What we’ve learned to love about Memphis
Narratives about Memphis neighborhoods permeate everyday conversations.
“I don’t like driving for Lyft because it’s sketchy, sending me to South Memphis at night.” “Frayser’s no place to be after dark.” “Whitehaven is hot, look out.” Such stories shape our engagement with Memphis, whether it’s where we eat or which roads we take. For newcomers, neighborhood names or warnings like that fall on ignorant ears.
When we arrived in Memphis in June 2017 to begin our work with Teach For America, our knowledge of the city was limited. Through the University of Washington, our alma mater, we had traveled to Memphis to study civil rights history.
Our understanding was inherently shallow, limited to events and places touched by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Previous visits took us inside the Lorraine Motel and Mason Temple, but neither of us had even heard of the communities where we would be teaching.
As we got to know the people in those neighborhoods, and especially the children, that changed. Resilience in Orange Mound
“Ms. Powell, look up the history of Orange Mound before teaching here.”
That is the first thing my principal told me after interviewing at Dunbar Elementary to teach third grade. Once I was hired, many native Memphians showed blatant concern: “You’re going work in the Mound?”
Headlines involving violence and crime in Orange Mound are easy to find, but looking deeper, you’ll find stories that are quite different. It’s a resilient place capable of remarkable inventions.
Despite Orange Mound’s roots of being built on a plantation, it became the first urban community in America built by and for African Americans. Last year, Dunbar almost closed, but staggering amounts of advocacy from parents and the neighborhood kept it open.
While I worked to understand the neighborhood better and forge connections inside and outside of school, the demands of being a first-year teacher overwhelmed me. From incessant curriculum changes, to constant classroom management, I was burning out.
I was especially disheartened by the instructional time lost to correcting behavior. The more I talked to people externally, the more I realized that stories about bad student behavior in Orange Mound were pervasive.
As the year continued, however, I learned more about my students’ lives. As their teacher, I saw first-hand the joys, struggles, insecurities, and experiences that fuel them. That context behind every act is often hard to see.
For instance, some students may exhibit bad behavior, but what circumstances are they coming from? When I see them thrive, what can I do to help them to achieve more?
Determination in Whitehaven
“We are transforming the WestwoodWhitehaven community through education.”
These words, from Freedom Preparatory Academy’s founder, Roblin Webb, hang in the hallwalls of Freedom Prep, alongside quotes from James Baldwin, Michelle Obama, and others.
I hope Freedom Prep’s students read Ms. Webb’s words in first-person, as agents of transformation themselves. While many schools in southwest Memphis are among the lowest-performing in Tennessee, our students consistently surpass achievement and growth metrics for the area.
I taught biology at this public charter school serving the Westwood and Whitehaven communities for the past year. My students grow up in the same neighborhoods and face the same sorts of traumas as those in struggling schools.
While we have so much more to do as a school to better serve our students, we find success because families, students, and teachers have all bought into a new story about what is possible for this community.
In May, 100 percent of Freedom Prep’s second graduating class took another tremendous step towards to their college choices for the fall. Meanwhile, the third-grade students at Dunbar advanced to fourth grade. We both are already preparing to welcome new classes of students for the fall.
Believe in Memphis
For all of these young people, and thousands like them across Memphis, the stories they hear can be deeply affirming and empowering -- or sadly limiting.
As teachers, we have a responsibility to share powerful new stories with our students, rooted in truth and history, but looking forward with promise and hope.
The way we talk about Memphis’ neighborhoods and its people are how our city’s children will come to see themselves and our city.
Dr. King once said that “faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” As Teach For America corp members, we are taking these uncertain, faithful steps forward every day.
We may not be from Memphis, but we know that the stories we write now will affect this community for years to come. As long as we are here, we are committed to helping the children we serve write stories for their lives that are bold, successful, and full of greatness.
Our students face challenges, but they’re also some of the strongest and most loving people we know. This is the story about them that all of Memphis deserves to hear.
Meili Powell is a 23-year old teacher from Seattle, a graduate of the University of Washington, and a Teach for America corps member at Dunbar Elementary School.
Dylan Moore is a 24-year old teacher from Pullman, Wash., a graduate of the University of Washington, and a Teach for America corps member at Freedom Preparatory Academy High School.