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Publication

Memphis World, 1968 February 3rd

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Contributor
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Author
Artist
Editor
Beauchamp, J. A.
Advisor
Keywords
Memphis (Tenn.), Newspapers, Civil rights, Race, African Americans
Local ID
MW_v36n32_1968-02-03
Collections
Memphis World
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Write-up for MLK 50
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MW_v36n32_1968-02-03.txt
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MW_v36n32_1968-02-03.pdf
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10267/31339
Abstract
Description
"The February 3rd issue is headlined by the campaign for open housing, a key component of the Movement in Memphis and around the country. As indicated here, the Memphis NAACP and others organized to demand that the City Council and the city’s white political and economic elite protect the right of African Americans to live in neighborhoods throughout the city. Black Memphians joined counterparts across the United States to fight against segregated housing, a stronghold of legal and extra-legal discrimination even after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Elsewhere, the World spotlighted other important components of local and national Civil Rights and Black Power campaigns, including an article outlining an accusation of police brutality, an editorial demanding that President Lyndon Johnson end the Vietnam War and increase federal funding to fight poverty, and a discussion of the rise of the national Black Arts Movement. In local, national and even global contexts, the Memphis World thus illustrates the multifaceted challenge issued by Civil Rights activists in Memphis as they fought for racial and economic justice. At the same time, the Memphis World also illustrated the strength and vibrancy of Black Memphis in 1968, documenting a generation who followed in the city’s long tradition of African American excellence and reflected a new set of opportunities and challenges. While not as obviously connected to epic events as the aforementioned articles, these pieces detailing the accomplishments of individuals and the activities of organizations ranging from churches to schools to sports to social clubs are nonetheless crucial to understanding them. Through these profiles, the Memphis World celebrates of the local people whose work convinced Dr. King to come to Memphis, gave him inspiration and support while he was here, and continued the fight after he was gone. Two days before the publication of this issue, sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker were killed by a faulty trash compactor, the incident that directly precipitated the Sanitation Strike that began two weeks later. Their deaths are not mentioned here, but these pages are filled with glimpses into the community who rose up in resistance to honor them." By Dr. Charles L. Hughes