By Tiffany Mishé, Special to TSDMemphis.com

Innovation Church Memphis is bringing life to the term “ A Church Without Walls.”

They recently rang in Juneteenth with “Praise in the Park” at a perfect location — the historic Robert Church Park, established in 1899 by a businessman and former slave. The church joined with Telisa Franklin, Memphis’ Juneteenth coordinator, to provide a service in the midst of the events’ musical performances, including a performance from Personal Praise, a youth brother and sister duo who belong to Innovation. Personal Praise performed their new hit single “I Don’t Need a Thing.”

Tonight, they continue to take church outside of the walls with “Movie Night on the Lawn.” The event, featuring the moving “Miracles from Heaven,” starts at 8:07 p.m. at 3925 Overton Crossing. Bring a lawn chair and your family, and experience for yourself this congregation’s Innovative approach to church.

The Movie night seeks to build on their Praise in the Park event on Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating June 19, 1865 — the date that some former slaves learned of their emancipation earlier during the Civil War. Texas didn’t get the freedom message until three years after it was announced. President Barack Obama even released a statement acknowledging the holiday:

Today we commemorate the anniversary of that delayed but welcome news. Decades of collective action would follow as equality and justice for African-Americans advanced slowly, frustratingly, gradually, on our nation’s journey toward a more perfect union. On this Juneteenth, we remember that struggle as we reflect on how far we’ve come as a country. The slaves of Galveston knew their freedom was only a first step, just as the bloodied foot soldiers who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge 100 years later knew they had to keep marching.

Here in Memphis, churches and faith-based groups were invited to worship in the park and bring with them a message of hope, faith, reconciliation, unity and praise. Innovation Church, pastored by the Rev. Marron D. Thomas Sr. headlined this year’s “Praise in the Park.”

“Music unites us as a human race and helps to cast our worries aside,” said Telisa Franklin, the event’s organizer. “We have too much in common to allow the problems we face in society to drive us apart. Praise in the Park is the conduit that pulls us together – blacks, whites and other ethnicities.”

Innovation Church, showed up in mass numbers, happy to help celebrate in an innovative way. The church is very familiar with doing things differently, find proof in their 11:07 Sunday service start time. Founded by Marron Thomas after spending years serving the Frayser community as a youth minister and football coach, the Innovation Church has grown tremendously in 3 years, expanding from their 3925 Overton Crossing location to service on Sundays at Trezvant High School.

Pastor Marron, as he likes to be called, has had a special connection with at-risk youth that not most could not achieve, which could be said to be in part to his background. Thomas was himself once a drug dealer facing serious jail time, but despite that situation, maybe even because of it, he gave his life to God, finished college, and found a wife who would help him fulfill what he and hundreds of lives he’s touched believe to be the highest calling on his life. You can now find Pastor Marron somewhere in Frayser fulfilling his church’s mission: To innovatively EVANGELIZE the lost; to EMPOWER the believer for kingdom living; and to COMMIT to building Godly families, Godly communities and change lives for the Glory of God.

By Lee Eric Smith, lesmith@tri-statedefender.com

After the NBA Finals are over, this is the part of the NBA year they call the offseason. But even though nothing’s happening on the court, teams are still competing — trying to acquire talent, either through the draft, trades or free agency.

The Grizzlies have another draft in the books, reeling in two apparently very good players in Wade Baldwin IV and Deyonta Davis in last week’s draft. But seriously, weren’t we saying the same things about Jamaal Franklin and Jarnell Stokes a few seasons ago? No disrespect to those guys, or the rookies, it’s just that until the Grizzlies demonstrate they can develop a guy they drafted, let’s not talk about it.

Which brings us to the last guy the Grizzlies drafted a guy who turned into something: Mike Conley. By the time you read this, the Grizzlies will be and other teams are going to pitch Conley on why he should stay. Many other teams will try to convince Conley he should leave the only franchise he’s ever played for.

But will it be enough? Grizz fans, we have reached a point in our fandom when, as much as we want things to stay the same (Conley, Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Tony Allen), we also want things to be significantly, if not drastically different. We want a shakeup.

You want to keep the defensive minded, tough, hardworking Grizzlies that you’ve come to love. But you also want them to score more, to run up and down the court and make three pointers. You want at least a glimmer of hope that they can be considered among the West’s elite, a top four seed in the 2017 NBA Playoffs.

Of course, we won’t see that fruit until it gets cold again in November. But this summer is when that seed will be planted. So here’s my wishlist for this offseason. I didn’t factor in salary cap limitations or trades, and once free agency settles down a bit, I’ll take a look at trade possibilities.

This wish list is simply based on free agents — as in, if the player and team agreed to terms, these would be some things I wouldn’t mind seeing in the fall. It’s outrageous and maybe completely ludicrous. But why not swing for the fences?

