A month ago, Anasa Troutman stood on this same ground, weeping, inconsolable. Clayborn Temple — a civil rights landmark and sacred space she’d spent years helping restore — was going up in flames just yards away.
“It has been a month of tears, a month of really hard conversations, a month of watching Memphians from all walks of life pull up to this curb and walk up to that wall and wail,” she said.
Standing just steps from the scorched building Wednesday, Troutman, surrounded by hundreds of supporters, shed more tears. But this time, what moved her was a growing chorus of support for the rebirth of Clayborn Temple.
Brent Leggs, senior vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, took the stage during a news conference to announce that a $1.5 million collective grant from the National Trust, the Mellon Foundation, and the Ford Foundation has been awarded to support Clayborn Temple’s stabilization and reconstruction.
Never a doubt about rebuilding
“There was never one doubt that we were not going to rescue this irreplaceable history,” Leggs, also executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, told The Tri-State Defender. “It was just, what’s the strategy? How fast can we move?”
The National Trust has worked with Troutman’s team since 2017, when Clayborn was officially designated a National Treasure. This new grant is meant to fund immediate action: securing the site, assessing structural needs, and jumpstarting long-term planning.
“It’s one thing to say, ‘We’re going to rebuild,’” Leggs said. “It’s another thing to come with money that does just that.”
More than a historic site, he said, Clayborn Temple holds memory, identity, and movement in its walls — especially for Black America.
“These spaces connect us to who we are and who we aspire to be. This is about permanence — making sure our sacred spaces remain standing for generations to come,” Leggs said.
Martin Luther King III: “the place where my father was taken from me”
Standing in solidarity with Biggs was Martin Luther King III, whose father famously rallied striking sanitation workers from Clayborn’s pulpit just days before his assassination in Memphis.
“It is always somewhat of a daunting task for me to return to this city,” he said quietly. “Because for me, it will always be the place where my father was taken from me.”
He spoke with conviction, recalling how Dr. King’s family home and churches had also been bombed. “You’d think in 2025, we’d be a more loving, more engaged nation,” he said. “But apparently, we still have work to do.”
King, joined by his wife, Arndrea Waters King, also reminded the crowd why Clayborn Temple matters — not just as a symbol of Memphis’ civil rights legacy, but as a sanctuary for working-class dignity. He reflected on the pivotal role the church played during the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike, when Black men demanded not only fair wages, but recognition of their humanity.
“Some of our most important workers in all of our communities,” he said, describing the striking men who marched each day wearing signs that read I AM A MAN. “Because if one day — well, certainly two or three days — (sanitation workers) didn’t show up, our cities would be filled with trash. We wouldn’t know what to do.”
That fight for dignity, he said, remains unfinished. “Today, we still owe sanitation workers — wherever they are — a great debt,” King told the crowd. “And places like Clayborn Temple help us remember that.”
A City in Sync: “We Will Rebuild.”
Memphis Mayor Paul Young described the day as both emotional and affirming.
“This is a place that has been at the center of the civil rights movement for many years,” Young said. “Being here today is a powerful statement that we will all work together to make its future even brighter.”
He described a vision for Clayborn’s rebirth — not just as a restored building, but as a sacred gathering space for reflection, dialogue and community. “Whether you’re from Memphis or visiting, I want you to be able to stand here, feel the history and know the story.”
Among other elected officials on hand to deliver remarks: U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen, (D-TN), and Memphis City Council Chair Ford Canale.
“Let me be clear: this act of violence will not break our spirit,” Canale said. “The story of Clayborn Temple is not over. In fact, its next chapter is just beginning.”
“We wanted people to take a piece of Clayborn home.”
As the program wound down, Troutman shared one final story — one that brought her full circle, from grief to grace.
Months before the fire, her team had carefully removed the stained-glass windows as part of a preservation phase. Some of that salvaged glass had been cut into small squares and given to supporters as keepsakes — an invitation, she said, “for people to take a piece of Clayborn home with them.”
She hadn’t expected to see one of those pieces again.
But as she stepped out of her car that day, someone in the crowd walked up and placed one in her hand.
“Raymond, where are you?” she called out from the stage. “He said, ‘I want you to have this, and I want you to keep it forever.’ And I’m going to keep it forever.”
She held it up—light catching in its colored glass, a flicker of what once was and what could be again. She held it aloft as the crowd looked on.
“We will rebuild this building,” she said. “But our real work is to build a dignified future. One where every single Memphian can experience joy, safety, and abundance — no matter what neighborhood they live in.”
She paused, tears catching again.
“I love this city,” she said. “And I’m never leaving.”
