Past and Present
Forty and counting: the dubious merits of being America's civil rights city. At a University of Memphis forum last week commemorating the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, a young man in the audience asked the panelists if Memphis was forever stuck in 1968.
John Branston
At a University of Memphis forum last week commemorating the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, a young man in the audience asked the panelists if Memphis was forever stuck in 1968.
The question was bundled with several others and didn't get answered very well, which was too bad because it was a good question, maybe the best of the day.
The 40th anniversary, of course, follows the 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, and 35th King anniversaries along with — since 1986 — the annual federal Martin Luther King holiday (January 21st this year), the local ceremonies marking King's birthday on January 15th, the NBA's sixth annual civil rights game, and the second annual Major League Baseball civil rights game — all within the space of 80 days. In the fall, the National Civil Rights Museum hosts the annual NAACP Freedom Awards.
