Juneteenth reminds us of a hard truth: freedom has always been delayed; and it’s still being denied for too many in our communities.

More than 160 years after emancipation, Black families in Memphis are still being targeted by systems that punish instead of support. Public schools are under attack. Police violence goes unaddressed. Budgets prioritize control over care. And basic needs like housing, transit, healthcare, and opportunity, are treated as optional.

But Juneteenth also reminds us of something else: the power of people who refuse to give up. The courage to keep organizing. The audacity to believe that something better is not only possible, but necessary.

This year, we’ve fought to stop a state takeover of our public schools and to protect the democratic leadership our communities fought hard to elect. We’ve demanded a Moral Budget that invests in housing, transit, youth, and care instead of doubling down on punishment and austerity. We’ve stood alongside our partners at the NAACP and ACLU to defend vital federal programs like SNAP and Medicaid.

And we’ve taken part in the Seven States Safety campaign, a national effort to expose and challenge police violence in cities where the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed widespread civil rights violations. Even after the DOJ retracted its findings in Memphis, we remain committed to truth and accountability. We will not be deterred in our fight for real reform, independent oversight, and community-based violence intervention programs that keep us safe.

And we’re only halfway through the year! The fights ahead will require even more bold leadership, strategic organizing, and deep community power.

Even as we push forward, we see far too many local leaders choosing to preserve the status quo. Instead of righting the ship, they are steering the city down a path of complacency, where the same failed policies are framed as stability, and where bold solutions are dismissed in favor of business as usual.

At a time when Memphis leaders are choosing to leave everyday Memphians behind while funding continues to flow to business, tourism and systems of punishment, we are reminded that symbolic victories are not enough. Liberation must be lived: in policy, in budgets, and in the daily decisions about whose futures are worth investing in.

So today, we honor those who came before us not only by remembering, but by continuing. By refusing to accept the status quo. And by organizing toward a future where every child has what they need to thrive.

Take the next step in building community power! Join us next week for the first Memphis Power Training on Wednesday, June 25, from 6:30–8:00PM at First Congo. Sign up here!

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From all of us at Stand for Children Tennessee: Happy Juneteenth. Let’s carry the audacity to fight for a brighter future forward.

The Tennessee State Conference NAACP along with a broad coalition of Tennessee Advocacy Organizations, will hold a press conference in Memphis on Wednesday, June 11, at 11 a.m., at the Memphis Branch NAACP office to call on elected officials to protect Medicaid and SNAP funding for Tennesseans. The Senate is expected to vote on proposed life-threatening cuts before the end of June.

Medicaid and SNAP are essential to the health, stability, and future of Tennessee families. Nearly 1.5 million Tennesseans rely on Medicaid for health coverage, including half of all children in the state. Medicaid helps children thrive in school, supports care for serious conditions like cancer and heart disease, and ensures families can access preventive care before emergencies arise. SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) provides nutrition support for low-income families, helping nearly 280,000 children in Tennessee grow, learn, and succeed. SNAP not only improves health outcomes but also plays a key role in reducing child hunger and supporting working parents who are struggling to make ends meet.

The survival of Tennessee’s hospitals is also at risk, especially those in rural areas. A mass loss of Medicaid coverage would result in higher rates of uncompensated care, placing enormous strain on already under-resourced hospitals and forcing some to close their doors. At the same time, cuts to SNAP would increase food insecurity across the state, leaving schools, food banks, and local governments to fill the gap.

Proposed cuts will harm families, deepen poverty, and damage the state’s health and economic infrastructure.

Stand for Children Tennessee Joins The Seven States Safety Campaign, which targets police departments where the Biden DOJ found rampant police brutality and racial targeting.

MEMPHIS, TENN. – Stand for Children Tennessee joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and partners across the country in launching the Seven States Safety Campaign, a coordinated effort to demand transparency and accountability from police departments with documented patterns of abuse. As the lead community partner in Memphis, Stand TN supported the ACLU’s submission of a public records request to uncover misconduct and civil rights violations by the Memphis Police Department (MPD).

