The painfall fall of Robert Lipscomb

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09/03/2015

rlnulipscomb_1_t580 — Robert Lipscomb Photo by Karanja A. Ajanaku

Nobody who still supports besmirched former housing and community development agencies mainstay Robert Lipscomb – and there are many – condones sexual misconduct with a minor. So let’s not get things twisted they are saying.

No charges have been filed against Lipscomb, who has resigned as director of the City of Memphis’ Housing and Community Development division and stepped away from the Memphis Housing Authority, where he long had been the executive director. There are, however, disturbing allegations, both in the nature of the accusations and the number.

Information from Mayor A C Wharton Jr.’s office details that since the investigation began August 21, nine individuals have made similar allegations that are currently under investigation by the Memphis Police Department.

For many who “know” Lipscomb, this matter goes beyond surprise. It’s painful to them on a gut level. In part, that is because the bond formed with the Lipscomb known by them is directly and/or indirectly associated with making sure the children of Memphis, particularly, its African-American children, are safe, protected and increasingly provided with the opportunity to be their best selves.

It’s painful, they say, because the Lipscomb who exists beyond being the most visible public force for housing and development for decades has shown time and again that he is a human being who truly cares about others. So much so that time and again he has pulled from his own pockets to help the needy, off the record, outside of the limelight, with no request for compensation or recognition.

“He reached in his own pocket when I called him to help me with assisting the mother of Michael Orr, who the film “The Blindside” was about,” said state Rep. Barbara Cooper (District 86). He reached in his own pocket to help out without hesitation.”

It’s painful, they say, because if the allegations were to prove true, there likely are a number of people in need of help and who have needed it for a long time. That would mean Lipscomb among them.

And it’s painful, they say, because it is difficult in a media-saturated world to balance waiting for the investigation to yield its findings and jumping to conclusions. Speculation is rampant. Some openly wonder if the yet-undetected hand of election-year politics is at play.

“It is a terrible accusation. But even if it is true, why did they make a public spectacle of this. This could have been done privately,” said Cooper. “It makes you wonder if there is a motive behind this. I cannot believe he did something like this, but this was definitely manipulated. Robert has been too honorable for this type of treatment.”

Lipscomb’s leadership at HCD goes back to 1992. He has been involved in major development projects for the past 20 years. That string started to unravel last Friday when a call came into the mayor’s office.

At Monday’s news conference, Wharton said a 26-year-old man alleged that “he had a sexual relationship with Director Lipscomb when he, the complainant, was 16.”

Tremaine Wilbourn’s surrender: ‘It’s worked out’

By

Tommi Matthews

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08/29/2015

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As the pastor of Bloomfield Full Gospel Baptist Church, the Rev. Ralph White is accustomed to allowld Full Gospel Baptist Church, the Rev. Ralph White is accustomed to Full Gospel Baptist Church, the Rev. Ralph White is accustomed toGod to lead him where he is se is sposed to be and guide him in doing the “Lord’s will.”

Such was the case again this week.

White, who also is chairman of the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board, played a key role in helping then-fugitive Tremaine Wilbourn turn himself in connection with the killing of Memphis Police Department Officer Sean Bolton on Saturday night.

“I don’t know if we actually saved his life,” White told photojournalist George Tillman Jr. of The New Tri-State Defender on Tuesday. “But we didn’t know what might develop as a result of him doing it any other way.”

Wilbourn showed up at the Federal Building downtown late Monday afternoon with his attorney, surrendered to U.S. Marshals and ended an intense hunt that had garnered national media attention. Mayor A C Wharton Jr. said the White House had reached out, offering to do whatever it could as the hunt for Wilbourn unfolded.

Wilbourn, 29, is set to appear in court on Wednesday. At the time of the shooting, he was on parole from a 121-month sentence for robbing a banking institution.

“He is safe now and sad to say we had to turn another young black man in. But he did the crime … At least we showed him compassion; showed him that we were concerned about him and had his best interest at heart,” said White, who spoke outside of the church he pastors at 123 South Parkway West.

Bolton was on one-man patrol when he spotted a 2002 Mercedes illegally parked in the 4800 block of Summerland. Police have said he apparently interrupted a drug deal. Wilbourn was a passenger in the car. A physical encounter between Wilbourn and Bolton took place outside of the car and it ended with Bolton shot multiple times with a gun that Wilbourn reportedly was carrying.

