By Ms. Arelya J. Mitchell, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
The Mid-South Tribune
Many of you may remember me as editor of another newspaper which, I in that capacity endorsed Dr. Willie Herenton as Memphis first Black mayor. Dr. Herenton himself can tell you of the hell that went down when we broke the color barrier to give Memphis, Tennessee its first African American mayor. In my capacity as editor of that particular newspaper, we went against the local NAACP, a bunch of prominent Black ministers, some Democrat good-ole Black-boys-and-girls club, and other organizations which in our estimation we deemed to be no more than the Black elites and cliques pushing back on us. We fought and we won. Breaking this color barrier to get Memphis its first Black mayor came about by organizing every Black precinct in Memphis to attend and vote for ONE Black candidate. This occurred in what is now known as the historic African American People’s Convention which still serves as a prototype in how to organize the Black community in a business manner to get done what needs to be done. Those Blacks (and it was all-Black) who attended this convention can attest that it was ORGANIZED on a micro level in the same sophisticated manner as any Democrat and Republican convention. Each precinct with its respective captain conducted this political move to make history. Mayoral Black candidates campaigned and spoke to convention delegates to get his or her vote. Out of that historic convention, Dr. Willie Herenton (Memphis’ first Black school superintendent) emerged as the victor.
This convention was held in the Mid-South Coliseum which has since been demolished and is now the home of The University of Memphis Tiger Football, the Southern Heritage Classic, the Liberty Bowl and other events. Even several White City Councilmen tried to shut down the Mid-South Coliseum from us. Yet, we prevailed.
Even after it was over and Dr. Herenton was the consensus Black candidate, other Blacks decided to dismantle what had been done to break the consensus ‘code’ of having only ONE Black candidate in the Memphis mayoral race to break the color barrier. This meant that even Memphis’ first Black U.S. congressman and a perennial Black mayoral candidate chose to challenge Herenton; therefore, chose to split and splinter the Black vote where we again would not have broken this barrier. Yes, I was among those who helped to remove these spoiler Black candidates from destroying what the African American People’s Convention had accomplished until they got the hell out of way. No brag, just fact. As editor of that particular newspaper, I along with the other African American People’s Convention warriors, knew the mainstream media would and did fight us like there was no tomorrow, and we fought back taking no prisoners.
I preface this editorial now as Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of The Mid-South Tribune to point out back then there was a time to use ‘color’ as a criterion to break the ‘color’ barrier to get Black candidates elected. That time is over. Let us fast forward from the early 90’s to this 22nd year in the 21st Century. What you get now is a slew of Memphis Black Democrats who refuse to get beyond ‘color’. This newspaper has long advocated and strongly editorialized that the Black Vote must not be taken for granted by the Democrat Party which from our observation is not the same party from days of yore, but rather is now the Democrat Socialist Party which refused to put the word ‘God’ in its platform, endorsed BLM (a self-acclaimed Marxist organization which is anti-nuclear Black family), and endorsed CRT which teaches Black children are born oppressed (forever victims) and the White child is born the oppressor. CRT even teaches that math is ‘white supremacist’ (but I digress just a bit). This Democrat Party (aka Democrat Socialist Party) has yet to even speak out against the Black thugs who participate in smash and grab to the point that no self-respecting business will invest a penny in a Black neighborhood. This Democrat Party has yet to speak up in support of hard-working, everyday Black citizens who want safety for themselves and their children. This is a Democrat Party which advocates that Black mothers are to be called birthing persons and Black fathers are to be called non-birthing persons reducing Black parents to no more than livestock to merely reproduce, which harkens back to slave-breeding farms run by Democrat voting White slave-owners.
Now let me get to the point of all this prefacing: Memphis Councilmen Martavius Jones and JB Smiley, Jr. (who continually display that they are 13 eggs short of a dozen) are on the warpath. It seems these two Black councilmen have decided that they should lead a campaign to tell the Memphis Police Department not to provide any type of security whatsoever for President Donald J. Trump during his upcoming June 18 event in Southaven, Mississippi. Southaven is a quasi-suburb of Memphis. Southaven is home to the Memphis Hustle which is the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team’s junior team. If Memphians tip one toe over, they are in Southaven and vice versa for those living in Southaven.
Now, let’s sit down and provide these two jackasses Martavius and JB some of their own hay. Smart-ass Marty and Smiling JB are members of the Democrat Party which advocates Defund the Police, a policy so popular among Democrats that not even one member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and state Black caucus or any other Black Democrat office-holder came out against Defund the Police. After all, why should they risk their own security for Black peasants? They live in safe neighborhoods in fine houses—some, even in white gated communities.
