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my name is Fred Morton I am a retired

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United Methodist minister I grew up in

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Highland Heights I was raised in the

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Highland Heights Methodist Church was

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married there went to school at

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Treadwell all 12 years went off into the

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ministry and then came back to the area

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some years ago and in the last four

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years have been working pretty actively

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in the community doing what I can to be

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of help to restore some resilience and

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positive aspects to the community

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particularly interested I'm particularly

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interested in the history of Highland

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Heights for one thing because the

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community was founded in 1910 or their

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bounce and it was probably one of the

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first intentionally segregated

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communities in all of the greater

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Memphis area it comes out of the you

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know Jim Crow era a radical segregation

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and that's had a long-lasting effect on

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the community because because African

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American and persons of other ethnic

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origins could not really hold properly

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in that in that community until the the

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Housing Act in the in the mid 60s but

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particularly interested in you know kind

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of how the community went through

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transition especially in the 60s with

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school desegregation and then a lot of

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the demographic shifting in the

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community with loss of a lot of

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industrial jobs and that's where thing

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and it meant it was a massive transition

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for the community but when I was there

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in the 1950s

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how about Heights and treadle was an

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idyllic kind of place as I've told some

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people is like

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Ozzie and Harriet Nelson those of you

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that don't know him I don't know what

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I'm talking about but it was a idyllic a

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nice place to live if you were white and

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it was it was a it was a grand place to

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grow up in and and but now it's it's a

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different community and other groups

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have moved into the neighborhood and

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we're doing what we can to to make it a

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hospitable and positive place for them

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there are about four major churches in

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the community that were founded in the

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early 1910s the Methodist Church the

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Baptist Church the Church of Christ and

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the Presbyterian Church that were really

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significant in the founding of the

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community tribal schools were founded

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the elementary school in about 1910 1914

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then a high school was developed all

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about the nineteen in the mid 1940s and

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so the schools and the churches have

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been just really important also in the

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community we have a public library as

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well as a boys and girls club right

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across the street from it that have been

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you know important centers of in

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resources and assets to the community

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but we have a number of other churches

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as well there's a very strong Catholic

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Church st. Michael Church on summer

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Avenue there are a number of sort of

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storefront churches and smaller

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community churches situated throughout

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the community that serve the you know

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the diverse population of the area what

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one of the challenges in the Highland

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Heights community has been the I guess

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the spiritual leadership the established

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church is the Methodist Church the

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Baptist Church what was once the

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Presbyterian Church Catholic Church well

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most of those churches in some sense

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have stayed there although their members

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no longer live in the immediate

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community but the church plants are

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there and so these congregations are

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seeking to be in ministries of the

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people that live in that community even

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though the the churches that are there

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being led by the other members don't

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live there so that's a real challenge of

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how to relate in an authentic and lively

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way to the people that live in the

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community and that's one of the most

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immediate challenges that I see is how

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can we

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we really relate to the to the people

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that live in the community and to the

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students that are going to the church to

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the schools