Perimeter Players:

Wish 1: Resign Mike Conley. It seems a foregone conclusion that Conley will suit up on Beale in the fall. The only question is how much will he be paid. Some of his contract will almost certainly be a “make-up” from his last contract, a five-year, $45 million contract which was panned at first, but turned out to be a great deal on a near All-Star point guard.

In earlier columns, I have considered Mike Conley the most expendable of the Core Four. Before you come after me with pitchforks, let me explain.

I think Conley is a great player and person. My argument was that Gasol is a piece you build around going forward. Zach and Tony are the “spirit animals” that give the team its identity. But there are other VERY good PGs the Grizzlies could trade for without taking a huge step back. If you could swap Conley for Derrick Rose or Jeff Teague (both traded last week), would you do it?

That said, Conley-to-Gasol has the potential to be this generation’s Stockton-to-Malone. If those two guys play their whole careers in Memphis, they would finish as legends. I’m okay with that.

Wish #2: Keep Matt Barnes and Lance Stephenson. I’m sure Coach Dave Joerger had his reasons, but I really expected to see more of Allen and Barnes on the court together last season — racheting up the defense to maniacal levels. I still hope to see that, even though Barnes is an unrestricted free agent and understandably wants to be closer to his kids in California. Here’s hoping he and the team can work it out.

Lance Stephenson may be the best slasher/scorer the Grizzlies have had on the wing since Michael Dickerson. Yes, I realize I just ignored Rudy Gay. And if you don’t know who Michael Dickerson is, that gives you an idea how long it’s been since the Memphis has had a perimeter guy who can go get a basket, get a foul or both. I suppose it’s up to Lance to opt-out of the final year of his contract, but here’s hoping he doesn’t.

Wish #3: Pursue Nic Batum and/or Harrison Barnes. In his exit interview, Conley mentioned Batum as a player who could help in Memphis. He’s a good defender, can knock down a jumper, but is crafty enough to get to the basket. It remains to be seen if he’ll seek to stay in Charlotte, who traded for him last summer. If he were to sign in Memphis, he would figure to start at either SG or SF. Unless Harrison Barnes was signed, that is.

Reading all the free agent chatter, I ran across a piece comparing Barnes career with Golden State to Harden’s career in Oklahoma City. Which is to say, at best, Barnes — who is a very good player — is the fourth option on a team that boasts a two-time MVP (Steph Curry), Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. On a different team, would Barnes morph into a true star like Harden did? Could that team be Memphis?

Wish #4: Pursue Jeremy Lin. Having toiled in the D-League, becoming a sensation in New York and then bouncing from the Rockets to the Lakers to the Hornets, I think it’s safe to say that Lin is not a true superstar. But in my mind, he is a very capable role player. He can get hot and score in bunches. He can run an offense, allowing Conley to play off the ball. He can hit a three-pointer. He’s humble and hardworking, which would make him a fan favorite in Memphis. And then there’s the hair.

Big Men:

Until someone unseats them from the starting lineup, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph will be Memphis’ “Bruise Brothers.” I love Zach’s game, think he’s got plenty left in the tank. But in my opinion, his highest and best use in the coming years will be for instant offense off the bench, where he can maintain his double-double production against the opposing team’s second string.

The problem with that scenario is that the team needs someone who is a clear upgrade – ideally an athletic power forward who can knock down a three-pointer, defend and rebound. News flash: Everyone is looking for one of those.

JaMychal Green and Jarell Martin have both shown growth and potential. Rookie Deyonta Davis is also promising. And there is no scenario where any of those guys beats out Randolph as a starter. So if I’m wishing for help down low in the paint . . .

Wish #4: Pursue Ryan Anderson. Anderson was good for 17 points and six board in New Orleans last season — production comparable to Zach Randolph. You’d like more rebounds, but on the other hand, Anderson is also a reliable three-point threat. Do you empty the cash register for him if that’s what it takes? I don’t know about that. But should you go after him? Absolutely.

Wish #5: Pursue Joakim Noah. Part of the fun of being a Memphis Grizzlies fan is watching how all the colorful personalities fit together. In addition to his wild hair and basketball IQ, Noah and Gasol together would give Memphis the two best-passing big men in the game — while shoring up interior defense and rebounding. On a team that will need to move the ball around to get open shots, a Noah-Gasol tandem would give Memphis more playmaking.

Wish #6: Pursue Dwight Howard. Disclosure: I liked this idea better before I realized Noah was a free agent, but hear me out. The simple thought was this: If the rest of the league is doubling down on offense and shooting (Golden State, Houston), then maybe the Memphis counter would be doubling down on defense.

In theory, a Gasol-Howard frontcourt would shut down the paint, wipe the glass, and allow the perimeter defenders like Conley, Allen and Matt Barnes to be more aggressive. That is, until opposing teams start making Gasol or Howard defend stretch-fours out at the three point line. Neither Gasol nor Howard would be great defenders in such situations.

