Sometimes it seems our memory is as selective as our outrage. Black men are taken into custody every day without incident. Two young Black men accused of killing Memphis police officers – Tremaine Wilbourn and Justin Welch – were arrested without incident.

Four years ago, James Meredith, others from Mississippi and I were invited to take part in a series of college speaking engagements about progress our state had made in the area of civil rights. Most in the audience were amazed that Meredith, the civil rights legend, was still alive. I can attest that my friend is very much alive, spirited and has something to say.

I will argue that state Rep. John DeBerry has more influence than the entire Tennessee Democratic Party combined. The completely absurd effort to remove him from the ballot is the equivalent of taking Peyton Manning off the field during the Super Bowl.

Memphis is not in a weak position regarding our electricity choices, and $450M for Memphis believes that a city should never sign a $20 billion contract without at least one competitive bid that addresses all costs, terms and options.

The district will provide devices for families who need them, but families are responsible for supervising and troubleshooting online learning. Parents must work together to weather this disruption in education, writes SCS mom Heidi Kupke.

The ranking in the clerkship category places Memphis Law ahead of law schools such as Washington and Lee, Ole Miss, Georgetown, Emory, Tennessee and Columbia.

The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis' $40 million gift to LeMoyne-Owen College is one of the largest received by any HBCU nationally. It's designed to propel the college to the next level in higher education.

While we see days with alarmingly high numbers of cases, we must focus on the overall trends – trends that demonstrate the acceleration of this disease is rapid, but it is not as precipitous as might be suggested by viewing a single data point.

In “Bleeding Out,” a senior research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, writes that "nothing works as well to reduce urban violence as focused deterrence.”

Even as we announce final decisions and protocols, I cannot assure you that it will not change again, because that is how quickly the virus impacts the information we use to make decisions.

A few local, socially conscious judges acknowledged institutional problems with unconscious bias, and they spearheaded the founding of the Center for Excellence in Decision-Making.

At Ora Alexander’s homegoing, only family could gather. But that was OK. Ora had already touched the lives of so many people she’d simply met in passing.

"While the MPD has some ways to go before it is fully reflective of the communities it serves, do we really believe that officers brought in from outside counties or states will improve any situation?"

We should be as bold and bullish about our contemporary black music as we are about all of our claims to fame, from FedEx and Holiday Inn to historic music attractions to dry rub ribs.

A house fire led a Ridgeway student to consider dropping out to aid her family. A Peer Power mentor says, "She was just one step from leaving it all behind."

KIPP gave up on their students, families, faculty and staff after only a few years of operation. This was a financial decision that is inequitable to the historic Alcy Ball community in South Memphis.

Police in places where law enforcement has higher status have taken a knee in solidarity with citizens demonstrating in the streets. These departments have also used much less force against civilians.

Local nonprofit leaders who signed a call to action wanted to go beyond solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. 'Like the protesters in the streets, we knew this moment called for us to not only speak out on the policing of Blacks but to the condition of our Black communities as well.'

There has been a lot of speculation on projected savings if MLGW changes energy suppliers by individuals with personal interests. But there are facts that cannot be challenged.

There is no denying that we are at a tipping point in this country’s long-overdue reckoning with race and police brutality. And our response to this moment has created three distinct groups – the objectors, the addressers and the deniers.

Without truck drivers, hospitals would begin running out of basic supplies such as syringes and catheters; service stations would begin to run out of fuel; and food shortages would develop.

In creative spaces it seems better to employ white people capable of appropriating black vernacular, style and originality in ads. But of course, the dearth of black people “has nothing to do with race.” 

My anchors and roots require me to educate black and brown children, to teach them their history and prepare them to change the future.

There is such a thing as white privilege, no matter the circumstances in which we were raised. My father was raised in dire poverty. And yet he was the first to admit that color never kept him back. He never feared for his life just for being white. He was never denied a bank loan. He was admitted to the University of Texas at a time when blacks were not allowed to enroll.

We’ve recently seen proposals of bans, temporary moratoriums or limits on the use of tear gas in Seattle, Portland, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., among others. It’s time for Memphis to join that list.