“We have been here before,” said State Senator Raumesh Akbari as she closed UofM Black History Month celebrations with a speech last Friday talking about current events and the future.
State Senator Raumesh Akbari's (D-Memphis) speech discussed events that are happening currently and connected them to the history of Memphis civil rights leaders like Ida B. Wells, Benjamin L. Hooks, and more.
Senator Akbari states that every time we make progress, we get pushbacks. She brought up that after former President Barack Obama was elected, states and their political districts swung more conservative.
“Black history is American history,” said Akbari. “Memphis, our city stands as a testament to [black history] a city of power and resilience and we illustrate the resilience of black people.”
Akbari brought up five black history figures crucial to Memphis: Ida B. Wells, Robert Church, Maxine Smith, Dr. Benjamin Hooks, and Russell Sugarmon.
Akbari told the crowd about how Wells's journalism exposed lynchings across the South, despite her work angering many people. Wells exposed the People's Grocery lynchings, a lynching of two black businessmen by white mobs just for being too successful. After this, Wells had to flee Memphis due to death threats and continued to fight against lynchings from the North.
She told the story of how Robert Church, the first black millionaire in the south, helped save Memphis after it was struck by the Yellow Fever epidemic.
“He bought bonds and helped finance the city, that was a tremendous thing at the time,” said Akbari.
Church also made the first black bank in Memphis, he built a church park, however, he made an enemy with former Memphis mayor E.H “Boss” Crump, who used Church’s mansion as a test for firefighters.
Maxine Smith, a black woman denied from attending then Memphis State University, became active in the NAACP and became an executive secretary in 1962, a position they did not give women at the time explained Akbari.
Smith took the fight to Memphis State, supporting black students going into Memphis State as she wasn’t allowed in.
Akbari touched on the current state of the nation today.
“HBCUs are losing their funding, there is taxes on student groups that are specifically devoted to people of color,” said Akbari. “When you hear these attacks, you’re like ‘Really? I mean I’m being attacked for who I am’.”
“Dr. King often spoke about justice and what they are doing now will not last always, it is always darkness before it’s light, it just takes one person to stand up," said Akbari. "It only took one person to sit down and a movement form around her."
Akbari touched on her experience in her closing remarks, saying how she is a young black woman and how happy she is now that other young black people are getting elected like House Representative Torrey Harris and House Representative Jesse Chism.
Akbari thanked the University of Memphis for celebrating black history and finished off by telling the crowd to keep making good trouble.