Besides, who knows where Howard’s head is, or how much he’ll think he’s worth. But Memphis has become a place to resurrect careers, and D12 is certainly in need of that. If he didn’t ask for a max contract and was committed to defending and rebounding, why not take shot at Howard?

In any case, the dominoes will start falling this weekend — starting with Kevin Durant. And honestly, much like draft night, this free agency season will have twists and turns, trades and more.

Like I said, just because there’s nothing’s happening on the court, there’s still a game to watch. Here’s hoping that the Grizzlies win the summer. Until then . . .

GRIND ON!

By Lee Eric Smith, lesmith@tri-statedefender.com

Before he became a worldwide musical icon, Prince Rogers Nelson was a small, shy kid with epilepsy who found his voice — and his calling — by immersing himself in music. It’s a story that Tami Gipson can relate to.

“He was like a lot of really talented kids right here in Memphis,” said Gipson, co-founder of #SaveMusic4Kids, a music education project. “He didn’t fit in easily at school, so he went into his room and taught himself music. The Prince we came to love didn’t start out that way. He found a way to be free and get lost in his music.”

Fans of Prince — as well as fans of music education in public schools — will get the chance to celebrate one while supporting the other on July 8. That’s the date for the Prince Life Celebration and Tribute, happening Downtown at The Cadre Building, 149. Doors open at 8:30 p.m., with the party lasting until 1:30 a.m.

It’s a party with a purpose — proceeds will be used to help teachers, parents and students have access to the instruments, training and other materials that young people need to explore their musical talents. Appleseeds, Inc., a nonprofit focused on working with teen girls, will also receive a portion of the proceeds.

“The desire is to create grants at schools where students and teachers need the most assistance,” Gipson said. “We’re just trying to fill in gaps where we can.”

General admission for the event is $50, with VIP levels at $150 and $250. VIP access includes private seating, a private chef station, and mingling with celebrity guests. Proceeds benefit Shelby County Schools (SCS) music education initiatives and Apple Seeds, Inc. Tickets can be purchased at www.eventbrite.com or www.princelifecelebrationmemphis.com.

The #SaveMusic4Kids campaign is the brainchild of Gipson and Tenikki Sesley, executive director of Appleseeds. The two were having a conversation with several friends who are both mothers and educators when a theme emerged. Several of the women had students who were interested in music. But the expenses associated with a quality music education — instruments, lessons, etc. — can add up, especially in low-income homes.

“It’s more important than ever that the community steps in to help,” said Teresa Lucas, one parent involved with #SaveMusic4Kids. “Especially in this era of budget cuts and limited funds for afterschool music programs. And we want to provide some assistance for parents who need help funding their child’s musical aspirations.”

In May, SCS was named among 2016’s best communities for music education by the National Association of Music Merchants. Its music curriculum is delivered to about 110,000 students across 100 elementary schools, 32 middle schools and 31 high schools. Every elementary school student receives music instruction as part of the nationally recognized Orff-Schulwerk program.

“SCS music teachers find themselves funding projects out of their pockets,” Gipson said. “The SCS Music program is still one of the best in the country, however on a daily basis there are some cracks in the foundation and we are trying to correct them where we can.”

SCS also has classical piano programs in 17 middle and high schools. And about 95 percent of SCS schools have access to quality music instruction with at least one full-time licensed music teacher.

As school enrollments increase, it’s common for schools to offer band and choral music as well as specialized coursework — string orchestra, piano, guitar, music production, commercial music, mariachi, world drumming or recording techniques.

SCS invests annual funds for the replacement and upkeep of a significant inventory of musical equipment. It is district protocol that SCS will provide the student with a quality instrument if they can’t afford one.

However, many parents do rent instruments for their children — instruments that can be repossessed if parents can’t make the payment. Add in uniforms, recitals and other random expenses of a music education and even well intentioned parents need some help.

“Things happen. Life happens,” said Gipson, owner of ICU Communications, a public relations firm. “If your transmission needs repair and your kid’s instrument rental is due, which one is going to go unpaid? We want to create a grant that helps parents not have to make that choice. It’s a shame to take an instrument out of a child’s hands.”

The night will be accented with great food by Chef Michael Francis, Signature Purple Rains Cocktails sponsored by Pyramid Vodka and décor by White Door Events. Grammy Winner Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell will be an honored guest and is passionate about keeping music programs highly viable in Memphis public education.

“Prince helped to provide thousands of dollars for public education to supplement music programs nationwide,” Gipson said. “We hope to receive amazing support from the Memphis community.”

Some studies show that children who play an instrument do better on standardized tests and are more emotionally intelligent, Sesley said.

