidates would have grossly impacted the potential candidate pool.” 

Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson, senior minister at Park Avenue Christian Church in New York and formerly the senior minister at Mississippi Boulevard, noted in a letter to the church: “…what a big, bold, bodacious, beautiful mission, and if you are true to it, nothing short of strong, visionary, courageous leadership and commitment is required.”

Law will replace Dr. William T. McConnell, the “Interim Transformational Senior Minister,” who was contracted in January 2013 to lead the church through its transitional period. He was tapped to replace the church’s last elected senior minister, who resigned the position in 2012. 

Thoughts about race had come up after Law was interviewed, said Sloan, who along with several members of the search committee had considered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote to justify their bold, historic move to tap Law for the leadership position: “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian American is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning, the same hour when many are standing to sing: ‘In Christ There Is No East Nor West.’” 

Lindenwood is a diverse church, said Sloan – “diverse in race, gender, politics, socioeconomics, worship style, and family experience.” She said they’re embracing the church of today and tomorrow rather than the church of yesterday. 

‘Coliseum Coalition’ rallies to save the Mid-South Coliseum from demolition

     

Ron Daniels, a retired Memphis Defense Depot worker, signs a petition at
"Roundhouse Revival" festivities to save the Mid-South Coliseum from being razed
and replaced with a youth sporting complex. (Photo: Wiley Henry)

      If a group of activists is successful in thwarting the city of Memphis’ plan to raze the Mid-South Coliseum for a youth sports complex and retail development, the turnaround just might jumpstart a plan to repurpose the languishing 12,000-seat facility.

      “We don’t need a youth sports facility,” said Mike McCarthy, president of the Coliseum Coalition, a nonprofit, 30-plus-member group intent on saving the Mid-South Coliseum from demolition. “If you can put Bass Pro into a pyramid, you can put wrestling, shows, and concerts back into the Coliseum.”

      McCarthy is referring to the 20,000-seat Pyramid, which first opened in 1991 and abandoned in 2004, when the Memphis Grizzlies basketball franchise packed up and moved its operation to the newly built FedExForum.

      After 10 years of back-and-forth negotiations between the city and Bass Pro officials, the Pyramid is now transformed into Bass Pro Shops, which reopened April 29. It has taken three years to repurpose the 32-story stainless steel building and retrofit it for stability.

      The Coliseum has been dormant as well, since 2006. McCarthy, a filmmaker, tour guide and cultural preservationist, noted that it, too, could be repurposed to attract smaller groups, concerts and other kinds of events to keep them from taking business and sorely needed tax dollars across the border to the Landers Center in Southaven, Miss., a multipurpose, 8,400-seat arena.

      McCarthy’s sentiments were shared Saturday (May 23) by a bevy of supporters converging on the west side of the Coliseum for the “Roundhouse Revival,” a Coalition-sponsored event organized to bring awareness to the empty husk of brick and mortar and the splendor of what the building once represented.

      “This is a good looking building, an available building, that needs to be repurposed,” said Mark Jones, a Coalition member. “Some people have never set foot on the property.”

      Marvin Stockwell has set foot on the property many times and is adamant about saving it. A communications director at the Church Health Center and a Coalition member as well, Stockwell said discussions about the Coliseum’s fate “felt adversarial” during earlier meetings with Mayor A C Wharton Jr.

      “Now they’re friendly,” he said.

      The free event was also supported by the city, which surprised the leaders of the Coalition, who did not expect the city’s full cooperation. Although there had been meetings with Housing and Community Development director Robert Lipscomb, the city hunkered down and backed the event financially.

      Lipscomb has led the push to redevelop the area for a Fairgrounds Tourism Development Zone (TDZ) for some time now. The TDZ would yield additional sales tax revenue to finance the Fairgrounds project, it has been reported.

      The Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and the Coliseum, of course, would figure into the city’s plan to attract amateur sporting events to the area. But because there has been public pushback, plans to raze the Coliseum have been temporarily put on hold – for now.

      The TDZ plan does not bode well for the Coalition and their supporters. In an effort to quell frustrations, the city is soliciting input, a civic discussion, from the community. The Coalition, however, is asking supporters to sign a petition to save the Coliseum.

      They claim more than 3,000 signatures have been collected from across the United States and over 20 foreign countries. Add to that 2,000 Facebook group members, they boast.

      Meanwhile, the city is assuring the community will have its say. On June 1 and 2, there will be four community meetings, each starting at 5:30 p.m.

