As the count of COVID-19 numbers continues to yield dizzying numbers in Greater Memphis, the need to mask-up mounts with life-saving urgency.

On Friday, Shelby County Health Department data showed 18,058 confirmed/probable coronavirus cases, including 374 new cases reported over the previous 24 hours. The death toll stood at 259 (three new deaths over 24 hours), with 12,819 the total of recovered cases.

And the positivity rate, which local health officials have said they would want to see under 10 percent overall, registered 16.4 for Friday, pushing the overall rate up to 9.9 percent.

The wearing of masks continues to be embraced widely as a primary tool for combatting the virus’ spread, with even President Donald Trump now, finally, leaning in that direction.

The New Tri-State Defender commissioned photojournalist Gary S. Whitlow (GSW Enterprises) to put his boots to the ground in pursuit of Memphians complying with local directives to wear masks in public spaces.

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by Kimberlee Kruesi —

NASHVILLE — Tennessee will not be allowed to enforce one of the strictest abortion bans in the country as a legal battle over the measure’s constitutionality moves through court, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge William Campbell had already issued a temporary restraining order against the law just hours after Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed off on it earlier this month. Campbell doubled down on blocking the law from being implemented Friday, arguing the plaintiffs had a strong likelihood of proving sections of the anti-abortion law were illegal.

“This Court leaves debate about Roe, Casey and their progeny to the learned jurists on the Supreme Court, legal scholars, legislators and the public — a debate that remains lively and important,” Campbell wrote.

According to the Tennessee law, abortions would be banned once a fetal heartbeat is detected — about six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. Similar legislation has been enacted in other states, such as Mississippi and Georgia, but has been blocked by legal challenges.

The law also includes a prohibition on abortion based on race, sex or diagnosis of Down syndrome. The court blocked that provision as well.

“Will the physician be subject to criminal sanction only where the patient explicitly states she seeks an abortion for a prohibited reason, or could the physician be arrested for providing an abortion where the patient’s file or a referring physician includes a reference to a prohibited reason?” Campbell wrote.

The bill was passed by Tennessee’s GOP-dominant Statehouse during the final hours of the annual legislative session back in June. Most of the public was asleep when lawmakers advanced the bill. Campbell wrote that the Statehouse crafted a bill without “precision.”

Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights sued shortly before Lee signed the measure into law.

Lee has described the abortion ban as “arguably the most conservative, pro-life piece of legislation in the country.” When he first unveiled the proposal in January, Lee stood with dozens of Republican lawmakers inside the Capitol touting the bill as a top priority for his administration.

He has previously vowed to do “whatever it takes in court” to defend the anti-abortion law.

We don’t have to tell anyone who reads this newspaper that Black Lives Matter. However, we want to be sure to emphasize that Black Leadership and Black Influence matters as well.

These four young professionals are well-placed and poised to make change in Memphis. They believe in the potential of our city and the power of our voices. There is a lot of chatter about refusal to change the guard and the disaffected nature of the next generations. However, these four young professionals are shifting paradigms and upending those arguments.

Name: Erik Henneghan

Organization/Title: Chair, Shelby County Mayor’s Young Professionals Council

Day job: Project Manager, Dufresne Spencer Group

What is your vision for Memphis? I want to see Memphis elevated to the platform it deserves. We have the culture, the hospitality, and the potential. We have to lean into our strengths to gain a competitive edge by comparison to other major cities. I want to see Memphis become THE place for the long-term – where young professionals are launching successful careers, starting families, engaged in the community, and ultimately retiring right here in Shelby County.

What does this responsibility mean to you?  Achieving a greater Memphis is a team effort. Young professionals have to be willing to claim our seat and have a voice at the decision-making table. That’s why I aspired to be a part of MYPC and why I am so passionate about giving back to the community. There’s a long legacy of trailblazers in Memphis, and the next generation has to be willing to step up, collaborate with each other, and be the ambassadors our city needs to drive progressive change.

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Name:  Ashlee Hafford

Organization/Title: President, Memphis Urban League Young Professionals

Day job: Senior Finance Manager, Baptist Memorial Healthcare

What is your vision for Memphis? From healthcare to hospitality, Memphis has emerged over the years and continues to evolve as a Southern Hub of innovation and culture. From the current healthcare crisis to the lack of hospitality seen in our community’s policing practices, we cannot continue to turn our heads to the reality of injustice and racial inequality in our city and expect to turn the key of progress forward.

Memphis is a city that offers a wide range of possibilities for those fortunate enough to tap into the right networks to benefit from such.  As President of Memphis Urban League Young Professionals, my goal is to identify and expand those networks, strategically target and energize our members to take advantage of the opportunities available here in Memphis, equip them with the tools & skills to continue to build upon and grow the realm of possibilities for others, and empower them to dig deeper and demand better for those areas where opportunity is more of a challenge than reality.

