A large part of MLK50 was the media coverage that took place the weeks around April 4. Media from all over the world and from right here in Memphis. One of the active reporters was Wendi Thomas from MLK50 Justice Through Journalism. In an interview with Rebecca Vallas from Talk Poverty, Thomas speaks about the effect of MLK50 in Memphis economics. MLK50 commemoration was seen as a celebration to some people with expensive galas and other events that Dr. King would not have taken part of. Dr. King would have most likely of have had protests, or marches to continue to fight for rights and equal opportunity. Eight protesters during MLK50 were dragged to the ground, put in handcuffs and thrown in jail This sounds a little too familiar to what happened when Dr. King alive. The protesters probably also were unarmed. This already sounds like we have not made major improvements for justice.

       A larger issue that is happening every single day and is having lasting impact on the majority of Memphian is economic injustice. There is no statistics out right now about what the percentage of employees in Memphis are being paid under $15 an hour, simply because companies will not release that. We can only assume that it is a large percentage of employees that are being paid less than that. The only companies that would share the employees’ wages were small business and nonprofits. Nonprofit organizations are more focused on their cause they are working for having the employees become rich and somehow, they can still pay their employees a livable wage. There is a difference between livable wage and minimum wage. A livable wage is earning enough money to support yourself and the family you have created, buying a house, and living free from government aid. A minimum wage is more what high school and college students make while they are still living under the roof of their parents and sometimes their finances are covered too. Dr. King if he was alive today he would have been fighting for livable wages, not going to a fancy ball. That neighborhoods that surrounds the Lorraine Motel and a lot of the other large land markers live in poverty. They are not able to participate in gala, or take time off work to see all the speakers and presentation. If we were to really commemorate Dr. King we would continue to fight for the inequalities that he fought for. What would have been a better way to commemorate Dr. King during MLK50?

Wendi Thomas. “The Founder of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism Explains Why

       Journalists Should Take Sides.” Interview by Rebecca Vallas. Talk Poverty,    April 13, 2018. https://talkpoverty.org/2018/04/13/founder-mlk50-explains-    journalists-take-sides/

MLK50, Murder, and Memphis

Looking at various news articles that talk about MLK and the many celebrations throughout the nation that celebrate and remember him in the 50^th anniversary of his assassination, most talk about the progress and success of the country “after” the civil rights movement. Articles stamp him into a specific time period where he battled and won the legal battle of segregation and integration. We see him following the classic narrative, as a man that fought nonviolently for equality in the South. The flaw here is that most of media fails to describe his battle towards the end of his life, which had moved up North and dealt with income equality, housing segregation, poverty, and many other contemporary issues that hit close to home 50 years later. By remembering him as only his earlier accomplishments, we then obscure all of the issues of racism, gender equality, poverty, etc that still go on today, and see the nation as only one of great progress which is just simply wrong. A TIME article posted the day after the 50^th anniversary of his assassination finally opened eyes to the issues still present, even at the exact time that Memphis was celebrating the iconic King figure¹. The article criticized and critiqued the speakers of the commemoration events in Memphis, very few of which actually spoke the words, “Black Lives Matter,” or talked about the struggles faced surrounding that. All of the speakers, as the article says, “were men, and they were remarkable vague, bordering on silent, about women’s and LGBTQ rights.” Instead, well-known activists, including Keedran Franklin of Black Lives Matter, were arrested in Memphis on April 3^rd after protesting outside of an immigrant detention facility. And let’s not forget the Memphis death of a 17 year old boy, who was shot and killed (and left for 2 days) by a store clerk after apparently stealing a beer from a convenience store. Remember him? Oh wait, probably not. His death was brushed over by the ceremonies to remember all of the great progress made by MLK and those that followed him. The article urges for Americans and Memphians to continue to fight each of the battle King represented. “In order to truly represent his legacy, and move us forward, they must continue to appreciate the interconnected nature of these struggles.”² As students and members of society, this idea of recognizing and working towards progress as a whole while recognizing and valuing each piece that goes into that, is incredibly important. I always struggle with which aspect of inequality to focus on, as I am working to imagine a career in the nonprofit sector. Which struggle to I give my life and my career to, and how am I supposed to choose that? As much as I would love to support and work for all of the issues I believe in, there is just not enough time. As I question the PeaceCorps, I always get the consistent counterargument as to why I would want to help people and children abroad, when there are so many issues that need addressing in my own neighborhood and throughout the city of Memphis. While King acknowledges the many issues, and we as citizens must work to acknowledge all of these, how does one divide their time evenly? Or is it an individual’s duty to really dive into one?





1. Balto, Simon. "What was missing from Memphis on the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassination." Time. April 5, 2018. 
2. Ibid. 

            Ronald Reagan’s news clip about Martin Luther King could have come from today, but it was from January 15, 1987.  Reagan starts off by saying that Dr. King is more than the man students briefly learn about in your high school history class, the coloring book portrayal. He was a man that changed the ways that Americans thought and acted. Only two other people are important enough to have a holiday, where children are off of school for and that is George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Today that has changed to Presidents Day, but calendars are still marked with Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday. Another difference is that it is not student’s parents that can remember Dr. King it is now only our grandparents that remember the impact King had on our country.

             In 1987, like today students are taught minimal amount of information about the impact people like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King had on our nation. This little bit of information that schools are teaching students does not include the good, bad and the ugly. It only includes the good and how much of a strong leader this man was. That is another point is that students mostly learn about historical men that made a difference, not women. There were just as many women, if not more in the Civil Rights movement, but we decided to celebrate King. Don’t get me wrong he did so many amazing and revolutionary things, but he was not the only one.

            Reagan then goes on to say that the newest generation has the duty to pick up where King left off to end racism. Doesn’t that sound like something we would say today? In the end, he says that we do not want anything else to happen like an event that just did because of racism. That could not be an even more true statement. Police brutality is something that has been happening since slaves were freed and before that, it was slave owners brutalizing. Reagan reiterates that racism is out of the laws and now it has to be out of people’s minds and hearts. Like many things, this is easier said than done because we are still dealing with these problems today. How long do you think Reagan thought it would take for our nation to get rid of racism? Or, will it always be a concept that we will have to deal with?

Reagan, Ronald. “Ronald Reagan’s MLK Day Message from 1987.” Filmed January 15, 1987.

            Video, January 15, 2018