      The meetings on June 1 will be held at the Airways Professional Building, 3385 Airways; and at Bert Ferguson Community Center, 8505 Trinity. The next two meetings will be held June 2 at the Kroc Center, 800 East Parkway South; and Cunningham Community Center, 3773 Old Allen.

      The city contracted with the National Charette Institute, a nonprofit educational institution in Portland, Ore., and Urban Land Institute, a District Council serving the Mid-South, to ascertain public feedback and ideas for a reconfigured Fairgrounds.

      Hundreds of supporters and those no doubt curious about the purpose of the daylong event – which included vendors, bands, and other forms of entertainment – expressed their concerns and shared ideas for a “revival” of the aging structure, once home to Monday Night Wrestling, where a “king” was crowned and a “superstar” was born.

      Wrestling aficionados and die-hard fans of Jerry “The King” Lawler and Bill “Superstar” Dundee put on a show Saturday that was reminiscent of Memphis wrestling. The two local legends took on The Coliseum Crushers, masked grapplers who worked up a sweat in the searing heat in one of two small rings in front of the Coliseum as spectators jeered.

      Wrestling brought back fond memories for many of them; but for others, it was the concerts, graduations and basketball games – nostalgic moments worthy of a rebirth – that ignited their activism and evoked ideas for a fresh start for the Coliseum.

      “I grew up here in Memphis and came to a lot of wonderful activities at the Coliseum, such as high school graduations, concerts and basketball games,” said Ron Daniels, a retired Memphis Defense Depot worker.

      “It was a good deal,” he said. “It used to be the largest venue other than the Ellis Auditorium (a 10,000-seat, multipurpose arena built in 1924 and demolished in 1997)” and replaced with the Memphis Cook Convention Center.

      Crafts artist Deborah Armour, one of the vendors, remembers being summoned to the Coliseum for jury duty selection. She also attended graduations there and The Jackson’s concert in 1981 when young, sizzling Michael Jackson and his brothers were burning up the charts with hits after hits.

      “Right now you’re limited to a number of people who can come to a graduation ceremony,” said Armour, explaining that high school graduates are only given a few tickets for family members to attend. “It (Coliseum) still can be used for other things as well…anything that requires a smaller venue other than the FedExForum.”

      Anita Wilson, a manicurist, sees the Coliseum fiasco through a political prism. “There’s politics in every decision the city makes,” she surmised. “[And] they don’t always make the right decision.”  

      Just like some of the others attending the Roundhouse Revival, Wilson offered ideas that could possibly resurrect and restore the Coliseum to its former glory. But so far the ideas from supporters have yet to determine the fate of the Coliseum or how the building could be transformed.

      Concerts were ongoing at the Coliseum, an overwhelming consensus that Wilson shares. She added that a return to this form of entertainment could generate additional revenue for the city’s coffers.

      “For concerts, etc., instead of [people] going to the Landers Center, why not keep the money in Memphis,” she said.

      Charlie “Chuck” Thomas, regional director of External and Legislative Affairs for AT&T, grew up in the Orange Mound community, where his mother taught music at Melrose High School. It is a stone’s throw from the Coliseum.

      Recalling the vitality and high energy that radiated from the Coliseum and reverberated throughout the community,” Thomas said, “I used to go here a lot. There’s no better structure in the Mid-South area than the Mid-South Coliseum. I spent my young life here.”

About the Mid-South Coliseum…

      The Mid-South Coliseum, located at 940 Early Maxwell, was built in 1964 under the old Memphis City Code of 1949. It is 11 stories tall (approximately 160 feet in height) and has a maximum seating capacity of 12,000.

      If the Coliseum were to return to its “useful life,” the building would have to be brought up to the International Existing Building Code as adopted by the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Construction Code Enforcement, according to a code analysis conducted by Code Solutions Group, LLC on July 30, 2009.

      The detail report noted that the interior of the Coliseum would have to be seriously reworked to ensure the safety of the building, among other repairs, and correct the number and percentage of handicap facilities.

      The Coliseum closed its doors in late 2006 because the building was not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, a civil rights law banning discrimination based on disability. It would have cost the city $30 million to fix the ADA violations and an estimated $33 million to demolish the building.

      On Dec. 6, 2000, the Mid-South Coliseum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior.

First-time authors write their way toward overcoming obstacles

"Don't Count Me Out: Contending Voices," published recently by Blues City
Cultural Center, is a collection of narratives and poetry by members of  "Seek
to Serve," a program that promotes servant leadership. (Photos: Wiley Henry)

Overcoming obstacles and turning them into successes is the crux of a recently published book of narratives written by members of a leadership program expressly designed to develop, enhance and promote servant leadership among persons living in affordable public housing.

