Parkland student plans FedEx protest in Memphis
Well-known teen gun control activist David Hogg posted social media statements Wednesday that suggested he plans a Memphis protest against FedEx.
“See you this summer,” he wrote to his 813,000 Twitter followers, adding a smiley face. “1000 Ridgeway Loop Memphis, Tennessee.”
“That’s FedEx,” he wrote in a subsequent post. (FedEx is listed as one of the tenants in this East Memphis office building, but the main FedEx headquarters is at 3680 Hacks Cross Road.)
People immediately began asking for more details, but Hogg didn’t add much, writing, “More info to come.”
FedEx released a statement late Wednesday that didn’t mention Hogg and repeated several points the company had made earlier this year during a dispute over its discount program for NRA members.
“The pricing program mentioned in some reports is not for the NRA itself – it is for American small businesses and consumers that are members of the association,” the company said.
The company also repeated earlier statements distancing itself from the NRA’s positions: “FedEx opposes assault rifles being in the hands of civilians ... Most important, FedEx believes urgent action is required at the local, state and Federal level to protect schools and students from incidents such as the horrific tragedy in Florida on February 14th.”
Hogg is among a group of teenagers that emerged as some of the most recognizable faces of a revitalized gun control movement this year following a February mass shooting at their high school in Parkland, Florida.
Hogg and supporters recently held protests at Publix supermarkets to bring pressure against the company’s support for Adam Putnam, an NRA-friendly candidate for Florida governor.
In the protests, young people lay on the supermarket floors in “die-ins” as managers routed shoppers around them. The protests led the company to announce Friday that it was suspending its political donations.
On MSNBC’s “AM Joy” in February, Hogg pressed for FedEx to end its NRA discounts and said, “The CEO is one of the biggest donors to the NRA, and we have to take care of them.”
The company said CEO Fred Smith isn’t an NRA backer.
“He has never been a member of the NRA, nor has he ever contributed to the NRA ... and his political contributions are a matter of public record,” spokesman Patrick Fitzgerald said in February.
During a protest on the University of Memphis campus earlier this year, students stopped in front of the FedEx Institute of Technology building on campus and chanted, “Hey FedEx, whaddaya say? Divest from the NRA!”
Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.