Category: Current Events

Yesterday’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was a direct assault on democracy.

A violent, white supremacist mob incited by the President tried to subvert the result of a free and fair election.

In stark contrast to the often brutal suppression of peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrations last summer, yesterday’s weak and even permissive law enforcement response to rioters brutalizing police officers, looting and pillaging Congressional offices, and disrupting the peaceful transfer of power was white supremacy and privilege on display.

Is the bar for acceptable behavior now at rock bottom?

That depends on how people who actually value democracy, decency, and justice respond.

Anyone who grew up in, has spent significant time in, or has studied democracies that became dictatorships knows that nothing is guaranteed.

Some elected and corporate leaders who encouraged or enabled yesterday’s riot appear to have come to their senses, at least momentarily, but it is up to us to prevent craven political ambition and greed from ever again trumping democracy and decency.

This morning, as I do every morning, I prayed: for God to grant me the courage to change the things I can, for the Lord to make me an instrument of peace and to let me sow love where there is hatred and light where there is darkness.

Individually, can we shore up the foundations of our shaky democracy or root out the deeply embedded racism that infests our society? 

No, but what we do individually and what we collectively insist that elected leaders and corporations do matters a great deal.

So, let us recommit to fight together today, tomorrow, and every day in this pivotal year for democracy, decency, and justice with courage, a deep sense of urgency, and a loving spirit.

As an education advocate and Stand supporter, your support is vital to helping us achieve our mission of securing educational equity for students in Memphis and Shelby County. That’s why, on this Giving Tuesday, I hope you’ll consider becoming an Education Warrior by making a gift to Stand Tennessee and fund our community work.

Donate $25, and we will send you our limited edition “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt to wear with pride! This shirt is designed to show our dedication to fighting for racial equity and justice within local law enforcement and the educational equity we seek for our children’s future.

Donations received will go towards the resources needed to continue our work in our four areas of concern: Facilities and Funding, Graduation Success for College and Career, Breaking the School to Prison Pipeline, and Community Investment for All Youth. You can give your donation through our donation link by clicking here. Please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery time.

Thank you in advance for your donation and continued support of our fight to make equity in education a reality for our children in Memphis. Feel free to keep up with us and our work via our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.

Here’s your friendly reminder about our Education Equity Happy Hour that will take place tomorrow at 5:30 pm via Zoom. Join us for a casual conversation with Momentum Memphis Education Task-Force leaders, parents, and community partners that believe in educational equity for every child in Memphis and Shelby County. To attend, please use this link to register.

You’re also invited to pre-register for our virtual joint Momentum Memphis Education Task-Force meeting on December 7 via Zoom at 6:00 pm. Hear updates about our advocacy efforts that support a fair and equitable future for our children and generations to come. We’ll also discuss ways to get involved in our work to change the narrative of what equitable access to education looks like for our Shelby County Schools system.  To attend, please click this link to register.

See you soon! 

We’ve made some changes to our weekly schedule to include in-demand workshops that were requested by Stand supporters like you, community leaders, and parents. Here’s what’s coming up!

 To accommodate back to school and work schedules, we’ve switched “Cardell’s Soapbox” to air every Wednesday at 5:00 pm via Facebook Live.

Hear Memphis Director Cardell Orrin share updates on Memphis and Shelby County government and ways you can take action to make equity in education a reality for all Shelby County students. If you have a question, topic idea, or want to be featured in the next episode, please email us at [email protected].

On Friday, September 4, we will be having our bi-weekly “Education Equity Happy Hour” starting at 5:30 pm via Zoom. Meet and hear from Momentum Memphis task force leaders, who will discuss updates on our advocacy work within the community and share opportunities for how you can join us in our efforts to make equity in education a reality for all students in Memphis and Shelby County. To attend, please use this link to register.

Due to the Labor Day weekend, we’re moving our monthly virtual joint Momentum Memphis Educational Task-Force meeting to Monday, September 14, at 6:00 pm. Hear updates on our advocacy efforts to make educational equity a reality for all children in Memphis and Shelby County and learn how you can join the Momentum Memphis Coalition. To attend, please use this link to register. 

As a reminder, we’re still accepting submissions for our This is 2020: Meaningful Stories, Artful Healing contest! The deadline for students in grades K-12 to submit their piece is Thursday, September 10. Please send all submissions with the words “Artful Healing” in the subject line to [email protected]

See you then!

