Miss. and Tenn. lag behind in gun laws
After bearing witness to Memphis history, Clayborn Temple was neglected for years. Now, it’s poised for a rebirth. 17 states have ‘red flag’ laws to prevent violence
Some of the stained-glass windows have shattered. A leaky roof lets in rain while a tree grows up through the floor of a room beside the silent organ. Then, the tree grows along the wall and breaks out through the window above. The building has wounds — a little bit like Memphis, says Anasa Troutman, executive director of Clayborn Temple. “There's a Rumi poem that says, ‘The wound is where the light enters,'” Troutman said. “We want this to be a place for that.” At Clayborn Temple, wooden supports hold up the walls around the stained-glass windows, panes of which are missing. A steel beam, intended to be temporary when installed in 2004, keeps the ceiling from falling in. A net catches the debris that does fall from the dome of the sanctuary. The floor where sanitation workers gathered, preparing to challenge the city and seek their rights, rotted through not long ago. Now, pieces of plywood make a temporary place to stand.
In Southaven, Mississippi, where residents had been awaiting details since dawn on a deadly shooting Tuesday that left two local Walmart employees dead, District Attorney John Champion said he believed the weapons belonging to the accused shooter, Martez Abram, had been purchased legally.
The prosecutor refused to discuss any other gun-related details, pending an indictment. But what is known about the weapons in Abram's possession is that as of three days before the shooting, one of them was a knife — which the 20-year Walmart employee flashed during an argument with a coworker, who filed an incident report with police July 27.
In the report, Abram's coworker, whose name has been redacted, opted not to press charges. But he did want the report to be on file, Southaven police noted.
In 17 states and Washington, D.C., the police may have had an additional option. Known as "extreme risk" or "red flag" laws, new legislation allowing firearms to be temporarily removed from owners deemed in danger of harming themselves or others has been enacted — with bipartisan support — in recent years across the country.
Functioning as a version of a restraining order, the red flag policies grant law enforcement — or in some states, an individual in a relationship with a gun owner — the ability to ask a court to order the temporary removal of guns from the possession of a person for whom there is evidence of extreme risk.
No red flag laws in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi
The Trump administration has called on every state to adopt Extreme Risk Protection Orders and Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a proponent, describing red flag laws as a point of common ground.
In the Mid-south, though, red flag legislation was recently stalled in Tennessee and Arkansas. And in Mississippi, a bill has not been introduced.
Tennessee Rep. John J. Deberry Jr., D-memphis, introduced red flag legislation in February 2019. The bill sought to amend state law to allow an eligible petitioner to file an extreme risk petition, with law enforcement; current or
Reopened in 2016 after of years of neglect, Clayborn Temple is closed again — this time, for renovations that seek to give the historic building a rebirth.
“This building is not just a symbol of what people have been through, what Memphis has been through, but also what America has been through,” said Troutman. “It shows there’s beauty in the brokenness, there’s redemption and there’s opportunity for restoration.”
Built in 1891 and 1892 by Second Presbyterian Church, Clayborn Temple won’t be restored to its original appearance. Rather, it will be restored to its 1968 appearance, when the church was owned by the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
That year, it served as the organizing headquarters for striking workers.
It’s the stories of those workers and others who gathered in Clayborn Temple that Clayborn Reborn, the nonprofit tasked with caring for the historic building, hopes to tell through the renovation and future programming.
The group has already raised $3.5 million for work on the exterior of the building, which starts in September. That work will include sealing the building from the elements, restoring the stained glass, stabilizing the masonry and restoring the bell tower.
Strikers to be honored in stained glass
The windows in Clayborn Temple have seen a lot. On March 28, 1968, after violence broke out between protesters and police, police attacked Clayborn Temple, where protesters had taken refuge.
“They assaulted the terrified marchers with their hands, clubs, and tear gas,” reads a summary from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Desperate, injured protestors escaped by breaking through Clayborn Temple’s stained glass windows and climbing down into alleys below.”
The panels of stained glass that are original to the building will be kept intact or removed and later re-installed during the renovation. But other panels, including ones that are partially shattered, installed in the 1970s or 1980s will be replaced.
A group of people from the neighborhood and original sanitation strikers will select an artist who will tell the stories of the strike in those windows.
“It’s going to be a way for us to integrate the stories of the community, Clayborn Temple’s community, and tell the story of what happened in this place through those stained-glass windows,” Troutman said. “Everyday people don’t see themselves as people who have agency in stained glass.”
