Memphis sees calls for justice reform
Organizers focused on systemic issues that impact black citizens
Monday marked the 13th consecutive day of demonstrations against police brutality, but various organizers, both experienced and new, are expanding the focus of acts of civil disobedience to include additional systemic issues that disproportionately impact black citizens.
Several events were planned throughout Memphis. A public memorial for George Floyd, the unarmed black man who died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes on Memorial Day, started the day’s events.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival held a prayer group calling for peace and an end to police brutality.
Members of that group joined others in front of the county jail at 201 Poplar to call for an end to the cash bail system that keeps many locked up on minor charges because of their inability to pay.
With the threat of severe weather from Tropical Depression Cristobal looming over the Mid-south area, and the end of the city-wide curfew announced, both elected officials and organizers attended planned events throughout the day.
Rallings, Harris, and clergy speak at George Floyd memorial
At 10 a.m. Monday, roughly 200 gathered in the civic plaza on North Main for a memorial for Floyd.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris called for the open memorial service, and it was attended by high-ranking law enforcement officials, elected officials and clergy members.
Rev. Earle Fisher of Abyssinian Baptist Church led the opening prayer for the memorial. Fisher talked about Floyd but also took the moment to focus on Memphis police as well — reading out the names of black individuals killed by the Memphis police.
Fisher also condemned the arrest of protesters exercising their first amendment rights, as well as the use of tear gas against protesters by law enforcement agencies.
Memphis Police Department Director Michael Rallings addressed the crowd, encouraging attendees to love their fellow man, “even if your fellow man is a police officer.”
“Police are not your enemy,” said Rallings, who asserted that MPD stands against police brutality. Rallings’ remarks come after two separate incidents between MPD officers and protesters prompted investigation.
One officer was captured on video pushing a woman down on Union Avenue with his riot shield. Another group of officers were recorded tackling a woman on Beale Street, who had begun to back away as a line of police approached her.
Other elected officials speaking at Monday’s memorial service included Memphis Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-thomas, who said, “We are pleading for black lives to matter. We demand justice. We demand dignity. We demand respect and we demand life without question.”
On Saturday, Easter-thomas was one of many elected officials who gathered at the local NAACP headquarters in the largest showing of political will regarding the issues of police brutality and systemic racism during the days of protests that have followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Easter-thomas pledged the Memphis City Council and its eight-member black majority would focus cleaning up and expanding food access in underserved areas.
Poor People’s Campaign gathers for prayer, renewed focus in the fight for justice
At the other end of Main Street, representatives with the Tennessee chapter of the Poor People’s Campaign held a prayer ceremony in Army Park.
Rev. Regina Clark led a prayer calling for peace and the end of policing that leads to the unjust deaths of black people.
The gathering was part of the campaign’s national call for a day of fasting and focus.
Clark also called for the end of systems that keep poor people impoverished, including political efforts to halt the advancement of a living wage.
“We call on the nation to stop all forms of systemic racism,” said Clark. “We call on the nation to stop the perpetuation of poverty and low incomes, to stop blocking living wages and paid sick leave.”
Drawing from the historic significance of their location — Army Park has a historic marker memorializing the 1866 Memphis Massacre, when 46 black Memphians were killed by mobs of white people in a spasm of violence that also saw the deaths of two whites — organizers read aloud the names of several people killed or injured by Memphisarea law enforcement in recent years.
Public Defender’s office joins protesters calling for an end to the cash bail system
Several individuals who attended the Poor People’s Campaign gathering relocated outside of the Shelby County Criminal Justice Complex at 201 Poplar.
Organizer Amber Sherman’s live Facebook feed shows the moment when members of the county’s public defenders office joined protesters in the street, echoing their calls for criminal justice reform.
Collectively, the crowd chanted, “No more money bail, let our clients out of jail.”
The cash bail system came under renewed scrutiny in Memphis and across the nation after jails were identified as especially vulnerable structures with conditions that enable a rapid spread of COVID-19.
Locally, the ACLU, Just City and other legal groups filed a federal class action lawsuit against the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office seeking the release of detainees most vulnerable to COVID-19.
The lawsuit asserts that many detainees are exposed to the deadly virus simply because they cannot afford their bail. Further, the lawsuit alleges, conditions within the jail that bolster the spread of COVID-19 are plentiful — including lack of personal hygiene products, shared ventilation systems, communal spaces that are not being regularly sanitized.