What does this responsibility mean to you? I recognize the great work happening within and through minority-led organizations throughout Memphis and it is my aim to partner with these other organizations to further advance the goal of empowering the Memphis community and changing lives on a much grander scale

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Name: Trevia Chatman
Organization/Title: Chair, Keepers of 306
Day job: Senior Vice President – Market Manager for Bank of America

What is your vision for Memphis? My vision for Memphis is that we become a city that thrives in every community. Zip codes will no longer determine access to resources, quality education, and wealth. Our city’s nationally known statistics will move from high poverty rates to high net worth. We will be able to fully answer the question of Where do we go from here and become the city for other urban communities to emulate.

What does this responsibility mean to you? I carry this responsibility as a sprinter would carry a baton. Our forefathers ran a phenomenal leg in this race called freedom. The race is not won! I am dedicated to bring strength to those that are growing weary so that the collective impact can remove barriers. I am energized to collaborate more with change agents that work towards equity and inclusivity for all.

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Name: James Ramson

Organization/Title: Greater Memphis Chamber Young Professional Council (YPC)

Day job: First Horizon Bank / Treasury Services – Product Management

What is your vision for Memphis? Memphis is an ideal place to live not only for the cultural experience, but as a place where you can thrive as a professional and entrepreneur. When I think about the future of this city, there are four cornerstones that I believe are key to maintaining Memphis as an epicenter for growth and opportunity in the Mid-South: 1) the ability to attract and retain talent, 2) a strong framework to assist local businesses with driving economic progress and contributing to job opportunities with a livable wage, 3) providing development and educational youth programs that instill community values and progressive job skills, 4) integrating local communities through transportation networks, utilities and technology. It’s through these initiatives that I believe we can continue to make Memphis a great place to call home.

What does this responsibility mean to you? As the chairman of the Board of Directors for the Chamber’s YPC organization, it’s a huge honor and responsibility to serve our community by providing opportunities for young professionals to network, drive change and acquire knowledge and skills to be leaders of the future. I hope that our contribution, big or small, will support the collective goal of making Memphis a great place to live, but more importantly, a place where you can thrive.

by Daphene Johnson —

One of the most esteemed ranks to which a person can ascend is centenarian, a distinct group of individuals blessed to reach the age of 100 years old.

Being a centenarian in 2020 means individuals born in 1920 or earlier. My mother, Helen Johnson, is in that company. She celebrated her 101st birthday June 11.

She and her peers have lived through the residual effects of slavery and racism, the Great Depression and the American Civil Rights Movement era. Now they are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

What has allowed these individuals to attain this milestone?

I surmise it is an unwavering faith in God, a positive attitude, optimism, the ability to make much out of little and, of great importance, a resilient spirit.

Resilience is the psychological quality that allows some people to be knocked down by the adversities of life and come back at least as strong.

Rather than letting difficulties, traumatic events or failure overcome them, highly resilient people find a way to change course, emotionally heal and continue moving toward their goals.

My mother developed the ability to “endure and go through,” not with a laissez-faire attitude, but with prayer, faith in God and a plan of action rooted and grounded in prayer.

I’ve often heard her say, “He didn’t promise us sunshine … did he? No, sometimes there will be rain but He did promise that he will be with us always! We must be able to endure the storms (trials and tribulations) of life and be encouraged by the ‘Good News!’”

Helen Johnson was born June 11, 1919 in Holcomb, Miss., a place she describes as “a little place between Greenwood and Grenada Mississippi.”

My grandmother, Malinda Williams, raised my mother and her brother, Odell Polk, largely on her own. Frank Woods, my mother’s father, only was in her life sporadically.

When my mother was quite young the family moved to Parkin, Ark., staying there for several years. After her mother died, she and her brother were sent to Memphis to live with an aunt and uncle, Weltha and Walter Williams.

Enrolled at Florida Street School, she completed the eighth grade, which was the norm for African-American children in the 1930s and 1940s.

Although she didn’t graduate high school or attend college, my mother has an impressive resume – Sunday school teacher, an extensive vocabulary, spelling with accuracy (even to this date), an exceptional memory (she can still recite one of her Easter speeches), profound orator, builder of cohesive relationships, a true Christian and prayer warrior.

In concert with my late father, Edward Johnson Sr., my mother was intentional about creating a nurturing, loving environment for her children – Geraldine Haynes, Edward Johnson Jr., Sharlene Williams, Raymond Johnson and me, as well as for children in our neighborhood.

When her older children were young, she was a stay-at-home mother, working intermittently as the older children reached school age.

I can remember my mother taking my baby brother, Raymond, and I to a field where she chopped cotton. I don’t remember exactly where, but we had to ride a bus.

She later worked at a motel and then at a factory that subsequently awarded me a four-year scholarship to college.

As my brothers, sisters and I were growing up, mother taught Sunday school at Hill Chapter Missionary Baptist Church. After helping found Christian United Missionary Baptist Church, she taught Sunday school there until late into her 80s.

Active in several church ministries and in the community, mother received numerous awards and recognitions. In 2018, she was recognized as one of the oldest members at our original home church, Hill Chapel.