Gee whiz, now these two sophisticated jackasses want to tell the Memphis Police Department how to conduct their business via the Donkey. These two ‘non-birthing persons’—to use the Democrats’ WOKE nomenclature– are introducing a resolution in the Memphis City Council to prevent the Memphis Police Department from providing any security support for a president because his name is Donald Trump and he’s a Republican!
Now, let’s stand up and backtrack to the time the Memphis Police Department provided ample security for the KKK which decided to march on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday and protest Memphis getting its first Black mayor. At that time, I was as I am now publisher/editor-in-chief of The Mid-South Tribune, and we strongly thought that the last thing Memphis needed was the KKK putting on a national March in Memphis where King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, lest we forget. Our protest along with others did not stop the KKK’s March. Remember, this was a national KKK march and organizers sent out word in practically every state for KKK members to show up. We covered this March as the Memphis Police Department protected them as if they were White newborn babes lost in Zululand. Things got so bad that the police had to form a line of linked hands to stop the crowd, and everyone had to go through tight security before being let in to the downtown courthouse vicinity where the Klan would speak. It got worse when the Klansman speaker began praising Hitler and the Holocaust, saying that Hitler did the right thing to slaughter six million Jews and that the number should have been higher. This time our Jewish brethren and sisters moved in on them as if Hitler had been reborn and they were going to slaughter him. The police moved in, and if you’ve ever seen Klansmen Clorox whiter than their sheets, this was the day. I’m yelling for our photographers and reporters to get closer. Of course, later, I got teargas along with others and even some Black councilmen who had come down. The Memphis Police moved in and surrounded the Klansmen to protect them from an equally mad Jews and Blacks. And the Klansmen happily let the police force escort them down the courthouse steps, off the street, into safe haven. I walked alongside a couple of them with policemen between us and them. Many of these policemen were Black; yet, they protected the KKK. To reiterate, the Memphis Police Department had no problem then in providing high security for the KKK. This speaks volumes on how professional the Memphis Police Department is. Some years earlier, I was in a limousine with Secret Service, interviewing Bill Clinton as the Memphis Police escorted him to the airport. So, if he had been a Republican would that have been reason for President Clinton not to have security? Memphis is known as the Capitol of the Mid-South which includes the Tri-State area of Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas; therefore, it is not unusual at times for these states to cooperate with each other on various occasions.
We have always respected our police officers who put their lives on the line when we would not even go near the line. In any profession there are bad apples, but the Memphis Police Department is comprised of good men and women who want their families and communities to be safe. This is why we wholeheartedly support the numerous Walks Against Gun Violence and other programs sponsored by the Shelby Crime Commission under the guidance of its president, Bill Gibbons. These Walks are by mostly Black citizens who want to take back their neighborhoods mainly from Black thugs and for a Walmart or Walgreen’s to be safe in these neighborhoods where seniors and others go for their prescriptions. The Memphis Area Neighborhood Watch and the Memphis Police Department have been instrumental in helping to spearhead these Walks and provide security for them. Of course, these everyday hard-working citizens don’t get the publicity of the Black thugs.
Now back to the subject at hand: These two Black Democrats in the forms of Mr. Jones and Mr. Smiley have begun hollering those words—you know, ‘Republican,’ ‘racists,’ ‘white supremacist,’ and last but not least, ‘Trump’ to rile up Black Memphians and strong-arm the police department. Anything to keep the focus off real problems plaguing Black Memphians such as high gas prices, high food prices, high clothes prices, high crime and no baby formula. See, it’s easy when Black Democrats just bitch instead of finding solutions to real problems. Mr. Jones and Mr. Smiley are so obsessed with Donald Trump and his popularity that if they were apt to see a white dog walking, they’ll yell out ‘racist’ and ‘white supremacist.’ The poor white dog would stop and bark, ‘what did I do?’ And these two jackasses would have no answer, other than yelling loud enough to get the black dogs riled up to start a race riot over essentially nothing. Like most Black Democrats, Jones and Smiley’s modus operandi is emotionalism. They can sit down and write a resolution, but not legislation and policies to get something constructive done in the Black community, one of the poorest communities in Tennessee in spite of Memphis being the largest city in Tennessee. This type of 1960’s Black leadership which should be defunct in the 21st Century continues to Willie Lynch Black Memphians.
Just as it took some time to break the ‘color’ barrier to get our first Black mayor, we know it will take some time to cleanse Memphis of Blacks who run on being Black and Democrat and nothing else. Just as it took some time to break the ‘color’ barrier, we know it will take some time to get candidates who use their brain cells and not their skin cells.
The Democrat Party is losing the Black Vote. We vow to keep this trend going, and that means voting out Black Democrats such as Mr. Jones and Mr. Smiley and replacing them with strong Black candidates with common sense who are committed to God, family, community, and country.
End
The Mid-South Tribune blog 