“My concern is about the proliferation of low self-esteem in our young people,” Sesley said. “So many young girls have babies so they can feel important and loved. The ability to learn music creates the sense of accomplishment and confidence that no one can take away!”

Gipson would agree. She was the first African-American student in her class to learn violin. Unlike her peers, who had shiny new violins to play, hers was a second-hand instrument that her teacher helped her fix up. “It didn’t have a bridge, it was missing strings,” she said. “As the only black child in the room, I felt some type of way.”

As a first grader, she felt uneasy among her white peers and was teased by her African-American classmates. But Gipson said her mom wouldn’t let her wallow in shame.

“She wasn’t going to let me NOT do it,” Gipson laughed. “Mama said, ‘It doesn’t matter what (your violin) looks like, it matters what it sounds like. So I kept playing all the way through eighth grade.”

Since then, she’s raised two boys to adulthood, both of whom were more interested in sports than music. But the importance of music in her own life still motivates her.

“We have the chance to make a real difference in a child’s life,” she said. “I’d like for these kids to have the same opportunities that I had.”

(For more information, contact Tami Gipson at 901 550-2206 or email at Icu2.tami@gmail.com.)

By Patrice Gaines, Urban News Service

Leah Chase recalls a time when she couldn’t get a loan from a white-owned bank to expand her now-legendary New Orleans restaurant.

“I remember my husband going to a bank we used for years,” said Chase, 93. “When we went to get a loan, we couldn’t … This was in 1957, and we wanted to make the restaurant bigger.

“Then Liberty Bank came along,” said Chase, referring to the black-owned Liberty Bank and Trust, headquartered in New Orleans. The Chases got a $150,000 loan from Liberty to remodel their Creole eatery, Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. Chase has 15 employees today, “sometimes more,” and has fed “the Jackson Five, Duke Ellington, the Freedom Riders … President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.”

“We were able to visit the president of the bank,” Chase said of her first experience with Liberty. “We could never do that before. It was unbelievable.”

Ironically, while the number of black-owned banks dwindles, studies show that black consumers could benefit greatly from the personalized services that these banks still offer. There reportedly were more than 130 banks owned by African Americans between 1888 and 1934, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. There were 48 in 2001. Today, there are 22.

But while Chase remains faithful to Liberty, which operates in eight states, generations of younger black entrepreneurs and potential bank customers do not share her loyalty to black-owned banks, or any bank.

An FDIC report last month found that half of all African-American and Latino households are disconnected from the formal financial system, compared to one in five white households. This means blacks often pay more to cash checks, buy money orders and conduct other transactions. Studies and legal victories demonstrate that major financial institutions regularly discriminate against blacks.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department found that Fifth Third Bank discriminated against black and Hispanic borrowers receiving auto loans. “Fifth Third charged borrowers higher interest rates because of their race or national origin and not because of the borrowers’ creditworthiness or other objective criteria related to borrower risk,” according to a Justice Department press release.

An American Civil Liberties Union report last year found that between 2007 and 2011, black households had higher foreclosure rates, but these consumers also had more costly, riskier loans.

In spite of a long record of discrimination by many major financial institutions, blacks still hesitate to support black-run banks, said Michael A. Grant, president of National Bankers Association, the trade organization for minority and women-owned financial institutions.

“We found out a lot of African Americans with good credit will go to majority banks and, if turned down by all, they come to us. They should come to us first. History shows if your credit is decent, you have a better chance to get a loan from an African-American bank. They will counsel, take more time with their customers.”

Personalized service always has been a staple at Liberty.

“You are not part of a procedure,” said Alden McDonald, Liberty’s CEO and president. “Our procedures are flexible enough to make things work. When someone is coming to buy a house, we sit down with them to make sure they know what they are doing. Most customers we loan money to have credit ratings under 700.”

A credit score above 700 “suggests good management,” according to Experian credit reporting agency. Some lenders raise interest rates dramatically for customers with scores of 699 or lower.

In Detroit neighborhoods, where a flurry of renovations goes on, McDonald said Liberty even helps people make wise decisions about contractors.

“Contractors have gone in and taken advantage and given high prices and left people in a hole,” he said. “We applied what we did in Katrina. We helped people realize the amount of money they needed to renovate was something they could afford. We even bring someone in construction to help them price out the work on the house before they get a contractor, so we can see if the contractor is really telling them what they need. We monitor the process. It costs us more but we are doing what we need to do to make sure people don’t get in trouble, so we get our money back.”

Leah Chase recently sent her granddaughter to Liberty Bank.

“She is remodeling a house,” said Chase. “The president showed her what to do, how to get the loan. You feel there is somebody who has your interest.”

By Martin Johnson, The Root

“Diversity doesn’t stop with people onstage,” says Jeremy McQueen, a dancer, choreographer and educator. “We need black stories in classical ballet. “Don Quixote, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty are great, but we need stories that will resonate in my spirit and reflect my cultural background.”

