The University of Memphis Department of Political Science and the College of Arts and Sciences' establishment of the Benjamin Hooks Institute for Social Change held a symposium yesterday, featuring civil rights activist Russell Sugarmon, husband and wife activists Maxine and Vasco Smith and Benjamin Hooks as the keynote speaker, with Kenneth Goings, chair of The U of M history department, serving as moderator.
The program, "Fight For Freedom: Civil Rights in Memphis," began at 3 p.m. in the Fogelman Executive Center with a panel discussion, with each panelist giving an account of the troubles and hardships they faced while working with the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis.
Sugarmon was the first African-American to make a serious bid for a major elected position in city government when he ran on the "Volunteer Ticket" in 1959 for the commissioner of public works. He lost to William Farris, but went on to serve as an attorney for the Memphis branch of the NAACP. He later went on to be elected to the state Democratic Party Executive Committee, and a State Senate seat in 1966. Sugarmon helped Vasco Smith become the first African-American elected to an at-large position in the county government in 1973. He now serves as judge of the General Sessions Court in Shelby County, and remembers his involvement in the movement very well.
"We had people in every precinct in Memphis who came to monthly meetings. Vasco Smith and Jesse Turner were there talking about agendas, talking about what was needed. We had an informed cabinet in every Black precinct in Memphis who had an idea about what was happening," Sugarmon said.
Vasco Smith Jr.'s involvement in the Freedom Movement began many years ago, and resulted in five arrests as a participant throughout the movement. He was included in the desegregation of lunch counters, theaters, hotels and public facilities, as well as voter registration drives that raised the Black registration from 10,000 to over 160,000 over 25 years, economic boycotts and Black Mondays (where school were boycotted), which led to the restructuring of the school system. Smith was also the first Black Superintendent of Memphis City Schools. He was elected to the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in 1974, and served there until he retired in 1995.
Smith remembers how limited the opportunities were for Blacks in Memphis at the time.
"We did a survey about 1958, 1959, of downtown Memphis, and we found that there was only one Black person working on Main Street as a salesman. He was selling shoes to Blacks, and they went to the back of the store. There was not a single woman serving in the city of Memphis as a clerk, anywhere, in any White-owned business," Smith said.
But Smith remembers the effort that was put forth by the members of the movement.
"Main Street, from one end to the other, was covered with picketers carrying signs from 10 o'clock in the morning until six and eight o'clock at night for more than 18 months. During that period, sales downtown fell off 41 percent. I can't begin to tell you how much the White power structure was willing to take in order to avoid change. But change did come."
Maxine Smith's application to graduate school at Memphis State University was rejected because of her race.
She became a member of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP and was named Executive Secretary in 1962. She coordinated civil rights actions and protests, including voter registrations and sit-ins, and worked with Dr. King in the 1968 Sanitation Strike and the school boycotts in 1969. She has worked continuously with the NAACP, receiving numerous awards and serving on several boards in Memphis.
Smith remembers working with some of the leaders of the movement, but particularly Medgar Evers.
"I was the last to touch Medgar Evers. I hugged him and said, "I'm so proud of you. Don't let anything stop you," Smith said. "Before Medgar could get home, he was dead. He had been shot."
The panel discussion concluded about 5 p.m., and was followed by a short break. Benjamin Hooks then spoke to the crowd, with a question and answer session and a reception following.
Hooks' program is first in a series of lectures that will take place throughout the year. The Hooks Institute programs include The Archives Project, The Civil Rights Movement in the Schools, the Hooks Symposia and the Memoirs Project.