August 25, 2020 

Dear Superintendent Ray and Shelby County Schools Board, 

Four weeks ago, Superintendent Joris Ray announced that Shelby County Schools would be starting school virtually. While we commend that the safety of students, teachers, and community members is being prioritized, we are writing to you because we believe that there has not been an explicit pathway for parents to navigate finding childcare support. As you know, our district serves over 100,000 students and families, yet there has been no explicit information provided about how the district plans to support all parents inevitably affected with this ongoing challenge. After the initial announcement about virtual learning, a graphic was shared that included 33 community partner childcare sites, yet there were very limited spots available at each with no information on the different processes like explaining how to sign up, costs, and who would be watching students at those respective sites.  

Through speaking with community members and even teachers with children in Shelby County Schools, it is very clear that the cost of childcare will be a huge burden to many families on top of the challenges already created by the global crisis. We appreciate that the district has been working on a partnership with the YMCA, and we are aware that the YMCA has stated that they had the capacity to serve the needs of 10,000 students. However, considering that approximately 23% of SCS families reported that they preferred in-person learning on the summer survey and around 38% could have defaulted to in-person, there could be about 35,000 students who still need care not even considering those families who were making arrangements for children while opting into virtual instruction. The average cost of childcare in Memphis, TN, is $270.75/week or $1,083/month per child. This can be a great financial burden for families considering that, according to the US Census data, the median household income in Memphis is $39,108 (monthly income being $3,259). One SCS teacher who is struggling to find affordable childcare said, “I want everyone to be safe and healthy, first and foremost. But it makes it extremely hard for our family. My husband can’t work remotely. It will be very, very difficult for me to manage multiple children and effectively teach.”  

While the partnership with the YMCA and promoting other community organizations is valuable, we also recognize that working with community sites might not be enough to address the enormous childcare needs. Currently, the Shelby County government is setting up socially distanced learning pods for their employees’ children. These pods include a teacher or childcare provider with the expectation to assist students with technology, monitor breaks, and serve lunch among other duties. This could be a realistic model for how SCS could set up their own sites. Since SCS had already begun preparation of its own facilities for in-person learning along with collection of the necessary PPE and cleaning materials, we wonder if those efforts and resources could be retasked to expanding childcare capacity across the city and county. It seems that SCS has the greatest capacity in facilities and personnel to assist in addressing these needs, and additional resources needed could come from savings from buildings not being open across the county and requests to the county for CARES Act Funds in support of childcare. Our hope is that SCS could significantly expand free childcare options across different neighborhoods to match the needs of each community.  

With the urgency of the school year beginning soon, we recognize that questions about childcare must be answered as soon as possible. Families need affordable and accessible childcare support, and are left with concerns as they prepare for this year. Additionally, there are also many teachers with their own children who are looking for clarity on what supports will be provided for them as they are forced to balance both facilitating instruction and taking care of their own children at home. Many teachers we have heard from are struggling to identify childcare and the funds to pay for it. We believe that our teachers deserve support to ensure that they have less to worry about for their own children as they give their time and talent to effectively teach our children either from school or their home.

Ultimately, we are requesting clarity and greater support for families navigating childcare needs. In addition, we would like to know whether the district will take the initiative to provide its own childcare learning sites to meet the unique needs the COVID-19 pandemic has created? We look forward to your response. 

Sincerely,  

Healthy and Free Tennessee 

Memphis/Shelby County United 

Memphis Lift 

MICAH Education Equity Task Force 

Official Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter 

Stand for Children – Tennessee  

Whole Child Strategies 

Workers Interfaith Network 

I am not my hair. I am not my skin. I am not the country I was brought to. I am not the air that circles my lungs. I am not what I call myself. But do you see me as I am or what do I look like to you? As a young black woman in a racist society, my reality is a jungle that constantly implies that I am nothing but an animal- not a human being who takes pride in her blackness. Don’t take away my pride! I am not pleading. I am not going to say please to anyone.

When I was younger, I didn’t understand what black actually means in America. I am grateful to have a mother who sat down with me and explained to me what it meant. The power of being black and the beauty we all have as black people, in my opinion. I love having my black skin, culture, and tradition. However, I had to see the devastation black people have to go through for myself to fully have an understanding of what it’s like to be black in America. I remember I was in the 8th grade and I was listening to my teacher explaining the history of African Americans. He expressed the importance of understanding the depths of our history and to love our blackness.