McQueen has taken a big step toward that goal by launching the Black Iris Project, a dance collective that draws performers from several leading companies and aims to present works that create an African-American narrative in classical ballet. “Where is the ballet about the lives of Martin Luther King or Malcolm X?” he asks.

In many ways, Black Iris may represent the next chapter in the diversification of classical ballet. Misty Copeland was a major part of that change when the extraordinary dancer became the first African American to be named principal dancer in the 75-year history of the American Ballet Theatre, one of the world’s leading dance companies. Copeland’s notoriety has extended well beyond the world of ballet; she’s one of the public faces for athletic clothing company Under Armour, and a Nelson George documentary about her life, A Ballerina’s Tale, was released earlier this year. The movie will share a bill with the New York City premiere of the Black Iris Project at Central Park SummerStage Wednesday night. The bill seems timed to the first anniversary of Copeland’s ascension at ABT.

“Misty Copeland really opened the door,” says McQueen, speaking by phone from his Harlem apartment. “Now we really have the opportunity to create some change.”

McQueen, who is 30, grew up in San Diego. He was inspired to pursue a career in dance after his mother took him to see the touring performance of Phantom of the Opera. He attended the San Diego High School for the Performing Arts and trained at the California Ballet School, the San Francisco Ballet, ABT and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet. He has danced in many productions, most notably in the touring production of the Broadway hit Wicked.

Three years ago, McQueen won a prestigious Choreographers of Color prize for his work, Black Iris, a piece inspired by his mother’s battle with cancer (she is now in remission). He saw the Georgia O’Keefe painting of the same name and was moved by the contrasts: “There was a kind of yin-yang element to it,” he explained. He saw his ballet as a story about the sacrifices and the journey of black women in America. He recruited Naida Boodoo of the Washington Ballet to perform the work.

After that, he was eager to continue creating ballets in this vein, so he began fundraising and received grants from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, New Music USA and the CUNY Dance Initiative to start the collective earlier this year. He has recruited nearly two dozen dancers from leading companies like the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theater of Harlem and the Houston Ballet.

In addition to the SummerStage performance, the Black Iris Project will perform at New York Live Arts on July 27 and 28, and next year it will present McQueen’s Madiba, a piece about the life of Nelson Mandela, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

“Ballet is so visceral,” McQueen says. “It has to tell stories that are rooted in the African-American experience.” He pauses and considers his goal. “I want to create work that is authentic to who I am.”

By Todd Steven Burroughs, The Root

In his long and illustrious film career, Samuel L. Jackson has played a dancing crackhead, a Jheri-curled killer, the coordinator of a team of Marvel Comics superheroes (a favorite role of this writer), a Jedi knight and the ultimate house Negro.

On Friday he plays George Washington Williams, the pioneering black American writer and African human rights activist, in a major Hollywood film.

Sounds good, right? Well, he’s going to be side by side with Tarzan.

A character created by American fantasy writer Edgar Rice Burroughs when the sun never set on the British Empire, the Lord of the Jungle has had so many incarnations over the last century, the public reaction may be more varied than originally assumed. To many millennials, Tarzan might be a cuddly Disney animated-movie character—The Jungle Book, starring a white boy, coupled with a “bad boy” love-story angle. (The Disney joint was not the first cartoon to modernize him; in the 1970s, he was repackaged for CBS’ Saturday morning as a tanned explorer-adventurer who looked like, coincidentally enough, a grown-up version of Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli.) To the hip-hop generation/Gen X, baby boomers and pre-baby boomers, he was the star of an immensely popular 1930s and 1940s black-and-white film series in which Africans were depicted as mumbo-jumbo-mouthing servants who either cowered in fear or fell to their deaths from cliffs while carrying white people’s baggage (pun intended).

These movies, endlessly rerun on local television stations roughly from the 1960s through the 1980s, were one of the main “educators” for generations of Americans about Africa—that it was a large, savage wasteland filled with subhumans.

Meanwhile, the larger-than-life George Washington Williams, a major writer and participant in 19th-century black history, is barely an answer to a Black History Month trivia question today.

Williams journeyed to the Congo and was shocked that the Belgians were treating the Congolese like horses, working them to death. In 1890 he wrote an open letter to Belgian King Leopold II, defining and outlining the evils of his nation’s colonialism, outlining the human price of the rubber and ivory he was stealing:

Your Majesty’s government has sequestered their land, burned their towns, stolen their property, enslaved their women and children, and committed other crimes too numerous to mention in detail. It is natural that they everywhere shrink from ‘the fostering care’ Your Majesty’s government so eagerly proffers them.