Elmore Nickleberry, who marched with other sanitation workers in the 1968 strike, said Clayborn Temple already brings back memories — and that it’s been sad to see the building sit empty and fall apart over the years.
Now, he wants to be one of the first people to see the building when it is renovated. Then, he’ll also get to see a representation of himself and the other strikers in stained glass.
“A lot of things happened during the strike at the church,” Nickleberry said. “I think they should fix it up and do something like that, something to remember the strikers who marched with Martin Luther King.”
Clayborn Reborn still needs $1.5 million to restore the sanctuary, which they hope to complete at the same time as the exterior. Another $500,000 is needed to restore the organ, once the largest in the Southeast.
If all goes as planned, the building will be closed for a year for those phases of the renovation.
Clayborn Temple has been an epicenter
In 1968, the wives of striking sanitation workers cooked in the church daily, preparing breakfast and lunch for their husbands and other activists.
The church’s basement also hosted a hand-crank printer, where the church’s pastor created the iconic “I AM A MAN” signs.
Today, the basement sits empty, offlimits due to instability and debris.
But a third part of the renovation will include restoring the basement. One idea for future use is that it could perhaps become a test kitchen restaurant, honoring the women who once cooked there.
“That story is now translated into this idea for a restaurant that we would have people sit together who don’t know each other,” Troutman said.
Another part of the basement could, perhaps, hold a print shop to teach local youth about screen-printing.
“We’re thinking of every story we can think of and what does it look like programmatically,” Troutman said. The church also has an off-limits annex that will be restored. The gym, which once housed a homeless shelter, is now an empty field after that portion of the building collapsed and had to be demolished.
In the future, they hope to rebuild that portion of the building, perhaps to house a financial innovation center, honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of economic equity.
Jason Farmer, board chair for Clayborn Reborn, remembers walking three blocks from his childhood apartment to Clayborn Temple to receive services for low-income families.
Later, he saw the church sit vacant for years, a neighborhood eyesore.
When it reopened, “it was like restoring a vital component,” Farmer said.
Clayborn Temple will be a place filled with symbolism when it is fully restored and again offering programs and services to the neighborhood, Farmer said. Clayborn Temple was once an epicenter for movements seeking change, Farmer said. Today, the country is polarized on issues involving immigration, race and more, he said.
“It’s like those things are crying out to have an epicenter where those things culminate,” Farmer said. “I think that’s what Clayborn Temple has historically represented and will continue to represent those kinds of voices and support and spark those people in the movements.”
Renovations will seek to keep defining character
Restoring Clayborn Temple is a balancing act.
In 1979, the building was named to the National Register for its local architectural significance. In 2016, it was upgraded to national significance. And in 2017, the building was named a national treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
All of this means that alterations must be approved by multiple parties, including the national and state historic preservation societies.
Claudette Stager, deputy state historic preservation officer at the Tennessee Historical Commission, said the renovations will aim to rehabilitate or restore the parts that are “character defining” such as the sanctuary, exterior and the windows.
“I think it’s really going to be a matter of agencies working together to get the right amount of historic character left, yet realizing that the owners want
to do something new that recognizes what has happened to a building that wasn't in there originally,” Stager said.
“(The renovation) hopefully will draw a lot of attention to a really significant, extraordinarily significant building.”
Clayborn Temple could offer a place for healing
Since reopening in 2015, Clayborn Temple has been home to the multiethnic Downtown Church and offered a meeting space for community events. It has hosted memorial services, political events, performances and panels on social issues.
In 2018, Memphians walked from the church to City Hall, following the path that sanitation workers took 50 years before.
That year, the city of Memphis also dedicated the I Am a Man Plaza next door to the church. Since coming to Memphis, Troutman, the executive director, said she's seen “a palpable sadness and remorse” that goes back to the death of King; sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker; and Larry Payne, the 16-year-old killed by police on the day they raided Clayborn Temple.
The city has “compounded sadness and trauma” that has been a barrier to equity, relationships and trust on issues of economics and race, she said.
Once Clayborn Temple is restored, Troutman hopes it will become a space for people to themselves be restored.
“If we're diligent and compassionate and disciplined and make the choices and are honest, then we can come in here and not just repair the building, but also create a space for Memphians to repair and heal each other,” Troutman said.
“If the toil means there's an opportunity for Memphis to heal and the communities in Memphis that have traditionally been overlooked to find their own self-determination, value, vision and agency, then I would do this ten times — no matter how hard it is.”
Katherine Burgess covers county government, religion and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-5292799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.