MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 Years Ago — 1995
About a year before stepping down as city school superintendent, W.W. Herenton formally proposed building a downtown school. The grades K-8 facility would offer enriched academics, he said, and it would be open to students from across the city. Backed by a study showing that a sizable number of downtown workers would enroll their children in the school, the proposal became a part of the school board's approved list of long-term capital improvement needs. But it never went beyond there due to a lack of money. Seven years later, the idea has resurfaced in a big way — with Herenton pushing it as city mayor and solving the money problem by offering $100 million for badly needed school improvements. He wants a revamped and reluctant school board to use a small part of the funds from the proposed bond issue to bring life to his vision for a downtown school.
50 Years Ago — 1970
About half the 20,000-member student body of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville missed classes yesterday — either by personal choice or professors' class cancellations — as a three-day Student Government Association strike began on the campus. Elsewhere across the South student reaction to the slaying of four Kent State University students by National Guardsmen and U.S. involvement in Cambodia included the suspension of all classes at all 27 colleges and universities in Georgia, affecting about 83,000 students, after a confrontation between students and college administrators at the University of Georgia. At the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville students conducted a mock war crime trial for President Nixon, convicting him of murder and sentencing him to live with his conscience. The trial followed a sit-in in the campus ROTC building.
75 Years Ago — 1945
E.H. Crump, Shelby County political leader, yesterday made the following statement: “V-E Day, for which not only America but every part of the civilized world has yearned for many years, is at hand, and it should be an occasion for thankfulness and prayer, rather than hilarity and revelry. Time will never dim the heroic deeds of our boys who have fought so valiantly in the ranks of our peerless military leaders to whom we owe a debt of gratitude which can never be fully repaid.”
100 Years Ago — 1920
E.L. Harrison, Memphis architect, has completed plans for the enlargement and remodeling of the Bryblock Company's building at North Main and Jefferson. The work will cost $300,000.
125 Years Ago — 1895
The Memphis Cycle Club bicycle races for the benefit of United Charities are to be held at Billings Park this afternoon. The half-mile track is in perfect shape and the betting will be heavy on J.L. Canale to win in the fifth race.