What else was Williams? A Union Civil War soldier at 14. A Boston pastor. A lawyer. An Ohio state legislator. A journalist. The author of three major works of African-American history: History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1800 (vol. 1); 1800-1880 (vol. 2): Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens, the first detailed, scholarly history of African Americans; and A History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865.

Williams died in 1891 at the age of 41. The great historian, and now ancestor, John Hope Franklin, who wrote the first full biography of Williams, described him thusly: “As enigmatic as he was brilliant, as hedonistic as he was energetic. … I know of few lives so exciting, so filled with adventure, with pioneering activity, as the short life of this remarkable man.”

In The Legend of Tarzan, Jackson plays a version of Williams who goes to the Congo with Tarzan to fight against an evil Belgian captain. So, thanks to Hollywood, the real-life rape of the Congo by Belgium, and the black-led human rights activism that responded to that crime against humanity, will mind-meld with the most famous fantasy white supremacy character of the 20th (and, now, 21st) century.

Art has the right to be what it wants, but that doesn’t mean the consumer has to support it commercially. (So as much as this writer wants to see what a 2016 Tarzan movie would be like, a ticket will not be bought; someone has to draw a line somewhere.) The version of Williams that exists in this author’s mind, a complicated man who was dedicated to the human rights of African people, will remain intact for now.

Blacks still do not control the high-end production and worldwide distribution of their own culture; in the specific case of Hollywood, they still cannot green-light a major-studio film. So the only power blacks have is the ability to shout a loud economic “No” to Tarzan, no matter what actor or “positive” character is in it, or even what the film has to say about the devilish nature of European colonialism.

By Lee Eric Smith, lesmith@tri-statedefender.com

NBA free agency doesn’t start until Friday, July 1. But much like their efforts to retain Marc Gasol last summer, the Memphis Grizzlies have rolled out a video tribute/recruitment pitch to keep Mike Conley in Memphis.

“Mike Conley: Our Conductor” was released at 11:11 a.m. (Conley wears No. 11) on Monday, and features pop star/minority owner Justin Timberlake along with Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Tony Allen. Directed by Memphis’ own Craig Brewer, you’ll also see an orchestra on the basketball court as well as ballet dancers and Grizz Line, the team’s in-game drum corps.

If it sounds weird, it’s not. Take a peek:

By Steve Megargee, AP Sports Writer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in Division I college basketball history who uplifted the women’s game from obscurity to national prominence during her 38-year career at Tennessee, died Tuesday morning. She was 64.

With an icy glare on the sidelines, Summitt led the Lady Vols to eight national championships and prominence on a campus steeped in the traditions of the football-rich south until she retired in 2012.

Her son, Tyler Summitt, issued a statement Tuesday morning saying his mother died peacefully at Sherrill Hill Senior Living in Knoxville surrounded by those who loved her most.

“Since 2011, my mother has battled her toughest opponent, early onset dementia, ‘Alzheimer’s Type,’ and she did so with bravely fierce determination just as she did with every opponent she ever faced,” Tyler Summitt said. “Even though it’s incredibly difficult to come to terms that she is no longer with us, we can all find peace in knowing she no longer carries the heavy burden of this disease.”

Summitt helped grow college women’s basketball as her Lady Vols dominated the sport in the late 1980s and 1990s, winning six titles in 12 years. Tennessee — the only school she coached — won NCAA titles in 1987, 1989, 1991, 1996-98 and 2007-08. Summitt had a career record of 1,098-208 in 38 seasons, plus 18 NCAA Final Four appearances.

She announced in 2011 at age 59 that she’d been diagnosed with early onset dementia. She coached one more season before stepping down. At her retirement, Summitt’s eight national titles ranked behind the 10 won by former UCLA men’s coach John Wooden. UConn coach Geno Auriemma passed Summitt after she retired.

Former NCAA basketball coach Pat Summitt is presented with a Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama during an East Room event May 29, 2012 at the White House (Getty Images)

When she stepped down, Summitt called her coaching career a “great ride.”

Summitt was a tough taskmaster with a frosty glower that could strike the fear of failure in her players. She punished one team that stayed up partying before an early morning practice by running them until they vomited. She even placed garbage cans in the gym so they’d have somewhere to be sick.

-Pat Summitt: It’s Been A “Great Ride” At Tennessee

Nevertheless, she enjoyed such an intimate relationship with her players that they called her “Pat.”

Known for her boundless energy, Summitt set her clocks ahead a few minutes to stay on schedule.

“The lady does not slow down, ever,” one of her players, Kellie Jolly, said in 1998. “If you can ever catch her sitting down doing nothing, you are one special person.”

Summitt never had a losing record and her teams made the NCAA Tournament every season. She began her coaching career at Tennessee in the 1974-75 season, when her team finished 16-8.