White said he and others would continue to reach out to Wilbourn.

“We will be visiting him and try to minister to him and see if we can take him to the next level, whatever that might be,” said White.

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Emmett’

By

Tommi Matthews

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08/29/2015

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dr.weems-2_t750x550 — Dr. Clenora Hudson’s three-decade research journey involving the death of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 has yielded her fourth book – “Emmett” with the subtitle “Legacy, Redemption and Forgiveness.” (Photo: Karanja A. Ajanaku)

by Karanja A. Ajanaku

kajanaku@tsdmemphis.com

The year 1985 marked 30 years after the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi. Three years later, Clenora Hudson’s Ford Doctoral Dissertation shed the most scholarly light shown on the horrific tragedy up to that time.

On Friday (Aug. 28), the 60th anniversary of Till’s death was noted in various parts of the country in myriad ways. And while many do not associate their awareness of Till’s death to Dr. Hudson, there is a good case to be made that in some fashion they should.

Hudson’s fourth book on Till’s death – “Emmett” with the subtitle “Legacy, Redemption and Forgiveness” – is now being extended to the reading public. It is, she says, the last she plans to write on a subject that has been her passion for three decades.

“I started with this – ‘Emmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement’ – and I’m closing out with this,” she says, pointing to her latest work while sitting in the Withers Collection Museum and Gallery on Beale Street in Downtown Memphis.

At 137 pages, “Emmett” is a quick and intriguing read. While it accounts for Till’s gruesome murder, the discovery of his disfigured body in the Tallahatchie River after he whistled at a 21-year-old white woman in Money, Miss. and the “mock trial” that ended in the acquittal of the two accused of murder, none of those elements is the crux of this story.

What readers really get fresh in “Emmett” is the intensity of the stand Hudson takes in asserting, “the true ugliness of racism, symbolized by Emmett’s bloated face, must be eradicated.”

This position is set up by the stories of the book’s essential characters – Till’s mother, Mamie Till; Rayfield Mooty, a labor union leader, civil rights activist and Mamie Till’s second cousin and advisor; attorney John Whitten Jr., who delivered the closing remarks in defense of the accused killers, and Hudson herself.

Readers new to Hudson’s works are made aware of what those familiar with her research/literary efforts already know about her characterization of Mamie Till, Mooty and Whitten. Namely that Till made “a lifetime commitment to her only child to change racist minds and laws in America with the help of God”; that

On the eve (Aug. 27) of the 60th anniversary of the death of Emmett Till, pioneering Till-scholar Dr. Clenora Hudson was in Memphis on Beale Street sharing insight into her latest book: “Emmett…Legacy, Redemption and Forgiveness.” (Photo: Karanja A. A. aku)

Moody was “the supreme strategist” in that endeavor; and that Whitten evolved into “an exemplar for correcting racist attitudes and acts.”

Over the years – and as others have followed Hudson’s pioneering research establishing the Till case as the true catalyst of the civil rights movement – she has labored to make sure the record accurately reflected the nature and uniqueness of her research. Acknowledging how and when her research began and took place are pivotal to that effort.

Hudson’s dissertation challenged the historical notion up to that point – that Rosa Parks’ refusal-to-give-up-her-seat protest was the key event that led from civil rights movement sparks to a full-fledged fire. It took guts on multiple levels to do that.

Having built upon the premise that Till’s death was the catalyst of the civil rights movement via her first book and the two that followed, Hudson now is focused on racial healing. She uses this book to elevate what she sees as racial healing’s building blocks – redemption and forgiveness – and to hammer the need home.

“Emmett”

“Legacy, Redemption and Forgiveness”

by Clenora Hudson, PhD

Publisher: AuthorHouse

5/5/2015

Scratch practice with PeteStramentals Vol. 1 “A Little Soul” and Louis Farrakhan “Black Family Day”

By

Lee Eric Smith

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08/12/2015

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New app taps social media to help ease the college search process

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Tri-State Defender Technology Stories

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08/07/2015

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By Brittney Gathen/Special to The New Tri-State Defender

Given the volume and variety of colleges and universities in the U.S. and the ever-growing number of social media sites, it’s no wonder some are daunted by the college research process. MyCollegeSTREAM is designed to meet that challenge.

