By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN — After Margaret Matthews-Wilburn won the bronze medal in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, for the 4×100-meter relay, she was swept up in euphoria. That glorious moment in Melbourne would turn to sadness decades later when Matthews- Wilburn discovered her bronze medal missing after speaking to students and showing them her prized medal during a school assembly. “I didn’t know for several weeks that it was missing,” she said. The bronze medal had vanished. But Matthews-Wilburn’s stupendous achievement and coveted bronze medal would not be lost to the ages, thanks to her goddaughter,…
Author: Wiley Henry
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN – “America has had a fixation on dope for a long time,” said Thurston S. Smith, laying out the facts to a group of community stakeholders attending a forum on opioid addiction Nov. 7 at Bartlett United Methodist Church. A behavioral health consultant and trainer, and member of the Shelby County Opioid Response Task Force, Smith shed light on the origin of drug abuse and its societal impact in America, past and present. The task force is comprised of experts and officials in Memphis and Shelby County charged with developing a plan to bring an…
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN — Those who knew Elbert Howard from the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, or befriended him when he lived briefly in Memphis, referred to him as “Big Man” – not so much because of his six-foot, 250-pound frame, but largely because he stood tall on principle and commanded attention when he spoke out vehemently against injustices. “He wasn’t just a large and imposing figure, it was the heart that he had for service,” said the Rev. Willie L. Henry Jr., a former member of both the Black Panther Party and The Invaders, a local Black…
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN – If you are having stroke symptoms, you should rush to the hospital as soon as possible. Every minute that you delay will cause the death of 1.9 million brain cells, a leading international nursing expert in acute stroke management warns. “People should not wait when having stroke symptoms,” said Dr. Anne Alexandrov, a professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Nursing and chief nurse practitioner of the UT Mobile Stroke Unit. On June 26, Dr. Alexandrov and a team of clinical experts and administrators touted the virtues of the UT…
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN – Friends, relatives and business leaders gathered June 20 underneath a tent on the parking lot of the Tri-State Bank of Memphis in the Whitehaven community to pay tribute to the bank’s president for his decades of service. There was an intermittent drizzle and then a quick shower of rain at the most inopportune moment. But the inclement weather on that evening didn’t stop the retirement celebration for Jesse H. Turner Jr. “This is about legacy,” Dr. Lucy Shaw Henderson, the bank’s board chair, explained to the 100-plus attendees. “We are what’s called a legacy…
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN — Ivi Wicks was 11 years old when she first learned that African Americans began celebrating Juneteenth two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a historic document abolishing slavery throughout the Confederate South. Maggie Townes was seven when she was first introduced to Juneteenth. Now she’s 10 and still kicking up her heels, so to speak, as one of Juneteenth’s dainty little models that will perform on one of several stages. “I enjoy Juneteenth,” said Maggie, passing to the fifth grade next year at Sea Isle Elementary. “I was a princess one year,…
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN — Can anything good come out of Binghampton, a community marred by blight, crime and poverty? Xavier Delanne Winston, the 31-year-old founder of Kencade Apparel, thinks so. With roots deeply planted in the community, he is not bothered about the perception that skeptics may have about Binghampton – except when he tried to invite a female acquaintance to his home a few years ago and she declined. “I told her where I stayed and she said, ‘I’m not coming to Binghampton,’” he recalls, adding, “Binghampton was notorious for the bad stuff. [Now] I’m trying to…
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN – If you witnessed the 30-hour siege unfold on Shannon Street on January 11, 1983, or watched the tragedy in real time on TV, it would be dif cult to forget the aftermath. That fateful day a tactical squad from the Memphis Police Department stormed the home of Lindberg Sanders and killed seven black men, including Sanders, after their hostage, of cer Robert S. Hester, was beaten and heard pleading for his life. Hester and his partner, of cer Ray O. Schwill, were dispatched to the home at 2239 Shannon St. to investigate an alleged…
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN — The non-profit Tennessee Beauticians, Barbers and Nail Technicians’ Association (TBBNTA) is hosting its 75th Diamond Jubilee Convention Oct. 14-16 at The Guest House at Graceland, 3600 Elvis Presley Blvd. The theme is “Professionals Creating Beauty in the Industry.” “The Tennessee Beauticians, Barbers and Nail Technicians’ Association has a mission to empower the beauty industry with the knowledge, skills and essential tools to enhance quality customer service,” said Sally Johnson, TBBNTA’s president. The three-day convention is designed to increase awareness of the beauty industry, grow one’s clientele, and expand economic opportunities for cosmologists, barbers, nail…
By Wiley Henry MEMPHIS, TN – When Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced in early July that the city would offer $50,000 in tax free grants to the 14 surviving 1968 sanitation strikers, a wave of excitement washed over Baxter Leach. “I feel great about it,” said Leach, who never imagined that he would be compensated nearly 50 years after the sanitation workers opted to participate in Social Security rather than a pension plan offered by the city at that time. “We’re proposing a new retirement plan, an additional retirement plan for all sanitation employees,” said Strickland, making his remarks at…