With a 75-54 victory against Purdue on March 22, 2005, she earned her 880th victory, moving her past North Carolina’s Dean Smith as the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history. She earned her 1,000th career win with a 73-43 victory against Georgia on Feb. 5, 2009.

Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt talks with Chamique Holdsclaw on the bench on Friday, Feb. 26, 1999. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Summitt won 16 Southeastern Conference regular season titles, as well as 16 conference tournament titles. She was an eight-time SEC coach of the year and seven-time NCAA coach of the year. She also coached the U.S. women’s Olympic team to the 1984 gold medal.

Summitt’s greatest adversary on the court was Auriemma. The two teams played 22 times from 1995-2007. Summitt ended the series after the 2007 season.

“Pat’s vision for the game of women’s basketball and her relentless drive pushed the game to a new level and made it possible for the rest of us to accomplish what we did,” Auriemma said at the time of her retirement.

In 1999, Summitt was inducted as part of the inaugural class of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She made the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame a year later. In 2013, she also was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Summitt was such a competitor that she refused to let a pilot land in Virginia when she went into labor while on a recruiting trip in 1990. Virginia had beaten her Lady Vols a few months earrlier, preventing them from playing for a national title on their home floor.

But it was only in 2012 when being honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award that Summitt shared she had six miscarriages before giving birth to her son, Tyler.

She was born June 14, 1952, in Henrietta, Tennessee, and graduated from Cheatham County Central High School just west of Nashville. She played college basketball at the University of Tennessee at Martin where she received her bachelor’s degree in physical education. She was the co-captain of the 1976 U.S. Olympic team, which won the silver medal.

After playing at UT Martin, she was hired as a graduate assistant at Tennessee and took over when the previous head coach left.

She wrote a motivational book in 1998, “Reach for the Summitt.” Additionally, she worked with Sally Jenkins on “Raise the Roof,” a book about the 1997-98 championship season, and also detailed her battle with dementia in a memoir, “Sum It Up,” released in March 2013 and also co-written with Jenkins.

“It’s hard to pinpoint the exact day that I first noticed something wrong,” Summitt wrote. “Over the course of a year, from 2010 to 2011, I began to experience a troubling series of lapses. I had to ask people to remind me of the same things, over and over. I’d ask three times in the space of an hour, ‘What time is my meeting again?’ – and then be late.”

Summitt started a foundation in her name to fight Alzheimer’s in 2011 that has raised millions of dollars.

After she retired, Summitt was given the title head coach emeritus at Tennessee. She had been cutting back her public appearances over the past few years. She came to a handful of Tennessee games this past season and occasionally also traveled to watch her son Tyler coach at Louisiana Tech the last two years.

Earlier this year, Summitt moved out of her home into an upscale retirement resort when her regular home underwent renovations.

Summitt is the only person to have two courts used by NCAA Division I basketball teams named in her honor: “Pat Head Summitt Court” at the University of Tennessee-Martin, and “The Summitt” at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She also has two streets named after her: “Pat Summitt Street” on the University of Tennessee-Knoxville campus and “Pat Head Summitt Avenue” on the University of Tennessee-Martin campus.

She is survived by son Tyler Summitt.

By Eva M. Clayton, The Root

When Xerox CEO Ursula Burns steps down from her position later this year, it will mark the end of having an African-American woman leading a Fortune 500 company as its chief executive officer. Burns, in retelling the story of her rise to success, acknowledges that her mother “knew that education was [her] way up and out.”

Long before Burns graduated from Columbia University and worked her way up to become an executive at Xerox, she keenly understood quite intimately that access to knowledge was the stepping-stone of success.
 As technology is increasingly integrated into every level of education today, students without access to the internet at home find themselves at a huge disadvantage among their peers. This disparity is known as the “homework gap,” and students who come from minority, low-income or rural households disproportionately fall into it. What’s more, this same population is on the wrong side of the digital divide, which is more broadly defined as the gap between those who have access to the internet and those who do not.

African Americans and Hispanics are three times as likely as whites to be “smartphone-dependent” because they lack both high-speed internet access at home and hardly any other means of getting online beyond their mobile devices. These statistics hold true for Americans with household incomes of less than $30,000 per year. 
Closing the homework gap and digital divide is one of the major challenges of our time, since high-speed internet is the modern economic leveler that enables social mobility.

As providers seek to attract a younger and more diverse consumer base, there’s a new tool in the toolkit with “free data” programs that, in some ways, help address some of the pressing societal challenges facing underserved and unserved communities—both rural and urban.

The concept of free data is simple. Companies cover some of the cost of accessing content (i.e., websites and apps) on mobile devices, leaving consumers with more mobile data in their monthly data plans to use in other ways, including to complete homework, look up health information, explore job opportunities, stay connected with family or simply read the news.