These requests come in the wake of the December 2024 Department of Justice report, which confirmed what Memphis communities have said for years: MPD uses excessive force, targets Black residents, unlawfully stops and searches people, and discriminates against youth and people in crisis. Yet months later, the City of Memphis has taken little meaningful action, and the mayor’s Integrity in Policing Task Force has lacked clarity, transparency, and community accountability.

“The DOJ’s findings confirmed what Memphis communities have said for years: MPD’s abuse, excessive force, and lack of accountability are systemic, not isolated,” said Cardell Orrin, executive director of Stand for Children Tennessee. “While city leaders chase an arbitrary ‘magic number’ of police, they’ve failed to invest in what truly keeps us safe: youth programs, mental health care, housing, transit, and more. This request for records will give us and other partners more power to push for the bold changes Memphis needs.”

In addition to Tennessee, the demands are being filed in Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Kentucky – states where federal civil rights investigations and reports confirmed widespread patterns of police abuse. The Trump administration has already begun to halt federal oversight and reverse course, including by retracting findings in Tennessee, Arizona, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, and rescinding near-final agreements and dismissing lawsuits against the police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville.  As the federal government pulls back on police oversight, local communities are stepping up and calling for transparency and real reform.

Stand for Children Tennessee remains committed to working with local youth, families, and coalitions to build an accountable, fair public safety system grounded in community voice and rooted in justice, not punishment.

A copy of the open records request submitted today can be found on Stand for Children Tennessee’s website here: https://stand.org/tennessee/memphis-police-department-official-records-request/

Today as we pause to honor the life and legacy of Dr. King, we’re reflecting on his statement from a 1964 speech: “the field of education has been a battleground in the freedom struggle.” We’re especially feeling the truth of that statement in Memphis today. Over the past several weeks, we’ve been ringing the alarm and mobilizing people to oppose Rep. Mark White’s takeover bill of MSCS—a bill that, in its latest form, is even more concerning than we initially feared. If the House version is enacted, it could take virtually all authority away from our locally elected school board. If the Senate version passes, the state would be free to remove duly elected officials from office. Each of these scenarios strips power away from the voters of Memphis and Shelby County, and neither have any proof that doing so will help our children succeed. That should worry anyone who cares about democracy and public education.

This is not an automatic takeover, but it’s absolutely designed to target MSCS by tying takeovers to certain criteria that specifically apply to our district. We need to be very clear: Disenfranchising even more voters will not help our schools. Punishing poverty will not improve student outcomes.

This legislation won’t magically fix funding shortfalls, teacher shortages, or any of the systemic barriers that limit opportunity. There are better paths forward: meaningful partnerships between local governing bodies and the public, stable supports, and real resources. Imagine what we could accomplish if we directed our energy–and budget–to proven solutions instead of wasteful bills and potential litigation.

Yet even though this reality seems bleak, we can’t give in to despair. While accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, Dr. King said, “I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history… I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” 

That’s the audacity we need in Memphis right now–the audacity to push back on dangerous precedents that could one day extend beyond school boards and erode power from other locally elected bodies. The audacity to believe that even when attempts are made to silence our vote, local leadership, and public voices, we can and will stand together and demand better for our children.

On this anniversary, all of us at Stand commit to carrying that audacity forward. We’re fighting not just to block a misguided takeover, but to build the high-quality public school system our students deserve. We urge every parent, educator, and neighbor to join us in demanding real solutions and real investments–democracy, education, and justice are on the line. Dr. King’s vision calls on us to keep fighting, and we do so with unwavering faith that “the moral arc of the universe” still bends toward justice–if we stand up and pull it that way.

This King Day, we’re full of deep gratitude for everyone who joined us at the 2025 Memphis Power Summit – the Movement lives in Memphis! The event was a powerful reminder that, even in the face of challenges, we can always turn to beloved community to keep the fight for justice going. During the Summit, we found inspiration, built connections, and equipped ourselves with tools to address the challenges that lie ahead at the local, state, and federal levels. Your presence and commitment have energized us for the journey ahead.

Today, as we honor Dr. King’s legacy, we also mark a moment in our nation’s history that demands our attention: our country is once again inaugurating a man who embodies the systemic forces that murdered Dr. King and worked to silence the movement’s calls for justice. These are the same forces that continue to perpetuate inequality and oppression today. Dr. King spoke truth to power and called for basic dignity and the right for every person not only to survive but to thrive, which made those who benefit from systems of white supremacy and inequity feel threatened. To move forward, we must acknowledge that system’s grip on our history and its persistence in our present, but we will not let it prevail into the future.