Mother believed in honoring our father as head of the home. He was present, involved, sensitive, nurturing, loving, caring and supporting to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She lovingly cared for him through an extended illness until his death in 1985.

During the family celebration of mother’s 101st birthday, she was lauded for the many gifts she has bestowed, including the gift of resiliency.

On that occasion, my siblings and I – individually and collectively – embraced these words of thanks:

“We thank her for the values she instilled in our family, values she has modeled all these years. We thank her for ensuring that we knew the importance of having a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“We thank her for teaching us the importance of prayer and how to pray. We thank her for covering us in prayer and for interceding on our behalves.

“We thank her for being a woman of faith. We thank her for her unconditional love. …”

by Calvin Anderson —

A special legacy is attached to African Americans and the vote. Advancing that right should be made known anew – and boldly – to all Americans. Despite obstacles and suppression tactics, all citizens must exercise the responsibility of voting.

In the coming election cycle, whether by absentee ballot, Early voting at designated sites or on Election Day at your precinct, continue the Legacy – VOTE!

In 1870 the 15th amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted African-American men the right to vote. (Voting rights for women did not occur until 1920). Yet in 1896, just 27 years later, Louisiana passed “grandfather clauses” to bar former slaves and their descendants from voting. As a result, black voter registration dropped from 44.8 percent in 1896 to 4 percent a mere 4 years later.

Any public policy measure that worked that well was bound to be imitated. Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama and Virginia all adopted similar “grandfather clauses.” By 1940, only 3 percent of eligible African Americans in the South were registered to vote in the destructive wake of Jim Crow laws, literacy tests, poll taxes and other such means.

Thus began the modern struggle for voting rights.

In 1964, poll taxes were outlawed with the adoption of the 24th Amendment. A fateful year later, non-violent civil rights marchers – attempting to peacefully march from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL to support voting rights – were attacked by law enforcement officials on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

That same year, Congress passed and President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, prohibiting any election practice that denies the right to vote on account of race. Jurisdictions with a history of discrimination in voting were required to get federal approval for any changes in their election laws before enactment. By the end of that year, 250,000 new black voters were registered.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the first VRA extension. Two years later and on the success of the VRA, Barbara Jordan of Houston and Andrew Young of Atlanta became the first African Americans elected to Congress from the South since Reconstruction. That was followed by Harold Ford Sr. of Memphis in 1974. Today, the Congressional Black Caucus links 55 members.

With bi-partisan support, the VRA improved registration and participation nationally and locally. Extensions were enacted in 1975, 1982 and 2006. Yet, from 2011 to today, there were 18 Section 5 objections to voting laws. Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana enacted photo IDs requirements, cuts to early voting sites and restrictions to voter registration. Tennessee joined in this restrictive action, enacting a photo ID requirement law in 2012.

Then in 2013, a crippling ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court – in Shelby (AL) versus Holder – rendered ineffective the pre-approval requirement for voting changes in affected VRA states. In 2016 and as a direct result, 16 million Americans encountered voting problems, including long lines, inaccessible polling places and strict voter-registration complications. An egregious 1.2 million Americans were unable to cast a ballot because of election administration errors. These obstacles and complications were targeted disproportionately toward eligible voters of color.

There are 4,874,000 eligible population voters in Tennessee, yet we rank 45th nationally in registration (approximately 4.1 million registered voters). Voter-participation research shows that Tennessee usually has approximately 60 percent of its eligible registered voters turn out in presidential year general elections; 25 percent turnout in primaries. By rank among states, Tennessee lands at 49.

The Tennessee Secretary of State has initiated online voter registration and there is a bill in the Tennessee General Assembly to advance voter restoration rights for the previously incarcerated. While these efforts could address some voter registration improvements, much is needed to improve voter participation.

Voting is the language of American democracy. The act of voting validates us as citizens of equal standing and confirms what it means to be an American. The late American Civil Rights Movement icon and Congressman John Lewis called voting “the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society.” This voting right has been gained by blood, sweat, tears and sacrifices against a backdrop of recurring obstacles to the exercise of that fundamental freedom.

This year we observe the anniversaries of the 150th year since enactment of the 15th Amendment, the 100th year of women’s right to vote and the 55th year of the Voting Rights Act. Voting is one of those things in a non-partisan democratic society everyone should agree on. No patriotic adult should want to see or enable any attempts to suppress another citizen’s right and opportunity to vote.

You get to pick your elected officials. Let them know you take voting seriously and that you expect their unwavering support for the free exercise of that right.

Now pending in Congress, HR 4 – the Voting Rights advancement act – establishes a new formula to determine which states and localities with repeated violations must pre-clear election changes. And in January 2021, the Tennessee Restoration bill will be back in the general assembly.

Early voting in Tennessee for the August 6 primary elections is underway and continues through Aug. 1. The general elections are Nov. 3rd.

Register someone; and VOTE!

(Calvin Anderson is president of Best Media Properties, LLC, the parent company of The New Tri-State Defender, and former Tennessee Election Commissioner.)