By Rosetta Miller Perry NASHVILLE, TN — The time has come for all fake meetings and feasibility studies every year to end, and action taken regarding the historic Morris Building. This has long been and remains the ideal place for our Nashville Civil Rights Museum. This city’s history of Black achievement and significance is one of the few places in the nation with multiple Black colleges and a vibrant, active social justice and Civil Rights legacy. Nashville should be embarrassed that it has no Civil Rights Museum yet it spends millions on projects that only benefit the white community. No one is denigrating or taking anything away from the Civil Rights room…
Author: Rosetta Miller Perry
By Rosetta Miller Perry NASHVILLE, TN — The pioneering African-American women journalists were true trailblazers in Nashville. It took an inordinate amount of perseverance for black women to break into white male-dominated fields. As broadcast journalists, Black women have endured racism, sexism, and criticism about everything from their skin tone and hair, to their diction. News anchors are like family — streaming by television into our homes in Nashville every day to deliver the latest developments in “It” city and around the world. In many cases, they are the first faces we see in the morning, and many times the…
By Rosetta Miller Perry Lamar Alexander’s lengthy term as the state’s senior Senator, as well as his overall distinguished record of service to not just Tennessee’s citizens but the nation, is nearing an end. Sadly, he’s not going out the way a distinguished legislator, former governor, Cabinet member and university president should, with people proudly saluting their tenure and recalling multiple accomplishments. Instead, Senator Alexander is departing Congress in a disgraceful manner. He’s publicly saying a President’s conduct in office doesn’t matter. According to Alexander and his Republican cronies, who are little more than Donald Trump lackeys, even if Trump…
By Rosetta Miller Perry The problem of white flight, whites fleeing in droves whenever Blacks move into an area, isn’t a new one. Former First Lady Michelle Obama recently said during a summit that “white Americans are still running from their non-white fellow citizens.” She talked at length about her experiences watching the white exodus from the South Side of Chicago during her childhood. “I want to remind white folks that y’all were running from us. And you’re still running,” she said as she made a comparison between white flight and the experiences of immigrant families who are trying to…
By Rosetta Miller Perry NASHVILLE, TN — The city of Nashville reportedly has never made hiring Black males a priority, says a couple of Black city employees who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. For this story, we will call one of them John and the other one Paul. John and Paul believe that all positions, executive level and below metro have always been elusive. “It” city with an African-American population – currently at 27 percent and approaching 30 percent according to most recent demographic figures – Nashville, in their opinion, has more than its share of qualified…
By Rosetta Miller Perry One of the frequent tactics used by many white publications who want to either obscure or get people to forget about negative things they’ve done is to publish a mea culpa article after they’ve done a lot of damage that they hope overshadows everything they’ve written up to that point. The Tennessean did this with an interesting article from sports columnist Joe Rexrode that said Steve McNair should be remembered more for his great bodily sacrifices on the football field and his charitable work in the community than anything else, and that those who were continuing…
By Rosetta Miller Perry For over 25 years the Tennessee Tribune has proudly chronicled the good things happening in North Nashville and across our city, region and state. Over that time we’ve not ignored or tried to pretend that ugly, vile things weren’t also occurring, and when necessary we stood up and identified them. But we’ve always spent a lot more time emphasizing the good things, celebrating the accomplishments, and noting the firsts and breakthroughs than we have reporting about the negative and backward elements that remain in our midst. But sometimes we have to stand up and say there…
By Rosetta Miller Perry When Tennessee State University learned it had been placed on probation for not providing enough documentation in a fifth-year report to its accrediting body, the institution took swift action and deployed a comprehensive approach to address the issue. TSU is currently in the process of hiring a Director of Accreditation and Assessment. In addition to working with President Glover, this individual will also work with an external consultant, who is an expert on accreditation matters, including the accreditation standard that the institution is addressing. “One of the first things I did immediately, after being notified, was…
By Rosetta Miller Perry Through all my years of being an advocate for the less fortunate community, there’s one constant I’ve noticed in every Nashville city administration. Simply put, they don’t care much about poor people. They care even less if they’re Black and Brown and poor, and they don’t make an attempt at showing concern for their plight even when running for office. This administration was supposed to be different, but they’ve just shown us one more time they’re no different than their predecessors, and certainly no better. Black and brown Nashville citizens in the James Cayce Homes neighborhood…
Editorial by Rosetta Miller Perry Many decades ago Fannie Lou Hamer, American voting and women’s rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement, said “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Today The Tribune paraphrases that by saying we are incredibly disgusted, as well as being sick and tired, of seeing Nashville mayors overlook and ignore qualified Black males for positions in their administration. It makes things even worse when they personally claim to be concerned about this issue, then turn around and do the exact opposite when it is time for…