Dr. King was right: the movement lives or dies in Memphis. Our city has always been a battleground for justice, and we must continue to work with clarity, courage, and determination. The overwhelming turnout and interest in this year’s Memphis Power Summit show that people are ready to take meaningful strategic action and fight for the necessary changes that will move us closer to justice. 

As we reflect on Dr. King’s legacy and the enduring movement, we reaffirm our commitment to creating a future where all of us—and our children—can grow, learn, play, and thrive. 

Thank you for standing with us, for showing up, and for continuing the fight for a brighter, more equitable future in Memphis, Shelby County, and beyond.

A Memphis Centenarian since June of 1962, Rev. Dr. James M. Lawson quickly began nonviolent workshops as the new pastor in the deeply segregated South. Some may have thought he was following in the footsteps of the courageous Rev. H. B. Gibson who led the Memphis NAACP and pastored Centenary. Yet, Dr. Lawson already had a civil rights activist history, having studied the nonviolent movement of Mahatma Gandhi in India while a missionary there for three years. 

Dr. Lawson trained civil rights activists in Nashville and was integrally involved in the demonstrations himself – not just the trainings. He was expelled from Vanderbilt University after being arrested for protests, though decades later was honored when Vanderbilt established the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements.

Dr. Lawson counseled Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his nonviolent journey that helped upend at least some of the all-intrusive daily oppressive experiences of many Black people living in the South. Dr. Lawson called mightily on that relationship when he (along with a few others) asked Dr. King to take a detour from strategizing for the National Poor Peoples Campaign to bring his support to the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. As Memphis city government had just moved to a Mayor-Council form of government, the workers were seeking basic respect (reflected in their “I Am A Man” signs), a slight increase in pay for their grueling work, as well as equitable working conditions and union representation.

Folks were used to meeting at Centenary for civil rights. James Meredith’s solitary March Against Fear on June 6, 1966 was halted by a sniper’s bullet striking Meredith to the ground. Leaders met at Centenary and soon more than 600 people gathered there. Twenty-one marchers led by Dr. King–and tirelessly encouraged by Rev. Lawson–staunchly continued the nonviolent march down Highway 51 South, despite first being shoved by Mississippi State Troopers.

As some elders shared, sometimes the sanctuary on Sunday dwindled to 30 brave Centenarians. Some may have thought the Pastor had gone too far – or feared the all too real threats and attacks hurled at the Pastor and church members, even at their workplaces. Dr. Lawson was not deterred. Undaunted, he continued with his steadfast advocacy for equity and justice with the few who were willing, using the nonviolent methods he learned from Gandhi’s practices. 

He took communion and compassion to the members at their homes, so he could maintain pastoral relationships with the people who could not (or would not) attend in person. He knew the organizing, the actions, and public messages were needed. He hoped, prayed, trained, taught and brought the power of people and God to lift the numbers of supporters from a few to many, even to far distant souls who resonated with the vision and promise of Black people living and thriving in peace with dignity, doing more than merely surviving under daily discrimination. 

Dr. Lawson had faced the attacks before. 

In fact, he had helped train John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Bevel, Marion Barry, Bernard Lafayette, and countless others in nonviolent theory and practice. They in turn created and led sit-ins, Freedom Rides, children’s marches and voting rights campaigns that led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act.

To withstand the attacks of white supremacists (segregationists to the core), they rehearsed scenarios, practiced patience and valor, and continued to be nonviolent even when verbal or physical attacks were launched against them. The theory and practice of nonviolence required intense discipline, great strength, and immersion in the lived experience of “turning the other cheek” to arouse the conscience of a nation to recognize humanity in us all.

Dr. Lawson was in Memphis from 1961 to 1974 when he became Pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles until 1999, where he later served as pastor emeritus. He continued nonviolent trainings into his 90’s, and his advocacy with workers and others created substantial changes in lives. His work with the Los Angeles hotel workers union achieved higher wages and improved working conditions by mobilizing sit-ins, hunger strikes, and civil disobedience protests.

