KNOCKOUT

The Dance Revolution

Memphis youth saying No to protesting and
remixing social activism to their own beat
Dying to Live:
Young and
Poor
Save Our Sons:
what now
after Trayvon?
B E A T I N G T H E S Y S T E M . D E F E A T I N G T H E O D D S
MAY 2014
INSIDE KNOCKOUT
4
9
12
16
Benjamin Crump instructs Memphis
on how to save our sons after his
experience as the lawyer for the
family of Trayvon Martin
12
POWER
LIBERTY
COVER
An intimate look at a young Memphian s life in Foote Homes
Attornery Benjamin Crump challenges Memphians to save their black children
Memphis students wanted to honor the rich history of art and culture that trademarked their city during
the civil rights movement. Instead, what birthed was their own rendition of social acitvism
DYING TO LIVE
An inside look into one
of Memphis most
impoverished
communities:
Foote Homes
18-year-old, Lester must
obey his mother; shes
all he has. She writes
him a check and tells him
to run by the business
offce before they close
in order to pay the rent
for the month. He agrees
as he carries in a used
television from a nearby
pawnshop for their
entertainment. After he
drops the 32in load, he
takes the check from his
mother and power walks
to the offce.
EAST of South Main. South of Beale Street.
Lying on the feet of the FedEx Forum.
Overlooked by the towers of First Tennessee and the stretch
of mega-churches on every corner.
Memphis, Tennessees Foote Homes Housing Complex is the
last and largest housing project sitting in the heart of south
Memphis and a neighbor to the Downtown culture district.
It houses over 400 residents, most who are living below the
poverty line.
Lester has lived in the complex his entire life. He is a senior
at the historic Booker T. Washington High School, the alma
mater of some of the citys most prominent leaders like
former mayor, Willie W. Herenton and American Civil Rights
Activist, Benjamin Hooks. I asked how he liked living in the
apartments.
Its okay. I know the city is going back and forth on what to
do about it. I mean, I guess theyre going to tear it down. A lot
of people here dont have much money. They get it how they
can.
The City of Memphis has been in a yearlong debate on the
longevity of the projects. Many groups are in support for the
demolition of the projects and revitalizing the community
into a more well-diverse and welcoming residential area for
middle class citizens. In defense, other groups believe the
complex should be improved for the current residents to live
with more resources.
There are not many cars in the complex. Many residents
depend on the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA)
busses to take them back and forth from their one or two jobs,
then necessary errands like paying bills and buying groceries,
then back home. As Lester stated, they do what they can to
get by. Children walk home to and from school, most arriving
to empty house-parents at work. Many live in single-family
homes. The projects are predominately, if not completely,
African American.
This was their reality. This was home.
The Foote Homes Housing Projects were built around the
1940s for the upcoming working class Memphians. After
submerging from the Yellow Fever epidemic in the 1870s,
Memphis became a large proprietor for cotton and lumber
production, agricultural transshipment center, and railroad
transportation node and retail fnancial center.
This opened doors for the new working class-the warehouse
workers and laborers who would make less than minimum
wage. What we know now as Downtown Memphis was the
cynosure of construction, railroad, and manufacturing frms.
Foote Homes, along with Lamar Terrace, was constructed
as boarding houses to accommodate the workers, which
caused the areas total population to decrease. Thus, the total
number of families living below the poverty line increased. In
the 1960s, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and
court-ordered school busing caused residents to move.
I remember that time, Kathleen
Myers reminisces. I
was fve years
old when
Dr.
King
was
shot.
I didnt
understand what
was going on. My mother
was crying and my father was standing on
our porch with my brothers shooting their guns at our white
neighbors.
Before she was born, Kathleens family lived in the Foot
Homes Complex from the 1940s to the early 1950s. Her
mother became pregnant when they moved from the complex
to a bigger house about fve minutes from the area. Her father
was a steel worker in one of the mills near the Mississippi
River. Two of her brothers and three of her sisters had started
their own families, while another sister and brother fnished
their undergrad. She lived at home with her parents and
older brother who was playing with some neighborhood kids
that day.
