Jim Crow: ethnic discrimination especially against blacks by legal enforcement or traditional sanctions.
We’ve been thinking about this a lot as a result of our give and take yesterday with our friend, albeit adversary on this issue, Ken Hoover, when he suggested that we are off-base in saying that the current debate about unifying our dual school systems is a modern separate but equal issue.
Of course, we’d gone one step further and said it’s a last vestige of Jim Crow mentality.
It’s hard for us to think otherwise. If the history of the South tells us anything, it is that Caucasians always find ways to perpetuate their views of the world to stay in power, often by changing the rules of the game any time African-Americans figure out how to play it.
Who, Us?
In this context, we think of the all-white Shelby County Schools board, we think of the way it has based key decisions on racial bias, and we think of the way that the board has pursued a special school district to change the rules so that it can remain in charge.
It’s really not too surprising. After all, Shelby County Schools was under a federal court desegregation order for 41 years, ending only with a grudging ruling by a federal judge three years ago to grant unitary standing. “The Court has a duty to independently evaluate the progress of Shelby County schools in achieving compliance with the court’s order to fully remove all vestiges of de jure segregation,” U.S District Judge Bernice Donald ruled. “At this point, Shelby County school district does not merit a passing grade.”
Judge Donald declared unitary status as to the issues of staff, transportation, and facilities but denied it on issues of extra-curricular activities, student assignment, and faculty integration, instructing Shelby County Schools to immediately bring the district into full compliance “with its constitutional obligations.”
And yet, some people suggest that somehow Memphians generally and the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners specifically are being illogical and imprudent when they don’t automatically believe county school officials when they say they have the best interests of Memphis students at heart as well as their own….although they have previously tired to change the rules to subvert the previous binding agreement that froze school boundaries (with Memphis City School boundaries being co-terminus with City of Memphis), to change taxing authority, and to change the budgetary process in search of a legislative rubber stamp.
History Matters
At the same time, today, we hear some of these suburban leaders question why Memphis would even think of discarding a 150-year-old school charter which has served Memphians well. Of course, it was this charter that set up dual segregated school systems that denied African-Americans quality education for more than a century. But never mind.
Following the Civil War, and as late as the 1950s, Tennessee – a slave state – was enacting a series of statutes legalizing racial segregation in many parts of community and social life, including marriage, cohabitation, different modes of transportation, and public accommodation. Locally, Shelby County Government played a key role in sweeping away the Brownlow government reforms and returning as quickly as possible to business as usual, which unfortunately, included steadfast segregation and the lynching of three black businessmen eight years before the dawning of the 20th century. Fortunately, legendary civil rights figure Ida Wells was out of town or she too would have been lynched, but unable to return home, she found a bigger megaphone through the newspapers of the North.
All of this latent racism is laced with irony since it was an African-American, Robert Church Jr., who bought the first bonds that allowed Memphis to re-incorporate following the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878. In other words, not only did an African-American again breathe life into Memphis as an incorporated city, but he did it after being left for dead during the Memphis race riots of 1866.
Tennessee worked hard to keep African-Americans from being educated, even to the point of amending the constitution to require separate black and white school systems. Laws supporting separate but equal schools continued into the middle of the 20th century and inspired the “citizenship schools” where leaders of the civil right movement were educated in 1960.
Fighting to the End
Proving that old habits die hard, the integrated Highlander Folk School in Monteagle was fire bombed and in 1960, state officials tried to padlock its doors. Yes, you’re right – this was six years after Brown versus Board of Education.
We mention all this not so much to give a history lesson, but to underscore how disingenuous it is to treat black Memphians as unjustified in their suspicions and mistrust. With the history of their race, it should be nothing short of in their DNA.
That said, Memphis City School, unlike Shelby County Schools, deserves plaudits for its efforts to end desegregation in the late 1960’s. It took awhile to attain unitary status, complicated by the exodus of white kids. The percentage of white children enrolled in private schools rose from 12 to 30 percentage by 1973. (Despite some conventional wisdom to the contrary, Memphis City Schools has not bussed students for racial desegregation for many years.)
It’s worth remembering that the U.S. Supreme Court, after wrestling mightily to reach a decision, ruled in 1962 that the Shelby County’s legislative body had to be redistricted. Up until that point, each county town in Shelby County had a “squire” on the county body, so that non-Memphis representatives always outnumbered Memphis representatives although Memphis was where the vast majority of people lived. Unsurprisingly, African-American representation always was unrepresentative or proportional.
Temptation in the Desert
It was in this kind of rural-oriented atmosphere that county schools became accustomed to getting whatever they wanted, because in those days, the majority of the county squires only cared about county schools and public services outside Memphis.