Dr. Lawson lived a rich life dedicated to uplifting Black liberation, and he leaves each of us with his legacy of courage, commitment and wisdom – no matter what!

Over the past year, we’ve seen our community carry the spirit of Dr. King forward in the fight for true justice for Tyre Nichols and so many others. We’ve worked to embody that same spirit in our fierce commitment to clearly defining real safety, which means valuing and investing in our people and communities. At the same time, crime is at the top of mind and center of conversation for most people right now.

With all this in mind, I thought this King Day would be a good opportunity to revisit the Policing Reimagined report from the Justice & Safety Alliance. The report grounds us in the history of policing (national and local) and provides evidence-based solutions with alternatives to policing.

Dr. King was often vocal in his calls to end police brutality across the country, including in a less frequently quoted part of his “I Have A Dream” speech: “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.” He understood that a culture of violence within policing is a systemic issue, not just a problem of a few “bad apples.” While the life-saving police reforms passed in City Council and the DOJ’s pattern or practice investigation of MPD are real steps forward, we need to go further. We must also remain vigilant and continue to push forward when leaders like Mayor Jim Strickland embody the spirit of the “white moderate” that Dr. King warned us about. 

Violence in our community, whether from police or crime, is a reflection of our values, beliefs, and policies. The beliefs that allowed those police officers to devalue Tyre Nichols’ life so much, are the same as those that allow our governments to pass budgets that devalue our people and communities – refusing to make the investments we know are needed to achieve real safety for all. The solutions are available, but we must push past our accepted culture of the status quo (cultivated by a history of racism) to get to them. 

The current conversation of crime in Memphis & Shelby County is no different. We cannot continue to allow the status quo to dominate with reflexive demands for more police, prosecution, and punishment. We must focus on solutions that center the inherent value of all people. We can chart a course forward that has both accountability and a clearer moral arc towards the justice Dr. King preached. 
The solutions presented in the Policing Reimagined report are the opportunities to build the equitable, just, and safe community that we all want to call home, and we can’t wait to work with you to make them a reality.

We were able to accomplish a great deal in 2023, working in Memphis, Shelby County and at the state level. Increasingly, we have focused on building coalitions and partnerships to increase our impact and effectiveness. We can’t thank enough the wonderful organizations and people who we are privileged to work alongside in this fight for justice. We wanted to take a minute to reflect on these collective wins and share them with you for a dose of inspiration as we close out the year. 

Advancing Justice and Safety

  • The Justice & Safety Alliance (JSA) hosted a well-attended community healing event following the police killing of Tyre Nichols, bringing community members together to take a breath and connect in our shared determination to prevent future instances of police brutality.
     
  • When MPD’s “draft” presentation of their plan to potentially harass and violate the rights of young people downtown (Juvenile Crime Abatement Program) was leaked, Stand worked with JSA to lead the public outcry and ensure the public understood the implications of this proposed program and pushed against it. 
  • Following the lead of Official Black Lives Matter Memphis and Decarcerate Memphis, JSA helped support the tireless activism and advocacy that pushed the City Council to pass critical policing reforms. This support included hosting an online action–through our collective efforts we galvanized nearly 1000 Memphians to email City Council in support of the ordinances. 
  • During August’s Special Legislative Session, we worked with organizations statewide on youth justice issues, including the work to eliminate youth fines and fees. Together, we developed a bill tracker, sent out regular communications to keep the public informed, and recruited diverse local and statewide organizations to sign on to our open letter opposing a dangerous blended sentencing bill (HB 7073). 
  • We supported advocacy led by justice-impacted and adjacent youth with the Youth Justice Action Council (YJAC). They took their 2nd tour of the new county detention center, engaged in the city elections by releasing the YJAC City Level Demands and participating in candidate forums, partnered with Power Poll Memphis to create the “We’re Sick of It! – Changing the Narrative Around Youth Violence in Memphis” interactive event, and conducted research working alongside U of M Public Health Professor Dr. Jennifer Turchi. Check out their podcast: “That’s Not How We Do It Here,” wherever you get your podcasts!
  • After historic wins in 2022 with new District Attorney and Juvenile Court Judge, our efforts turned towards seeing those elections produce results for increasing justice and safety by supporting the new administrations of DA Steve Mulroy and Judge Tarik Sugarmon. We have worked closely with those offices, attending DA Mulroy’s Public Safety Summit and supporting several other efforts. 
  • We partnered with Innovate Memphis in receiving a grant to develop a justice data dashboard. We held sessions with community members to learn what data people were most interested in, how they would want to see the data, and what they might do in their communities with more accessible data.