The web app – launched in 2014 by Tony Malone, Brian Summerhill and Bryant Warren – was created to assist students and guidance counselors. MyCollegeStream aggregates college social media accounts and customizes content for users’ favorite colleges and interests. It also provides guidance counselors with information about universities, community colleges and technical schools with real time social media updates.

While there are many apps that provide college information, Malone said their’s is the first to integrate social media. Summerhill came up with the idea while researching different colleges after earning his bachelor’s degree from Auburn University. He used a lot of social media during the search process. When he came upon the University of Memphis (where he later got his masters’ degree), he noticed that it had multiple pages.

Thinking that there should be a better, easier way to find social media content from a college, Summerhill teamed up with Warren, who developed the software, and, Malone, who serves as the chief marketing officer, to create an app that simplifies the college research process using social media.

The initial intent was an app to provide information about activities on different campuses.

“As we began to do our research and get more in depth with customer development and discovery, we realized that there was a true need for something to assist guidance counselors and help students in making better choices when making decisions about which college to go to or what they even want to major in,” Malone said.

Malone noted that in some instances there was a single counselor designated to help hundreds of students.

The group conducted customer development research at Sheffield High School prior to the end of the school year. The goal was to determine what students would want to see in the app. In May 2015, they were accepted into Start Co. – a local business accelerator and venture development group that assists start-ups.

Sheffield High School is envisioned as a pilot school for the MyCollegeStream app. The trio’s goal is to have the app software in all schools in Memphis by the end of October. Over the summer, they reached out to various schools.

Community colleges and trade schools that accept the Tennessee Hope Lottery Scholarship are included in the app software system. To access the features of MyCollegeSTREAM, the app software must be implemented at a student’s school. That would come after a meeting in which school employees would be instructed on the benefits and uses of the app software.

Guidance counselors and teachers in the school would then be trained to use the software. Students can then create their own username and password on MyCollegeSTREAM.com and access the information provided via social media on the site.

Users can customize their college social media interests by categories such as athletics, education, campus diversity, Greek life, news and more. In addition to having access to the app software on their computers, students can also access it on other devices such as phones or tablets.

Although there have been some challenges, Summerhill said the impact the app is able to make has been rewarding.

“We were able to engage with students who previously weren’t interested in college,” Summerhill said. “(For) the students that weren’t initially interested in college but who used social media, we were able to use social media as a bridge to get them to think about college and furthering their education.”

Summerhill believes Memphis is “starting to build steam” as a good environment for app development. The talent is here but people have to know where to look for it and focus on building more talent, he said.

Malone agreed. Working through Start Co. has convinced him that Memphis is going to be one of the next “tech cities.”

“The community here of technology people, even though it’s small, is very tight,” Malone said. “I’ve been to tons of mixers and networking events I never would’ve known about, if not for the community, and right now the community is at a point where it believes in helping anybody.”

Malone and Summerville have locked in on the basic elements they know are needed to create and eventually launch a successful – entrepreneurial drive, an idea to solve a problem, necessary expertise or access to someone who has necessary expertise in a certain industry, and perseverance.

Moving forward, the group wants to expand the reach of their app to the entire U.S. They particularly want to help underserved schools. They are currently in a competition to head to California’s Silicon Valley, which is home to some of the largest technology companies in the U.S., and pitch their app there.

Summerhill said that they are ready to affect positive change using MyCollegeSTREAM.

“Our focus is making a difference in kids’ lives using technology that they’re already utilizing every day,” Summerhill said. “People are trying to find a way to utilize social media in high schools and education, and we believe that we’ve found a way to do that. So we’re really excited about getting social media into schools; we believe that that will enhance the whole learning experience for students and teachers as well.

“We’re ready to change the game.”

Tremaine Wilbourne’s surrender: ‘It worked out’

By

Tommi Matthews

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08/04/2015

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revralph_t750x550 — With a massive manhunt focused on fugitive Tremaine Wilbourn, the Rev. Ralph White talks about helping Wilbourn turn himself in. (Photo: George Tillman Jr./TSD)

As the pastor of Bloomfield Full Gospel Baptist Church, the Rev. Ralph White is accustomed to allowing God to lead him where he is supposed to be and guide him in doing the “Lord’s will.”