My father told me after that incident that he knew a lot of
white folks who wanted to leave this area because of fear
that the black folks were going to lose their minds. It was as
if their voice had been stripped from them so they reacted
the best way they knew how: with violence. I think my friends
[who stayed in Foote Homes] inherited that hate that they
saw from their parents during that time. My
daddy told me that we
could never
get
too
close to
white people.
Myers said, now 53.
Talks about revitalization were not had until the late 1970s
Talks about revitalization were not had until the late
1970s when the city focused their attention in the redevelop-
ment of Beale Street and its transportation to an entertainment
district. From then on grew new attractions and business
within the downtown area. As tourism grew, so did the citys
worry with Foote Homes being more of an eyesore in the city.
I live in the hood, I know. Its a lot of drugs out here. Banging [gun shots] too, but this is all we
know, said Lester who is currently considering his options after high school.
I want to go to college, but I got to think about whats going to happen to my mother.
I live in the hood, I know. Its a lot of drugs out here. Banging [gun shots] too, but this is all we
know, said Lester who is currently considering his options after high school.
I want to go to college, but I got to think about whats going to happen to my mother.
Crump entitled his message Te
measure of a man, infuenced by this
quote from Dr. King: the ultimate
measure of a man is not where he
stands in moments of comfort and
convenience, but where he stands at
times of challenge and controversy.
Candid and upfront, political cor-
rectness was not a hindrance to the
Florida State University graduate.
He asserted that Stand Your Ground
Laws were not created to protect
African Americans.
Stand Your Ground was a solution
looking for a problem, he said.
Tere is nothing wrong with self-de-
fense. However, Stand Your Ground
says if you have an altercation with
someone, just shoot them, and when
you shoot them, make sure you
theyre dead.
Crump told the crowd that Afri-
can-American children, especially
boys, were being targeted as crimi-
nals and devalued in America. His
visit to Memphis follows just a few
weeks afer Michael Dunn avoided
a murder conviction for the fatal
shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis
in Florida.
Davis was sitting in a vehicle with
friends in a public parking lot when
Dunn demanded the boys turn down
their music. Afer refusing to do so,
Dunn returned to his car, retrieved
his pistol and in self-defense he
claimed fred a barrage of shots into
the vehicle, killing Davis. Prosecutors
sought to charge Dunn with frst-de-
gree murder, but the jury could not
reach a consensus resulting in a
mistrial on that charge. Te jury did
convict him of three counts of at-
tempted murder
Te message our country is sending
out is causing our children to ques-
tion whether theyre valued as an
American citizen, Crump said. Te
greatest investment we can make is to
invest in our children.
Crump also took time to debunk the
rhetoric of black-on-black crime as a
tactic to excuse racial acts of
violence.
Benjamin Crump leaned back onto
the lectern, clutching the microphone
the moment punctuated by his lack
of words and a silence that spoke to
his deeply-rooted emotion.
A chorus of Tats alright sprang
from the crowd. Crump, who repre-
sented the family of Trayvon Martin
in the 2013 case, State of Florida v
George Zimmerman, lifed his micro-
phone, head slightly bowed. Tis time
he had the words.
If we do not stand up for our chil-
dren, nobody will, Crump said.
Friday night at Temple of Church of
God in Christ bore a semblance to a
night with Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. during the civil rights movement.
During that period, the church had
been a meeting place for African
Americans to not only fellowship and
worship God, but to hear activists
deliver fervent messages delivered to
mobilize and galvanize the masses to
demand racial equality.
Tis time, it was Crump issuing the
call to action.
Te question is, Are we going to
answer the bell?, Crump said. When
no one else is watching, will you be
there to help our children?
Temple COGIC, at 672 South Lauder-
dale St., kicked of its frst Conference
on Family with the keynote address
from Crump, who is known for taking
on cases with civil rights implica-
tions. None have been more high
profle than the one involving the fatal
shooting of the unarmed 17-year-old
Travon Martin, who was walking back
from a near-by convenient store when
was killed by Zimmeran, a volunteer
neighborhood watchman. Zimmer-
man was acquitted.
SAVE OUR SONS
RHY
THM
NAT
ION
RHY
NAT
ION