Strengthening Democracy 

  • Our advocacy led to the most transparent redistricting process for the Memphis City Council in decades. Following up on the successful coalition advocacy in 2022 calling for a public redistricting committee in 2022, we continued to advocate in the redistricting process as several council members and the Council attorney continued to work against transparency and fair representation. We worked with partners to submit community-created redistricting maps, mobilized support, and pushed the council to have public review of districts that would shape the city for the next 10 years. 
  • After the all-time low turnouts in the city elections, we mobilized Memphians to urge City Council to return the power to the people in shaping future elections. Our advocacy and your emails to Council led to the passage of a critical ballot question that will ask voters whether to reinstate runoff elections for the Mayor’s race, a significant step towards making future elections easier to navigate.

Investing in People and Communities

  • Based on our efforts with the Moral Budget Coalition’s 2022 Community-Centered Budgeting Process and multi-year push for greater community involvement in the budgeting process, Shelby County Government developed its own interactive tool for the public to send input on the budget directly to the Mayor’s Office and Commission. This was a big win for public involvement, and we’re ready to mobilize to advocate for a Moral Budget in 2024 and beyond!

Electoral Successes and Advocacy: 

  • After his unjust expulsion from the Tennessee State House, our stellar endorsement committee swiftly reconvened to endorse Representative Justin J. Pearson in the special election, which he won decisively. 
  • Working closely with Rep. Pearson and his team, we launched an independent campaign in the Memphis Mayor’s race—our work and investments avoided worst-case scenarios and prevented Sheriff Floyd Bonner from becoming mayor. We look forward to working with Mayor-Elect Paul Young as he takes office in January!
  • With the People for Fairness and Justice, we celebrated victories in 8 out of 13 City Council districts, including three significant runoffs that led to the first majority female Memphis City Council! We’re excited to keep strengthening this coalition for future elections. 

Supporting our Students in their Education Success

  • We partnered with EdTrust to develop and advocate for state legislation that requires the TN Dept of Education to report on 9th grade on-track metrics and their use in other states. Ninth grade is a critical year in a student’s education–students who are on-track by the end of their freshman year are up to four times more likely to graduate than off-track peers. Center for High School Success Director Lori Oduyoye gave an excellent testimony in support of HB 1295, which passed into law and was one of the winners of EdTrust TN’s Ten for Tennessee award!
  • With Momentum Memphis, we hosted town halls to raise awareness of the Third Grade Retention law that was implemented this year and supported statewide efforts to push back on the law. 
  • We continued to work with early literacy efforts including engagement in the development of MSCS’s Community Partnership Plan, serving on the MSCS Strategic Partners for Literacy, and continued support for the Early Literacy Consortium to  strategize ways that the overall community can be involved and support literacy development across the city.  

Developing Leaders of the Future

  • Our 2023 cohort of fellows spent the year honing their skills and boosting their confidence as community organizers. They had opportunities to engage with our collaborative efforts with coalition partners, actively engage in the field through impactful deep-canvassing initiatives, and participate in City Council and School Board meetings around justice and safety issues. 
  • We capped the year off with The Memphis Power Summit, which was more than an event–it was a catalyst for inspiration and change, reminding us of how powerful we are when we come together.

These wins did not happen in a vacuum and aren’t just successes of Stand TN. Most of the work we do is in coalition and partnership with organizations and people across the city, county, state, and country, because we know that we cannot create lasting systemic change alone. The fight for a more just world where we all have what we need to thrive is ongoing, and in 2023, we were proud to work with and support Memphis organizers and advocates who put in countless hours of work to take steps forward. We owe so much to today’s organizers, and to those on whose shoulders we stand.

I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together in 2024!