It comes as no surprise that consumers are embracing free-data programs. And why wouldn’t they? Who could be against giving people more access to online content for free? 
The opponents of free data ignore the user rates and are focused on trying to influence the Federal Communications Commission to ban free-data programs, despite the overwhelming public support for them. While these groups continue to equate free-data programs with other unrelated tech issues and make erroneous claims about how they could affect mobile services, they continue to completely ignore the potential benefits that free data could have.

Closing the homework gap and digital divide is vital to addressing long-standing income-inequality issues in communities that continue to be left behind. Access to quality education has always been a fundamental building block of upward mobility, and for students who have limited options for getting online, a smartphone represents their “way up and out,” as Burns would put it; and free-data programs will open more doors to all the internet has to offer.

Regulators in Washington, D.C., can aid the policy discussion of socioeconomic equality and upward mobility by supporting programs such as free data, when applied fairly and equally. This will allow an exciting, new consumer mobile-internet development to grow and expand.

For millennials and Generation Z, the future starts now, and in order for our young people to reach their full potential, we need to ensure that more minority and low-income households have access to and utilize technology to advance.

By Richard Prince, The Root

“Amid a renewed national conversation about race in the U.S., a new Pew Research Center survey finds profound differences between black and white Americans in views on racial discrimination, barriers to black progress and the prospects for change,” Pew reported on Monday.

“Blacks, far more than whites, say black people are treated unfairly across different realms of life, from dealing with the police to applying for a loan or mortgage. And, for many blacks, racial equality remains an elusive goal.

“An overwhelming majority of blacks (88%) say the country needs to continue making changes for blacks to have equal rights with white, but 43% are skeptical that such changes will ever occur. A much lower share of whites (53%) say the country still has work to do for blacks to achieve equal rights with whites, and only 11% express doubt that these changes will come. Meanwhile, 38% of whites say the necessary changes have already been made, compared with 8% of blacks.

“Black and white adults have widely different perceptions about what life is like for blacks in the U.S. By large margins, blacks are more likely than whites to say black people are treated less fairly in the workplace (a difference of 42 percentage points), when applying for a loan or mortgage (41 points), in dealing with the police (34 points), in the courts (32 points), in stores or restaurants (28 points), and when voting in elections (23 points).

“The report is based on a new national Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 29-May 8, 2016, among 3,769 adults (including 1,799 whites, 1,004 blacks and 654 Hispanics). It focuses primarily on the divide between blacks and whites on attitudes about race relations and racial inequality and their perceptions of the treatment of black people in the U.S. today.

“Among the findings:

“Black and whites offer different perspectives on the current state of race relations in the U.S. White Americans are evenly divided, with 46% saying race relations are generally good and 45% saying they are generally bad. In contrast, by a nearly two-to-one margin, blacks are more likely to say that race relations are bad (61%) rather than good (34%).

“Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to say there is too little attention paid to race and racial issues in the U.S. these days (58% vs. 27%). About four-in-ten whites (41%) — compared with 22% of blacks — say there is too much focus on race and racial issues.

“Blacks and whites differ significantly in their assessments of the impact President Obama has had on U.S. race relations. Some 51% of blacks say Obama has made progress toward improving race relations, and 34% say he has tried but failed to make progress. Meanwhile, a substantial share of whites (32%) say Obama has made race relations worse, while 28% say he has made progress and 24% say he has tried but failed to make progress. Among white Republicans, 63% say Obama has made race relations worse.

“Among blacks, there is widespread support for Black Lives Matter. Roughly two-thirds (65%) of blacks express support for the group, including 41% who strongly support it. Among whites, four-in-ten say they support the Black Lives Matter movement, but just 14% express strong support. White support for Black Lives Matter is far more widespread among those younger than 30.

“Whites are deeply polarized on issues of race along party lines. About six-in-ten (59%) white Republicans say there is too much attention paid to race and racial issues these days, while only 21% of white Democrats agree. And while about eight-in-ten (78%) white Democrats say the country needs to continue making changes to achieve racial equality, just 36% of white Republicans agree.

“Blacks are far more likely than whites to say racial discrimination (70% vs. 36%), lower quality schools (75% vs. 53%) and lack of jobs (66% vs. 45%) are major reasons why blacks may have a harder time getting ahead than whites. And on the question of individual vs. institutional racism, whites are far more likely than blacks to say that discrimination that is based on individual prejudice — rather than built into laws and institutions — is the bigger problem for blacks today.

“A majority of blacks (71%) say that they have experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity. Blacks with at least some college experience (81%) are much more likely than blacks who have never attended college (59%) to say they have been discriminated against because of their race.

“Black-white gaps in economic well-being persist and have even widened in some cases. In 2015, the median adjusted household income for blacks was $43,300, and for whites it was $77,900. The median net worth of households headed by whites was roughly thirteen times that of black households in 2013, a gap which has widened in the aftermath of the Great Recession.