“Memphis vs. Errbody” is supposed to be a simple, galvanizing slogan for community strength and pride. But lately, it may feel more like a news summary of the city’s specific challenges: Policing. Schools. Data centers. Congressional redistricting. National Guard troops on Beale Street.
For Kristen Clarke, general counsel for the NAACP, the city has become “ground zero” in the national fight over voting rights and political power.
Clarke served as the keynote speaker at Saturday’s Freedom Fund Celebration luncheon, hosted by the civil rights organization’s Memphis Branch. She issued an urgent exhortation to the annual event’s mostly Black audience: Everyone must vote.
“We need to vote like we’ve never voted before in each and every election, big and small, up and down the ballot,” said Clarke. “Encourage mass turnout.”
The luncheon, held at Reign Event Venue in Southeast Memphis, showcased the local branch’s work under the theme, “We the People,” while placing strong emphasis on the approaching election, fewer than 30 days away.
Along with Clarke, local branch President Kermit Moore used apocalyptic language similar to Clarke’s to describe the importance of the election and its outcomes, citing the school takeover and data centers and warning that “democracy is at stake.”
“I know we hear the old adage all the time, ‘This is the most important election in your lifetime,’” Moore said. “But I’m here to tell you today, it’s not an adage. Because in Memphis, we are at ground zero. Don’t just think your neighbors have voted. Talk to them. Talk to your family, your friends, your coworkers.”
But Clarke’s keynote went well beyond a speech to get out the vote.
As the former head of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2021 to 2025, she offered a sweeping critique of the current state of federal civil rights enforcement, pointing to the Justice Department’s investigations involving the Memphis Police Department and fair lending practices that she said have been abandoned. But she credited the NAACP and other local advocates for continuing to press for change.
“The Civil Rights Division today is nothing but a shadow of its former self,” Clarke said. “As the federal government turns its back on vulnerable communities and abandons the task of carrying out civil rights enforcement, this is a moment where we really need our local leaders to step into the breach.”
She also cited the NAACP’s fight against SpaceXAI as part of a growing civil rights debate over artificial intelligence and data centers.
“We need to confront the proliferation of data centers,” Clarke said, “and it’s why the NAACP is proud to be fighting back against xAI in partnership with communities here in Tennessee and Mississippi.”
Tennessee, in particular, has been at the center of major voting rights battles, Clarke said, including the recent redrawing of the congressional district that was once anchored by Memphis.
“Memphis has been ground zero,” she said.
The NAACP has sued Tennessee, Clarke said, arguing the new congressional map violates the 14th and 15th Amendments, which include protections for equal rights and voting rights.
“We know what was happening here,” she said. “We know that this was about race and race only. And we face headwinds, but we are not going down without a fight.”
She also invoked Nolan Xavier Wells, the 18-year-old whose death has prompted the NAACP and civil rights attorney Ben Crump to call for further investigation. Clarke said Wells had been looking forward to voting for the first time this November.
“One thing that we can all do is make sure that we, and everyone that we know, go out and vote for Nolan this November,” she said.
A 10-point action plan
Clarke argued that responding to the current moment requires more than defending previous civil rights gains.
“We can’t be on defense all the time,” she said. “We need to create space to be on offense.”
Her 10-point “action agenda” calls for constitutional amendments and reforms at all levels of government:
- Reimagining democracy, including stronger safeguards against abuses of power.
- Considering new constitutional amendments, including an explicit constitutional right to vote and limits on executive authority.
- Supreme Court reform, including ethics requirements and term limits.
- Reclaiming the conversation about racial discrimination amid attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
- Greater local civil rights enforcement as federal enforcement recedes.
- Guardrails around artificial intelligence and scrutiny of the growth of data centers.
- Addressing extreme concentrations of wealth.
- New civil rights laws for challenges and loopholes that existing laws may not adequately address.
- Strong voter turnout in every election, “big and small, up and down the ballot.”
- Finding a lane to help all citizens determine how they can contribute through activism, education, faith communities, the legal system or other work.
“The issues that we face today are large in scope and complicated, and can feel daunting,” Clarke said. “But if we each lean into our skills and our expertise and think about what we can each bring to this fight, collectively, we can overcome this moment.”
‘We are not powerless’
That call for individual action echoed another story told Saturday.
Speaking on behalf of event sponsor FedEx, longtime executive Rose Jackson Flenorl, who serves as the company’s global citizenship manager, recalled becoming the first Black valedictorian of northern Mississippi’s Clarksdale High School in 1975 — but barred from giving the valedictorian’s speech.
The local NAACP recognized her accomplishment with an engraved trophy.
“It represented being seen,” Flenorl said as her husband displayed the prized possession. “It represented being valued. Sometimes the most powerful work happens one person at a time.”
Vickie Terry, executive director of the NAACP Memphis Branch, returned to the luncheon’s “We the People” theme during closing remarks.
“We are not powerless,” Terry said. “We are the people. We have a voice. We have a responsibility.”
But Terry issued a challenge to the critics who believe the NAACP should do more.
“Then you need to get involved,” she said. “And show us what we need to do to make things happen.”