“Don’t Count Me Out: Contending Voices,” compiled and edited by Carolyn Matthews for Blues City Cultural Center’s Seek to Serve Program, is the end-product of an idea spawned three years ago by a facilitator for Seek to Serve.  

“The book idea was incubating for a few years with the grassroots leadership training leaders, Naomi Dyson and Deborah Frazier,” said Matthews. “Dyson conceived the title and Frazier searched for ways to sustain the momentum and document the history of the organization.”

“She (Dyson) felt the participants had such rich stories of overcoming that needed to be told,” added Frazier, who co-directs (with her husband Levi Frazier) Blues City Cultural Center (BCCC), an arts organization using the arts to enlighten, empower and transform.

"Don't Count Me Out..."

A subsequent book signing is set for Wednesday (June 3) at 6:30 p.m. at Southwest Tennessee Community College’s Parrish Library, Room 101. Some of the authors will be available to read their work.

Martha Perine Beard, vice president and regional executive of Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis – Memphis Branch, wrote the book’s preface. Robert Lipscomb, executive director of the Memphis Housing Authority, touted Seek to Serve in the book’s foreword.

“Seek to Serve” was created to reinforce to residents that they are valued citizens of Memphis,” Lipscomb wrote. “They have positive gifts and talents that should be shared to make Memphis better, and are vital to its well-being.”

Program participants had much to express in writing workshops facilitated by Matthews, who sought ways to hone their creativity in narratives by using their own voice. She also interviewed them about their lives in their homes and in the class.

“I wanted to stay close to the initial premise of the project – to share the impact of Seek to Serve on the lives the authors,” Matthews explained. “As the participants shared their stories, there was a dominant thread: overcoming adversity due to lack of resources, unhealthy relationships, or from self-limiting mindsets or societal marginalization.”

Noticing the similarities in their stories, it became clear to Matthews “that this theme running through the stories was the life force of the impact of Seek to Serve (a six-month program) because it revealed how they were changed by their participation.”

Editing the colloquial voice can present a challenge, said Matthews, an accomplished writer whose poetry and prose have appeared in “Homespun Images: An Anthology of Black Memphis Writers,” “The Laurel Review,” “Newsmagazine,” “Jewel Magazine,” and the forthcoming “Cave Canem Anthology: 2010.”

“When you say to someone, ‘I value you. I want to teach you how to articulate YOUR issues and concerns, because you have something meaningful to contribute to your community, and I care about what you say,’ I think it is important to trust that their voice is powerful enough to communicate their message. (And) preserving their voices validates their message.”

The grassroots servant leadership program began with an idea on a Walgreen’s parking lot between Frazier and Lipscomb, then the newly appointed director of the Memphis Housing Authority. Frazier was program director at Leadership Memphis.  

There were 22 affordable housing communities in Memphis at that time, and Lipscomb, Frazier recalls, saw the need for a leadership program that would train the presidents of those housing communities.

The year was 2000. The following year the first class graduated. The Seek to Serve program, however, stayed with Leadership Memphis until 2007 and then moved to the Uptown Resource Center, where it is currently located at 314 A.W. Willis Ave.

“One of the goals of this servant leadership program is that a participant will NOT talk about his or her accomplishments or problems, but search to praise or help his neighbor,” said Frazier. “As a result, we celebrated the accomplishments of others and what they had done at home, at church, and in their community.

“This book says you never stop trying...you never stop learning...you never give up.  It takes the group to encourage the individual.  So it’s more than encouraging yourself; it’s about encouraging your neighbor and then you are encouraged.”

BCCC, whose tag line is “ARTS FOR A BETTER WAY OF LIFE,” has received funding and support from neighborhood grants – Community Development Block Grant, FedEx, St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Tennessee Arts Commission, and ArtsMemphis.

“Don’t Count Me Out: Contending Voices” was published with funds from ArtsMemphis’ Arts Build Communities (ABC) grants. Funds also were derived from the IOBY (In Our Backyard) crowdfunding program, an online fundraising platform.

        (For more information about the book “Don’t Count Me Out: Contending Voices,” or Blues City Cultural Center’s Seek to Serve Program, contact Deborah Frazier at 901-292-2397 or by email at dfbluescity@yahoo.com. The website is www.bluescitycc.org)