It’s not like you have to ancient to remember the machinations to resist equal rights for African-American Memphians, so it’s no wonder so many people in Memphis demand more than lip service before they believe that anyone is looking out for their interests. Time after time, history has shown that white power brokers will do whatever they can to change the rules and stay in charge, and it is that history that is being overlaid on the present controversy.
It is this history that when we see some black Baptist ministers from Memphis see their allies as the county separatists. This week, a handful of them met with Shelby County Schools Superintendent David Pickler in an alleged effort to get the facts.
It summoned up images for us of Jesus’s temptation by Satan for 40 days and nights in the desert, but time after time, He resisted and eventually shunned Satan’s seductions and was fed by angels. There are similar temptations of Buddha and a god in ancient Egypt, but then again, there weren’t any Baptist preachers there so we’ll set that aside for now.
The Side of Angels
We don’t want anyone to believe that we think Mr. Pickler is Satan, but only that the ministers should take heed to the lessons from this allegory or historical event (depending on your theological leanings) in the life of Christ. Following the temptation, Jesus found himself on the side of the angels and found his life’s work among his people.
Before launching into a campaign to support the separatist tendencies of Shelby County Schools, we hope the ministers will ask themselves where they logically should place their trust and faith.
We suggest that it is with their own people who put the future of their children and a unified community ahead of political power and their narrow self-interest. We suggest that it is with the “least of these” where the ministers will find the righteous road rather than with the people heading up systems with strong reminders of our Jim Crow past .
That’s when you know you’re on the side of the angels.
Church trully was an amazing individual. Not only did he help the city regain financial stability but his physical presence in Nashville helped “persuade” reluctant legislators to grant the city a new charter.
Great article, however, MCS should NOT be lauded for it’s desegregation efforts because they were dubious at bets and ultimately FAILED, causing an even worse and more insidious racism, “BACKLASH racism enforced b economic status which springs from lack of equal distribution of educational resources.
What makes this worse is people of color who live in “black neighborhoods” who continue to accept this as a do-able, livable condition.
There is a court case that just got “circular filed” after decades on he docket that provided a complete and accurate description of what s happening in this situation in exacting detail. Sadly it was dropped after decades of NO PROGRESS.
What has to happen HERE is we people of color have to step up and demand equality, fellowship, hold ourselves to highest standards of behavior and practices, and BE the people we wish to see NOW. Settling for some petty revenge scenario instead of becoming better people is no prize, it will destroy us completely if it isn’t stopped NOW.
These black ministers should be ashamed of themselves for either getting into bed for decades with the enemy of the people repeatedly (county, old city govt., Jackson, Sharpton) and profiting off our strife, or, being to ignorant to know when they are being hoodwinked. They’ve made themselves very very irrelevant.
Jim Crow had to do with the election commission and it’s corrupt ways. If you can explain Mr. Giannini’s latest antics to continue all these bad practices, you will be describing corruption and Jim Crow again, in 2010, 2011.
It’s time for mr. Giannini to step down, step off, and run away.
Bring on the federal attention that this cause deserves, they dropped the ball when we needed them, it’s time to get the job done,
BUT,
it’s going to take CONTINUED RELENTLESS PUBLIC ACTION.
Absolutely brilliant post. This paints such a clear picture of why we are who we are in this community. And why city schools should not trust anyone but themselves to help Memphis kids.
Brian: Thanks for the comments, and we agree. Mr. Giannini is overstepping his job, which is ministerial. It is not his job to ask for political legal opinions from the attorney general’s office that have nothing to do with the substance of setting an election as dictated by law.
And then he wonders why we don’t trust his reassurances that all votes are counted and that we really shouldn’t worry when his systems misfire.
If I understand you correctly, Judge Bernice Donald did not release SCS from court oversight regarding “extra-curricular activities, student assignment, and faculty integration…”. This makes me feel better because I thought that she released SCS from all oversight, which didn’t make sense given the site selected for Southwind High School and the subsequent attendance zone boundaries. [Richard Fields must have made a pact with Satan]
You are so correct about the Jim Crow mentality exhibited by SCS; and thus we have the only reason for suburban opposition to MCS/SCS merger.
The suburban area has not yet reached a “tipping point”, in part because of the gerrymandered Southwind attendance zone; and the suburban leaders realize the merger might produce attendance zones with too many non-white children, which would produce more white flight.
My logic, relative to fiscal equity and the public interest, supports merger of governments, schools or any other public entities that create isolation and fragmented decision-making. I wonder if the majority of Memphis voters would ever be against merger given social equity issues? We have truly reverted to the 1960s, and the Baptist ministers and SCLC don’t realize it or they are making their own pact with Satan.
SCM, Mr. Giannini’s systems have misfired on every single election.
Every one of them.
Conspicuous enough for the feds yet?
I don’t recall hearing any kind of detail about getting the accurate data ever re-introduced from the last election either, just Giannini thumbing his nose saying “I’m not scared of the federal government looking into our system”.
