Museum, King legacy move players
Civil Rights Museum recalls history of racism
MEMPHIS – Penny Hardaway motioned to Sam Perkins.
“Hey, Perkins, look,” he said. Hardaway pointed to a photo of a black man hanging from a noose, along with a sign that said, “This (N-word) voted.”
They stood there in silence, soon joined by another NBA great, James Worthy, contemplating the reality of this country’s history of violence against black men and women.
This was not theoretical. This was not a fact that anyone could debate or #fakenews away.
“Everyone should see this museum,” Hardaway said. “Everyone needs to see this museum.”
Maybe then we could at least talk about issues of race from a common understanding.
Maybe then we could abandon the myth that poverty and the social ills that accompany it are personal choices, unrelated to the systemic subjugation of an entire race for the greater part of this country’s history.
“We’ve been desensitized,” said Ryan Jones, 32, a historian at the National Civil Rights Museum who was tasked with leading Hardaway, Perkins, Wor- thy and former WNBA star Swin Cash — the winners of this year’s National Civil Rights Museum’s Sports Legacy Awards
— on a tour Sunday afternoon.
“You hear about Dr. King’s dream and about Rosa Parks not leaving her seat, but you don’t hear about the brutal reality, or about how Dr. King’s tone changed at the end, how he was increasingly focused on economic justice. It’s an honor to tell people a story that is not always told the way it should be.”
So he told that story. For the better part of two hours. And those basketball superstars were moved and overwhelmed, like everyone else who passes through this museum.
Hardaway took a photo of a young black girl holding a sign that said, “Can a man love God and hate his brother?” and another of a sign that said, “Black folks want an education, too.”
Worthy quietly sang along with a protest song, Praying in Jail.
Cash walked with her infant son, Saint, and whispered to him, “We’re learning a little bit today, bud.”
And not learning about some distant history, either. Former NBA coach Bernie Bickerstaff and local Nike executive Willie Gregory were on the tour, too.
Both attended segregated schools, Bickerstaff in Kentucky, Gregory in Memphis.
“I rode at the back of the bus,” Bickerstaff said. “I drank out of a different water fountain.”
The tour continued to the Rosa Parks exhibit. The honorees sat wherever they pleased. And when Jones said they could exit out any door they liked, Cash said, “I’m going out the front.”
It was striking, to see the reactions as the tour unfolded. The determination and the sadness and the pride in the fight that so many have fought for so long. And continue to fight, over police brutality and economic disparities and voter suppression and symbols of hate in public parks.
“Where are we now?” the elder Bickerstaff said. “I think the camouflage has come off. There’s still a lot of hate, and now we can see it clearly. It’s out in the open now.”
Hardaway had been on the tour before. So had Gregory and Cash.
“But I wanted to bring my son this time,” she said. “I know he won’t remember anything, but I wanted him to be here, and to take pictures, so I could tell him about it someday.”
Finally, they came to room 306, where King spent his final hours. It is the saddest, holiest place in Memphis. It takes one’s breath away.
Jones told how King called to musician Ben Branch, who was scheduled to perform that night.
“Make sure you play Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” King said. “Play it real pretty.”
Not long after, a shot rang out. “He was taken from the balcony to St. Joseph’s hospital and pronounced dead at 7:05,” Jones said.
David Aldridge, the TNT sideline reporter, has been to the National Civil Rights Museum many times before. As he walked onto the balcony Sunday, he wept.
That is the power of the place. Of the balcony and of the wreath.
It is a tragic reminder of the power of hate and of the need for all of us to be better than that.
So when the honorees were asked if they wanted an individual photo of themselves on the balcony, every one of them said yes.
Cash made certain she was holding her baby, with hopes for a kinder country ahead.
“Everyone needs to see this museum.”
Anfernee Hardaway Legacy award winner