That was the same year police brutality became a huge topic in American society, of what I remember. I knew it wasn’t a new situation in the black community, but my peers and I were new to this. I was scared. I was thinking about how this will affect everyone in my generation. How we will be too afraid to step out of our house to go to school or to the park with the police behind us.

As a black person in America, I am forced to understand the story of my life and others who look like me. Although I have to fathom the life of black people, I have a better understanding of who I am and my mission. I realized the world doesn’t value me- that is my story. Systemic racism is a part of our lives and I had to come to terms with it when I was in the 8th grade even though I didn’t know the term or the definition of it. I still knew, by experience, I will have to live with it and profoundly educate myself.

Systemic racism was designed to hinder black women, black men, and black children from achieving a peaceful life without worrying about being a personal target for those who hate us. I hate that this is our reality. Reality makes us grow up too damn fast than we should, and it tells us that we are too grown to think for ourselves. A reality that is made to teach us that our skin is not beautiful and our style is not presentable even though I love who I am. I know there are black girls, like me, who don’t because of lack of representation. Or black boys who don’t have any clue of what they want to be when they grow up.

I don’t want to be in my fifties and see this repetitive trend of racism my grandchildren will have to experience. But the reality is, it is going to happen. I am angry and I have the right to express my feelings for something that should have ended decades ago. I don’t want to be negative about the legacy of the country that allows history to repeat itself, but there will always be a ‘bigoted racist a**hole.’ 

My feelings towards police brutality are as typically expected, ANGER. Rage is a better word to describe my hostility towards the justice system that isn’t invented to protect the people who have built this country on their backs. Am I being too honest? I couldn’t possibly be because I am right. My blackness comes first before anythingthat the world will offer me in return. Silence isn’t enough.

“We don’t want to see Targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up for systemic racism burned to the ground.” 

Killer Mike pushed through tears to offer those words of resolve to his city as it reels from the response to police violence against black and brown bodies, most recently the modern day lynching of George Floyd, the unarmed black man whose life was taken by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s excessive use of force. 

Only ten days prior to the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor was murdered in a botched “no-knock” warrant raid. Louisville Metro Police Department recklessly entered her boyfriend’s residence with no warning, indiscriminately firing their weapons, killing Breonna with 8-shots, in a search for someone who was already in custody. Louisvillians have taken to the streets as the officers are still employed and no charges have been filed. 

Before the loss of George and Breonna, Ahmaud Arber was murdered in broad daylight while jogging for exercise, by a racist father-son vigilante duo. No charges were filed until months later, when video of the execution was leaked and public outcry forced the hand of law enforcement.

Lest we forget, the Memphians who were also brutalized in recent years. In 2018, Martavious Banks was shot by police during a pursuit on foot but was fortunate that his injuries were non-fatal. But another Memphian’s fate was more grim. In 2015, Darrius Stewart, a 19 year old young man, was an unarmed  passenger riding with a friend, the night he was detained in a traffic stop. He was shot and killed by an officer when the stop became physical; the officer was never charged with a crime and is currently receiving a monthly retirement pension granted on claim of post-traumatic stress disorder.  

These stories are unfortunately only a few recent accounts of untold black lives that have been taken with impunity. As we memorialize and honor the lives of George, Breonna, and Ahmaud, we also remember Philando, Sandra, Freddie, Alton, Tamir, Trayvon, Michael, Atatiana, Eric, and countless others taken too soon. The uprising across the nation is a cry that, “enough is enough!” In order for a lasting peace to be achieved, there must be a commensurate change and deep justice.

