The ingenuity of Black working-class Memphians isn’t history
MLK50: Justice Through Journalism
A nonprofit newsroom focused on poverty, power and policy.
Hello all,
History isn’t just about events from the past. It’s about how those events inform what we’re experiencing now. And for me, Memphis feels like a place whose history echoes loudly and continuously.?
But some of it feels just out of reach. What I mean is that there are lapses, pieces of Memphis history that have been untold, forgotten or misrepresented. That’s why MLK50: Justice Through Journalism reporters seek to add broader context to our stories — not why this is happening now but what led to it happening. What brought us to this point.
For Black History Month, I wanted to tap into some of that Memphis history in a way that would feel relevant to you. Thankfully, I know Justin A. Davis. Justin wrote a piece for us on Memphis hip-hop last year; the brother knows his way around an archive.?
This time Justin has written a 10-chapter piece for us about Memphis’ tenant movement. “This all started with a question that hit me last summer, as I was following the story of tenants organizing in Memphis Towers,” he says. “When living conditions and housing policy are so often stacked against local renters, why don’t we see more tenants organizing against their landlords and management companies?”
He got curious about times when tenants in Memphis had tried these things before and found a lot of housing justice work that came after the Sanitation Workers Strike. “The first half of 1968 is a defining moment in the city’s history, of course, but we don’t often talk about what happened next — and Black History Month feels like a perfect time to bring folks some local stories they maybe haven’t heard before.”
In his storytelling, Justin highlights the creativity and ingenuity of Black working-class Memphians. Some of the city’s most underserved neighborhoods have also been laboratories of social change. After 1968, he says, “The work didn’t disappear: it transformed.”
And by noting that transformation, Justin shows a deeper connection to the national housing justice movement than is often acknowledged and can serve as an inspirational path forward. “For the past 60 years, tenants across the city and county have been making the same basic demands: safe, healthy and affordable housing in communities where residents have what they need to thrive. We have a rich tradition of hard-fought grassroots wins, and it’s on us to keep building and innovating on that tradition.”
With a project this epic, we wanted the time to make it special, too, in its presentation. We’re a small team and there’s often never enough time. Thankfully we also have a creative visuals editor in Andrea Morales. Andrea went through the treasure trove of archival images Justin sent us and used hand embroidery to enliven them.?
It was a way, she says, to “allow new light” to hit them. “It was a way to elevate the faces and visages of the people who are being unshelved by the archive,” she says. With the threads, we’re pulling together the threads of the community. Making connection. And, she says, it was fun too. On Monday, we published chapter one of Justin’s work; we’ll add a chapter each weekday through Feb. 16. We hope you’ll read each chapter this month or next month or the month after that. Memphis’ story, after all, continues, and sometimes, doubles back.
We're also launching a series this month that our housing reporter Jacob Steimer has worked on since last April. It investigates the ways lead poisoning contributes to three of Memphis’ most serious issues — education, health and public safety. Look for the first story next Thursday.
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In solidarity,
Adrienne Johnson Martin
Executive Editor
Absolutely, the echoes of history empower our present actions and shape our future. As Maya Angelou wisely said, "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again." ?? Keep illuminating the path forward, MLK50! #Inspiration #BlackHistoryMonth ???