When the governor announced the call for the extraordinary session on public safety, advocates and juvenile justice stakeholders were shocked to see only one item specifically related to guns, while 4 out of the 18 items listed were focused on juvenile courts, including expanding transfer to adult court, limiting expungements, and introducing a new blended sentencing scheme. When pressed on why, Republican leadership has deflected, saying that youth are responsible for a lot of crime. But their numbers simply don’t add up. 

Legislators claim over and over again that youth in Shelby County are more dangerous than ever, despite steady annual declines in youth arrests, and despite the fact that Shelby County’s rate of juvenile court referrals is lower than the state average. There is no data source that shows that youth are primarily responsible for Tennessee’s increase in gun violence–in fact, the data suggests that youth crime is unrelated. 

Over the past decade, crimes committed by youth in Tennessee have fallen by over 50%, for both serious and lesser offenses. Yet according to the Sycamore Institute, firearm related deaths in Tennessee have been steadily increasing for the past decade, and the Tennessee Department of Health’s 2023 Child Fatality Annual Report shows that firearms are the leading cause of death for children aged 0-17. This data shows us that youth are not the problem – widespread and unregulated access to guns is the problem.

The Sentencing Project, a national nonpartisan think tank, analyzed over a decade of Tennessee Bureau of Investigation data, and found that the youth arrest rate has fallen 23% more than the adult arrest rate since 2011. They concluded that the data suggest that the juvenile system is more effective in reducing offending and arrests than the adult criminal justice system. Proposals to move youth into the adult system are likely to increase offending.”

Youth crime is down, and the data suggests that the juvenile justice system is more effective at reducing crime than the adult criminal justice system. So why are our elected representatives holding closed-door meetings to push more young people into the adult system instead of answering our direct calls to take action on gun violence?

Source: Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, via the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Center

The most extraordinary parts of this special session are its lack of transparency and scapegoating of Black youth in Shelby County. Make no mistake, we absolutely need to make improvements to continue supporting youth and families impacted by the juvenile justice system, expand prevention services, and keep our communities safe. But the positive changes we want to see will not come from a session in which legislators are using our young people as talking points to mask their continued refusal to respond to calls for common sense gun reform. 
No matter what happens during this special session, let’s make sure the legislature knows that we want and need common sense gun legislation to keep our children and communities safe. You can show your support by signing the petition launched by youth organizers in our community from the MICAH Youth Council: bit.ly/EndGunViolenceTN. It’s time for our legislators to realize that youth are not the problem—they’re leading the way in creating the solutions.

Sunday’s rally to Combat Gun Violence and Empower Youth and Black Voters held in Memphis before the start of the special session was a powerful display of solidarity for area youth and key issues affecting their lives. Various community organizations came together to provide activities, resources, and information about critical topics like voting and public safety.

The event featured notable speakers like District Attorney Steve Cohen, State Representative G.A. Hardaway, District Representative Justin Pearson, and mayoral candidates Van Turner and Brandon Price. Rep. Pearson gave a passionate opening prayer that ignited spirits and set the tone for the important week ahead. Throughout the event, Rep. Pearson and other officials made time to speak directly with youth leaders in attendance.

Several speakers called for greater community accountability to stop gun violence, sharing lessons from their own past experiences to empathize with youth today. Others discussed how poverty, lack of resources, and neglect in many communities cause individuals to resort to violence out of desperation. Speakers emphasized the need for public officials and institutions to address these root causes. Other speakers called for recognizing the emotional toll of combating violence, and encouraged leaders to persist in doing this vital work while making time to rest and take care of themselves.

The rally included many engaging activities for young people. Game Changers provided chess games, Memphis Artists for Change performed socially conscious music, and youth poet Trekeria shared impactful works written during her experiences as a young person in the youth justice system. Attendees found relief from the heat with a food truck, water ice stand, and a bounce house. Voter registration and music from a DJ created an atmosphere of empowerment and community.

The Combating Gun Violence and Empowering Youth and Black Voters Rally brought people together to support Memphis youth, connect them with resources, and amplify their voices. The event offered hope for creating a more just and compassionate future through solidarity, civic engagement, and addressing core needs. United alongside youth, we will continue to push for a safe, just, and thriving future for our young people today, and generations to come!