Forty years ago today, Martin Luther King Dr. delivered what would be his last speech - a prophetic call for racial and economic justice for striking black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Contrasting visions of heaven with the hard earthly work of fighting poverty and injustice, King said:
It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preachers must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.
A day later, King was dead. But 40 years later, Memphis is preparing to heed his call to justice with a new resolve to seek Common Ground. That's the name of a program launching this month to honor King's legacy and dismantle structural racism. More below the fold ...
Common Ground was the idea of Memphis Commercial Appeal columnist Wendi C. Thomas, who writes frequently about issues of race and who felt compelled to do something that could "lead to tangible, measurable change."
Created over the past few months by a dynamically diverse planning team, and with support and materials from Everyday Democracy, a wide array of Memphis residents are coming together to - as Commercial Appeal editor Chris Peck recently wrote - "work together to talk about race in Memphis, gain a better understanding of one another, and pledge to take on specific projects that can repair and restore race relations in this city - and heal the city itself." (Click here to read Peck's column about the project.) "As the 40th anniversary of the King assassination approaches, Memphis has a real chance to begin to write the future history of this place," he added.
About 100 citizens met for breakfast last month to kick offthe initiative. Common Ground plans to continue by holding small-group sessions each Thursday night April 24 through May 29, followed by an action forum in early June. "This isn't going to be namby-pamby stuff. This is going to be real, get-to-work stuff," said Lisa Moore Willis, a program coordinator, told the Commercial Appeal.
Common Ground has the ambitious goal of getting 100,000 Memphis residents to reflect on racism - then take action to dismantle it - over the next three years. That's a huge number for a metro area of 1.2 million people. The similar Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism in Syracuse, New York, has involved about 6,000 people in its project since it began 11 years ago, albeit in a smaller city. But the available 200 slots for Common Ground's pilot program are filling fast, and the timing of its launch has drawn attention, too: The Observer newspaper from the UK mentioned the program in a story last weekend, and "CBS Sunday Morning" interviewed Thomas and others for a segment tentatively set to air this weekend.
If you live in or around Memphis and you'd like to check out Common Ground, click here. If you live elsewhere but you'd like to organize a similar community-building coalition around racism in your town, you can do these two things:
- Check out the resources on the Everyday Democracy website. You can download (for free) or order ($5 each) copies of our latest Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation discussion guide, and read about how to get started.
- Mark your calendar for Thursday, April 17, when our monthly DemocracySpace water cooler will offer an hour of live blogging for people in communities nationwide who are working to dismantle racism and create racial equity. All you need to do to take part is log on at DemSpace at 1 p.m. Eastern that day. It'll be a great hour of learning and sharing with others across the nation who are building coalitions, talking the talk, then walking the walk on racial equity.
DemocracySpace is a nom de blog of Julie Fanselow, writer and online organizer for the nonpartisan, nonprofit Everyday Democracy, which can help your community find ways for all kinds of people to think, talk and work together to solve problems. This is an expanded version of a post originally written for Everyday Democracy's blog, DemocracySpace. Fanselow also blogs at Daily Kos under the screen name Red State Rebel.