In 2011. Hmm.
—–
Finegold and Frank,
This isn’t a reason to stop consolidation, this is a reason to push it into high gear. You will never get control of MCS and SCS bloated and ridiculous budgets, theft, lack of positive results (and you’re wondering what results since the state is holding up the AYP post National standard accountability), until you NUKE BOTH SYSTEMS and start over.
— You have to take the profit incentive out of the equation for the corruption to end. You have to take the lack of oversight and accountability out of the equation to stop the lack of results, employee and admin sandbagging, mismanagement, and time and resource theft.
__
People wonder what it will look like, how will we do it, and in typical Memphis Drama queen style, they make a bigger deal out of getting off their butts than is appropriate to get it done and try to put in some loophole so that if they get scared, they can always revert back to familiar old FAILURE.
It will look like what it looks like and you’ll find out when the whining stops and the action begins. It will be better than what you have now, cheaper, better run, and designed to get results in many areas including the last thing thought of here, educating the children.
— By voting for consolidation of the schools, you aren’t sending your kids to be destroyed by county administrators, you’re voting to nuke both systems and start over with a real design to get specific results that make our failures of the past regarding this issue look like we were very very stupid and suddenly became geniuses.
– You don’t want the system to be controlled by a union that would allow it’s rank and file to evolve the system into the abject failure we had with MCS and SCS, you want a union that will blow the whistle and demand higher standards and hold their own accountable.
-You don’t want administrators that would allow the retirement system to bankrupt the schools leaving little for teachers to use as educational resources funding was meant to be for, You want a retirement system that is self funding, run by geniuses with integrity to purpose.
– You don’t want a system run by racist, backlash revenge racists, you want resources distributed to where they are needed most as detected and projected through accurate statistics gathered from reports of grades and keep standards and results consistent across all outlets, the schools.
-You don’t want a system that sees failure by teachers as a condemnation instead of an opportunity to retrain a teacher with a deficit in their failing areas with statistically proven high standard methods.
We really have to design in success to get it and design out failure to get rid of it.
—
Have we reverted to the sixties?
No, we never left the sixties, ask anyone who moves here from a successful city, it’s a very common mantra among non-natives.
“This place is stuck in he past” and once they’ve been here long enough, they see that the core lock and key to the problem is the “hero leadership”.
— It’s a town full of Lone Rangers going around collecting “thank you’s” for work not done and heroins not save.
If you have heros, you MUST have problems, it’s their vested interest to keep problems around. They’ve kept Memphis stupid through the school systems so much so that it can be statistically quantified on a standardized test.
— A manipulated election system is the perfect way to make sure nothing ever gets fixed here. A very publicly visible and vocal misguided clergy is another reinforcement tool. Constant racial ratcheting by city council members and mayors works well to keep things dumb as a sack of hammers.
— Last but not least, the secret ingredient in the doping sauce: somebody in Nashville and Washington receiving money from these factions to make sure that there is NOT appropriate oversight over the federal funding of schools, inspection into our election system here, and that areas that need attention get dropped or overlooked consistently instead.
More work is required, but, take heart, we’re getting very close to the source which is required for permanent shifts.
“it’s going to take CONTINUED RELENTLESS PUBLIC ACTION.”
find a lunch counter still open downtown and stage a sit in.
or
pay isaac richmond 5 bucks and he will get his five friends to carry some sign or other for you.
might get you 30 seconds on 13 I witless news.
IO,
You’ll get nothing from the local news stations, they are buried deep within racist pockets. They only aid and abet the problems, it gives them each about 30 minutes of crime to report here. That’s outrageous, but true. They don’t do ANY investigative work, it’s like a media of hucksters.
– You hear “sit in” whenever what’s said is “relentless public action”, but, you’re of base.
– The public has access to information now, and the ability to spread it to people who have the power and responsibility to DO SOMETHING about it. If the public relentlessly bombards them, shifts happen in their perception and the must act.
– The Public also has the power of media and viral media to do more things than ever before, video and the internet have changed the game. The publics media is much more powerful than Channel 3 or whatever.
– I know right where I can go right now to make a short film, just picking kids and temporarily not angry gang members off the street, have them explain how they go where they were in context, and the public and government will get the message.
– There will be missing what’s wrong, what the effect is on the individuals involved and the community.
Surrendering the charter is exactly what’s called for here because the current system cultivates ignorance such tat he majority has been easily and cheaply hoodwinked by a corrupt set of systems, traditional racists, institutional racism, law enforcement criminalized society racism, educational and civic corruption an then the backlash groups of all those, none are designed to SOLVE any problem. They are designed to fool the public into thinking hat short sightedness an self centered narcissism are desirable virtues. Easy to keep Jim Crow in place under that cultivated condition.