By Tony Jones
MEMPHIS, TN — The Memphis Branch of the NAACP held a COVID-19 resistant membership drive Saturday, Dec. 5th at the black-owned Southbrook Mall.
The location was an apt choice. Like the mall’s nearly completed renovation, the NAACP nationally and locally has found the need to spruce up its image due to loud criticisms of its relevance in wake of the “woke” protest movement that has gripped America for the past couple of years.
Or does it? That was one of the questions posed to Memphis Chapter President Van Turner in a conversation before the drive started. The former multiple elected office holder said he has been a member since childhood and has wanted to achieve the office his entire life. While acknowledging the impact of the “woke” movement, he said the NAACP is sticking to the guns that created the 1950s – 1970s civil rights legislation breakthroughs the organization can be credited for.
What is the NAACP’s mandate for the 21st century? Is it underappreciated?
Our mandate remains the same. Equal justice on all levels for all people, but particularly for people of African descent. I think so much racism was hidden and I would say the Trump era has taken the cover off. I think it was there the whole time so I’ve seen a growing appreciation for our worth. I think it’s always been the case that African Americans and people of African descent don’t really appreciate the NAACP until you really need it. I think people are seeing the need and the value and why we continue to have to support the organization.
How do you respond to the critics?
I always hear what have y’all done lately, all you do is support bougie people, you don’t care about the average person that doesn’t have the money to buy a membership or go to your fancy dinners. Why does it still have “colored” in the name? I tell them it’s not just for one class of people it’s for all people. I tell them to research and learn more about it and once you study the history your opinion will change. If there’s something we can do better we’re open to it, but in this era of social media you have to maintain and protect your brand and that’s one of the reasons why the name does not need to be changed. That would undermine the organization. Your parents, grandparents, even the millennial generation knows the NAACP.
A lot of people feel the 2016 bridge protest got more done in less time than the standard processes, what is your 2020 perspective on it?
You have to understand that this is marathon, not a sprint. While that does not take away from the local Black Lives Matter chapter, you have to appreciate that the NAACP was founded in 1909 and you cannot box the organization into one moment in time. Our work is not, if you will, on the bridge. We’re not out protesting in the streets. We support the protests but our job is to be in the courtrooms and places where laws are made that effect change for generations to come. A protest only lasts for so long. A law that’s changed, a policy or an ordinance that’s changed, those changes can last for a lifetime. We can look at it as components of the same struggle for change that we’re all fighting for. I tell them to keep pushing, keep fighting. Silence doesn’t get anything done.
On the flip side, Memphis just reached a record homicide rate and there is a dangerous social ethic at hand where even stop signs and red lights are purposely ignored. How do we reach and improve today’s out of control youth?
That’s something that probably won’t go away until they understand that their wild behavior may resultant in a felony charge and that follows them the rest of their lives. But it’s not just black children. It’s everywhere. For those that are not black it can still get swept under the rug with community service and let off with an apology. You know how it goes—“it’s so and so’s son,” or Daddy is a big shot—but when you’re black you’ll be living that apology the rest of your life, or worse, so I understand why they’re angry. That’s an equity issue as well. We have to step up and mentor them more. If I’m ever blessed to move into a higher office it is something that I hope to address. I am acutely aware that we have too many children experiencing things we as adults don’t experience and that trauma is not being treated, and we want them to be normal? That’s not normal.
I’m a big fan of ASIC’s review and remediation for younger kids. And for older ones, I will never forget this story I heard (first black Memphis mayor) Dr. Herenton tell about a tough kid he met at a juvenile detention center. He hugged him and told him he loved him and the young man broke down and cried. No one had told him they loved him. As a society, we have to reach out to help them either through a job, a shelter, a program, something solid. We have to show them some love to just give them a way out, a step up. They’re shooting because they are shooting at someone that looks like them and they don’t like themselves. We all have to step forward and commit to work toward a day with no homicides in Memphis. I’m willing to help convene it. We have to draw in every entity. That is the job of the NAACP. That’s what we can do.