Dr. King once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Memphians have long suffered under inequitable policing conditions, and we say the bend must be sharper. The activist community of Memphis has joined together to demand policy changes that’ll ensure that the lives of black and brown citizens will be acknowledged, protected, and valued at the same level as their counterparts. In addition to our ongoing efforts in education,, these are a few criminal justice demands we lift up:

1. Release all protesters who were arrested as a result of exercising 1st amendment rights to protest AND drop any charges, pending or otherwise 
2. Investigate law enforcement brutality and misconduct during recent protests with public reporting of findings and a commitment to hold officers accountable for any wrongdoing
3. Reallocate funding from the police department to fund alternatives rooted in community health and crisis response
4. Ban chokeholds and strangleholds by Memphis Police Officers and Sheriff’s Deputies
5. Require de-escalation as a first response by Memphis Police Officers and Sheriff’s Deputies
6. Develop a Duty To Intervene policy that requires officers to intervene when witnessing another officer using excessive force for the Memphis Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office
7. Require reporting by officers and deputies any time they point a firearm at a citizen
8. Give the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) the power it needs to investigate and ensure accountability for police conduct and provide clear avenues for CLERB’s input on MPD training, policies, and procedures
9. Include grassroots black and brown leaders and activists on the search and selection committee for the next MPD Chief
10.  End money bail and stop predatory, ballooning penalties for traffic tickets, court costs, and other fines

Stand For Children Memphis acknowledges that the same system that perpetuates the indiscriminate killing of black and brown bodies also subjugates our children to substandard educational conditions. These issues are inextricably linked and as we knock down one barrier we put a dent in them all. In order to break the cycle of violence and undereducation in our communities, we urge you to support our initiative: A Moral Budget for Shelby County. We know the myriad obstacles to creating a more equitable landscape for students, families, and communities. A moral budget prioritizes people, not politics, profits, or posturing. When the Memphis City Council passed a resolution to allocate $5 million dollars of CARES Act funding to help close the “digital divide”–the discrepancy in availability of technological devices and internet access for students engaging in remote learning–they took a good first step toward fulfilling Dr. King’s vision of the beloved community.

At Stand For Children – Tennessee, we believe that words matter and, even more, we know actions must follow. We make this statement for the record to proclaim that Black Lives Matter and assert our solidarity with those in our Memphis streets and across the country raising up what should be an accepted fact. But, those are just words if we don’t work every day to push a  system bent with structural racism to find that arc towards justice. We commit to continuing the fight for equity in education and working with partners across the community to build equity and opportunity for the black and brown citizens of Memphis and Shelby County. It will take the village, but we can rise from these tragedies and ensure an equitable, new beginning for our children and community. 

For years, our local officials have taken an austere approach to funding our city and county governments resulting in a lack of investment in desperately needed areas such as education, transit, and neighborhoods. The COVID-19 pandemic shines a light on the challenges of our community that have suffered from severe underfunding, in addition to the virus specific issues that must be addressed. COVID-19 has produced a financial strain on the Shelby County budget, presenting the possibility of cuts that could drastically affect the educational future of students in Memphis and Shelby County, as well as resulting in a loss of up to 150 jobs from County staff, slashing of significant benefits, and other service cuts.

Stand has joined with the Memphis & West TN Labor Council, MICAH, and other community groups to demand better for our county with a campaign for a moral budget!

Take action now to tell the County Commission and Mayor that we need to invest in our children and ensure no staff suffer job and benefit losses during this pandemic!

Every day, County workers subject themselves to the possibility of being infected with COVID-19, working in identified pandemic hot spots and environments where proper sanitation isn’t necessarily a priority. These workers, who could easily be a loved one in your family, may not receive the pay, protective equipment, or healthcare they deserve. As one Commissioner proposed, some may be furloughed or lose parental leave.

That’s why we are asking Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and the Shelby County Commissioners to raise new revenue to restore the County budget fairly and equitably.

Raising new revenue like the Vehicle Registration Fee, as proposed by Mayor Harris, to $16.50 would assist in stabilizing the budget to ensure that the funds for education continue for our children and that benefits for County front-line workers remain available. The Vehicle Registration Fee has not been raised in 20 years, and even keeping up with inflation would anticipate it being $22 more. In post-COVID-19 times, this would also ensure additional funds are available for investments in education and transit.

Whether the Commission takes this route or not, we ask that the Shelby County Commissioners present another alternative budget that will put people first and will restore the County budget in a way that will be equitable for all. County residents and workers should not be held accountable for COVID-19’s impact on the Shelby County budget nor the havoc it has caused in students’ and teachers’ lives.

If you agree that Shelby County Mayor, along with the Shelby County Commissioners should put people first, take action by signing this letter to show your support for a moral and equitable 2020-21 Shelby County Budget. If you haven’t already, check out this op-ed for more information on why the  Commissioners and Mayor need to raise new revenue now!