Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch admits that he is an unlikely chronicler of the civil rights movement. The apolitical son of a dry cleaner in Atlanta who thought he’d end up a surgeon, it wasn’t until the end of Branch’s time at the University of North Carolina in 1968 that he got involved registering black […]
Posted inCivil Rights, Democracy, Martin Luther King, Social Justice, Voting
New Poor People’s Campaign announces 40 days of direct action
The Poor People’s Campaign will launch a 40-day “fusion” of direct nonviolent action of the poor, clergy and advocates that will take place simultaneously starting May 14 in Washington D.C. and at least 30 states, said campaign co-chairs the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. Barber and Theoharis, surrounded […]
Posted inCivil Rights, Economic Justice, Martin Luther King, Social Justice, Workers
50 years after MLK’s death, white workers in Memphis area still winning jobs race
“…if a city has a 30 percent Negro population, then it is logical to assume that Negroes should have at least 30 percent of the jobs in a particular company, and jobs in all categories rather than only in menial areas, as the case almost always happens to be.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in […]
Posted inEconomic Justice, Martin Luther King, Poverty, Racial Justice
Solution to poverty is simple: more money
“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Years after he had a dream, long after he wrote a letter from a Birmingham jail, more than a decade after the Montgomery bus boycott, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. […]
Posted inMartin Luther King, Memphis
King’s words go unheeded, scholars lament
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words and views about economic justice echoed on Monday from the pulpit to the basement at Mason Temple, where the civil rights leader delivered his last speech 50 years ago in Memphis. Two Harvard professors, Brandon M. Terry and Tommie Shelby, were among speakers who challenged myths and drove home […]
Posted inActivism, Civil Rights, Martin Luther King, Social Justice
Holder to Americans: Pick a cause
Eric Holder isn’t very happy with America right now. “Dissatisfied” is the word he used repeatedly during a Monday keynote address at the Peabody Hotel as part of the commemoration of 50 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on April 4. But Holder, the former Obama administration attorney general, suggested […]
Posted inActivism, Criminal Justice, Policing in America, Protests, Social Justice
Protest breaks out after store clerk charged with shooting black teen, 17
Come back for hourly updates as Memphis remembers King’s dream and legacy 7:23 p.m. MLK50 is on the ground covering a protest at Springdale and Howell where a black teenager was shot and killed by store clerk after allegedly stealing a beer. Dorian Harris, 17, was killed on Thursday for allegedly stealing a beer from Top […]
Posted inEconomic Justice
Here’s how MLK50 developed its living wage survey
Fifty years ago this week, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis while on a mission to support underpaid workers. MLK50 wanted to know if today, the area’s largest employers pay enough to live on. Here’s how we tried to find out. (Read the survey results and the statements from companies that didn’t […]
Posted inEconomic Justice, Living Wage, Poverty, Workers
2018 Living Wage Survey: We asked. Few answered.
Five companies, representing more than 50,000 area employees, sent statements in response to MLK50’s living wage survey. Two didn’t answer any of the questions and three only answered some of the questions. (Read the survey results and about our methodology.) Below are the complete statements as provided, in order of the the company’s number of […]
Posted inEconomic Justice, Living Wage, Workers
Do Memphis’ 25 largest employers pay workers enough to live on? Nearly half won’t say
Dr. Martin Luther King’s prescription for poverty was simple: “A living wage should be the right of all working Americans.” In Memphis, where King was killed 50 years ago this week while fighting for that right for black sanitation workers, a living wage for a single adult with no children, working full-time, is $10.75, or […]