Publicly-Funded Institutions Didn't Allow the Public to Enter

In Chapter 6 of Laurie Green's Battling the Plantation Mentality, she discusses issues of civil rights and the freedom struggle in 1950s Memphis. The most interesting part for me was a brief paragraph that spoke to the segregation of cultural and recreational facilities. Places like Overton Park and the fairgrounds were thoroughly segregated, even though they were city-funded institutions. A group of black leaders collectively "denounced the use of African Americans' tax dollars for facilities from which they were excluded" (204). A movement soon followed, one that targeted publicly-funded (because African Americans were part of the 'public' and thus should have enjoyed the same level of access) institutions like parks, museums, and libraries.

Imagining Overton Park, a place that I am intimately familiar with and attached to, as a segregated space is horrifying. I often view the park as the heart of the city, culturally and geographically, and to know that it -- and all of the institutions inside of the park (the Zoo, the Shell, the Brooks Museum) -- barred black Memphians from entrance is disturbing.

Even though thinking of the park in this way is painful, I am amazed by the activists who dedicated themselves to the desegregation of public spaces like Overton Park in Memphis, and I am reminded of their courage each time I read a paragraph like the one mentioned above. Having spoken directly with citizens who helped to desegregate public places in Memphis -- specifically, the Overton Park Shell (now the Levitt Shell) -- I have an even deeper appreciation of their work. One woman told me that every time she bought a Coca-Cola, the taxes she paid for that drink went to support places that she was legally disallowed from entering. This thought was present in her mind almost every time she made a purchase, and it was especially present when she was arrested for attending an event at the Overton Park Shell. An older man explained that he and his friends tried to go to the fairgrounds on a day when they weren't allowed, and the police showed up, in large part to tame the seething white crowd that had gathered around them. The crowd kept clamoring for the police to leave so that they could take care of young black men themselves, invoking images of lynching from the earlier part of the century. All these African American men wanted to do was enjoy a place that they helped fund.

This scenario -- the segregation of publicly-funded facilities -- is important to study because it sheds even further light on the fact that government was one of, if not the, biggest impediments for African Americans in Memphis who fought for equality. Something as simple as going for a walk in the park was denied to African Americans because the city government felt that segregation was necessary. This goes beyond bigotry and hatred. It is institutionalized oppression, and it is important to remember it as such. The very reason that people entered into government, according to John Locke, was for protection and security. For centuries, those principles did not apply to African Americans, especially in Memphis. Highlighting the efforts of black Memphians who challenged the government directly is crucial to increasing our understanding of the long Civil Rights Movement in the Bluff City.