Former Sen. Roscoe Dixon dies
Political career came to abrupt halt in May 2005
Roscoe Dixon, a Memphis Democrat who was prominent in state politics for more than a decade before his 2006 conviction in an FBI corruption sting, and who later advocated for restoration of voting rights, died at a local hospital Thursday. He was 71.
Dixon’s sister confirmed his death, which was attributed to a lengthy, undisclosed illness.
Former mayor of Shelby County and then Memphis, A C Wharton, who had been friends with Dixon since 1973 and who had hired him at the county after Dixon resigned his state senate seat in 2005, said he “personified public service.” And it was Dixon who borrowed a pickup truck to help the Whartons move to Memphis in 1973, Wharton said.
“The best thing — and in my opinion the best description you can give for anyone — is that Roscoe was just a plain, good man,” said Wharton, who now works for the fundraising arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “Like others, he had faults and weaknesses. But at the core, he was just a good man, solid as a rock.”
‘Why does he talk so much?’
Dixon was born on Sept. 20, 1949, in Gilmore, Arkansas, and was raised in South Memphis’ Dixie Heights neighborhood, one of seven kids. When he was 6 years old, he would make speeches into window fans, sister Catherine Green recalled.
“I wondered, ‘Why does he talk so much?’ Turns out he was going to be a politician,” she said.
He attended Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), where he graduated with a degree in political science. In the years that followed, he worked with the Urban League, the NAACP, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity), and on the 1974 congressional campaign of Harold Ford Sr.
His first foray into politics came in 1975, when he lost a runoff against Pat Vander Schaaf for the at-large City Council seat. The next year, he was in Atlanta to work on Jimmy Carter’s 1976 presidential campaign.
Back in Memphis in 1977, he built a grassroots coalition — his “kitchen cabinet” — of influential advisers and supporters who helped him win election to House District 87, a seat now held by House Minority Leader Karen Camper, said Javier Bailey, the chief administrative officer of the Shelby County Assessor’s Office and a cabinet member.
He served as a representative from 1978 to 1994, and was best known as a cool political player who had worked on Tenncare improvements, to create a revolving loan fund for first-time homebuyers, and to secure state funding for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis — an idea he said in 1991 ”was born on my coffee table.” He also played a key role in passing the Tennessee Community Corrections Act.
In 1994, he ran for Senate District 33, ultimately defeating incumbent Democrat Ed Davis. A respected and influential lawmaker, Dixon helped guide several important pieces of legislation to approval, including the Community Redevelopment Act, which has been used to redevelop the Highland corridor and Uptown areas of Memphis.
Dixon served in the senate until 2005, when he resigned his position to take a job as deputy chief administrative officer of Shelby County.
“He really cared about his district,” Wharton said. “Every waking hour — and I mean that literally — even before he started working for me, by 6 or 7 o’clock, Roscoe had been on conference calls finding out what was going on in the city, county and state and what he could do about it. He viewed politics as a vessel and how he could change things that needed to be changed through politics.”
Dixon’s sister said his character fit the Bible verse Galatians 5:22.
“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness and gentleness: That’s what Roscoe’s life was about,” Green said. “He really had a calling on his life to serve mankind.”
Thinking of one word to sum up Dixon, Bailey landed on “practical.” He was always looking for solutions to help others out: “A lot of guys that get into politics and reach the level he reached, their egos sometimes overtake them,” Bailey said. “You never saw that with Roscoe Dixon. He was always down to earth, always practical.”
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland tweeted Friday: “Sorry to hear that former state Senator Roscoe Dixon has passed. He was always gracious and encouraging to me, including two years ago when I knocked on his door campaigning. He invited us in for 30 minutes of reminiscing — a great memory today.”
Dixon’s downfall:
The Tennessee Waltz
Dixon’s political career came to an abrupt halt in May 2005, when he and six other state lawmakers were charged with accepting bribes from undercover FBI agents in an operation known as “Tennessee Waltz,” named for the old song. The agents posed as corrupt businessmen who were giving money to influence state legislation.
Two other powerful Memphis Democrats, Sens. John Ford and Katheryn Bowers, were also charged, along with several other lawmakers from across the state, both Republican and Democrat. U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, a Republican from Germantown, was U.S. district attorney at the time and led the prosecution of Dixon and others.
“He didn’t understand how he got caught up in that,” Bailey said of Dixon. “And it was something he regretted because he really took his public service to heart. He really did.”
At the time, Dixon and his attorneys said he was “set up” by “a pack of con men” bent on trying to entrap Black politicians, and claimed his $9,500 in bribes were actually contributions. But a jury and U.S. District Court Judge Jon Mccalla disagreed, and Dixon got more than five years in federal prison plus three years of supervised release.
Tajuan Stout Mitchell, a former Memphis City Council member and a longtime friend of Dixon’s, said Dixon shouldn’t be defined by the Tennessee
Waltz because he was “so much more than that.” The Dixon portrayed in the media coverage was a “made-up person,” she said, her voice fraying with emotion. The Dixon she knew was a “social worker disguised as an elected official,” who worked to make a difference in people’s lives, who fought for education, and who denied himself to serve others.
“I didn’t know that other person,” sad Mitchell, who was present during the trial. “I knew his heart. I knew a man who loved his wife more than life itself and who loved God. I knew a man who dedicated his life to serving others.”
In a Facebook post Friday morning, Bailey asked people not to allow the “Tennessee Waltz garbage to define this brother’s legacy.”
“He was so much more than that,” Bailey wrote. “This man loved his community and gave 100% effort to raising the standard of life for the people he served.”
Fighting for the right to vote
After the Tennessee Waltz, amid calls for reforms, the Tennessee General Assembly approved a new law, effective July 1, 2006, to keep public officials convicted of certain crimes — including bribery — from seeking public office, owning a gun, and voting.
But there was some question about whether the law applied to Dixon, and so he petitioned the court in March 2016 for the restoration of his citizenship and voting rights.
Dixon argued that his guilty verdict came in June, before the law was in effect. But the state argued that the judgment wasn’t officially entered until sentencing in October, and the court ultimately sided with the state. After that, Dixon took up the cause of restoring voting rights to ex-felons who had done their time.
“He just felt that if you were living, you had a duty to be involved in government — if not for yourself, for others,” Wharton said.
Even though he couldn’t participate in the democratic process in Tennessee, that didn’t stop Dixon from serving his community in other ways, Mitchell said. In addition to his job as a community relations specialist at Cocaine Alcohol Awareness Program (CAAP), he kept busy with neighborhood cleanups. And his sister said he was an active member in his church and loved to be around preaching and preachers.
And eventually he moved to Mississippi, where he could vote. Wharton said the last conversation they had was about politics in Mississippi.
“He wanted to get back on the battlefield,” Wharton said.
Funeral arrangements hadn’t been made early Friday afternoon.
Dixon is survived by his wife Gloria Dixon; brothers Ricky, Bobby, Danny Dixon; and sisters Sandra Smith and Catherine Green.
Reach Ryan Poe at poe@commercial appeal.com and on Twitter @ryanpoe.