Several speakers at Monday's oath of office ceremonies for the newest seven members of the now unified 23-member Shelby County Board of Education referred to the fact that it was 50 years to the day that 13 African-American children integrated Memphis City Schools. On Sunday, our own Linda Moore delivered a fine project on what has come to be remembered as the Memphis 13, and one of the schools merger transition commission members, Daniel Kiel, debuted his oral-history documentary on the Memphis 13 on Monday.
Rev. LaSimba Gray, who gave one of four prayers, was the first, talking about children who "without vote or voice obeyed their parents" so that the city "set sail into the uncharted waters of desegregation." Gray, who actually had strongly opposed MCS (now 85 percent black) surrendering its charter to force consolidation with the now mostly-suburban SCS (about 38 percent black), was more than just implying a connection. He and many others who packed the MCS auditorium (a reception was later held on the SCS side of the office complex) used words like "unified" and "unity" over and over, voicing their hope that schools merger would bring the community closer together.
In his prayer, Gray said in part: "Here we are now 50 years later at another historical moment, another historical date, another historical crossroads. Two school systems will be made into one."
Temple Isreal Rabbi Micah Greenstein followed with an even more explicit prayer for unity, saying that "quality public education for the 85 percent of students who rely on public education is a religious imperative." Later, he prayed that the board members would "transcend the political and rally as one to create the unified community You want and we need."
That nobody over the entire 90-minute ceremony referred directly or indirectly to the movement by cities in suburban Shelby County to explore opting out of the unified system by creating their municipal school districts -- or a network of municipal districts (Clay Bailey has this update today) -- could be seen as either polite or naive. Of the many ingredients that will be stirred into the politics of municipal districts, one of them will certainly be over diversity.
School diversity will also be one of the key legal components -- though federal courts have become more conservative, precedent falls heavily against changes in educational structure that would create more segregated schools (some opponents of consolidation even used this argument, saying merger would trigger middle-class flight from suburbs and therefore undermine the notion of "unity"). Another key in any legal battle over the municipal districts will be whether President Obama wins re-election in 2012. A Democratic justice departments would likely react much differently than a Republican justice department to claims the municipal school districts would in effect be allowing a more segregated school structure in Shelby County.
The closing prayer, from pastor Noel Hutchinson, who was a finalist for one of the new board positions, did allude to more work neededing to be done to create real unity: "When we leave here we pray that suburban and urban residents will walk together for the sake of their children."
One of the merger transition team members, Collierville real-estate developer and former Shelby County Commissioner Tommy Hart, told me last week that he wants that group to create a list of benchmarks for what it would consider success in the short-term and long-term. High on that list, Hart said, is this: "Creating a system to where those in the suburbs don't reel there is a need for a different system. I think they are expecting more of the same and they are doubting Thomases."
Rev. LaSimba Gray, who gave one of four prayers, was the first, talking about children who "without vote or voice obeyed their parents" so that the city "set sail into the uncharted waters of desegregation." Gray, who actually had strongly opposed MCS (now 85 percent black) surrendering its charter to force consolidation with the now mostly-suburban SCS (about 38 percent black), was more than just implying a connection. He and many others who packed the MCS auditorium (a reception was later held on the SCS side of the office complex) used words like "unified" and "unity" over and over, voicing their hope that schools merger would bring the community closer together.
In his prayer, Gray said in part: "Here we are now 50 years later at another historical moment, another historical date, another historical crossroads. Two school systems will be made into one."
Temple Isreal Rabbi Micah Greenstein followed with an even more explicit prayer for unity, saying that "quality public education for the 85 percent of students who rely on public education is a religious imperative." Later, he prayed that the board members would "transcend the political and rally as one to create the unified community You want and we need."
That nobody over the entire 90-minute ceremony referred directly or indirectly to the movement by cities in suburban Shelby County to explore opting out of the unified system by creating their municipal school districts -- or a network of municipal districts (Clay Bailey has this update today) -- could be seen as either polite or naive. Of the many ingredients that will be stirred into the politics of municipal districts, one of them will certainly be over diversity.
School diversity will also be one of the key legal components -- though federal courts have become more conservative, precedent falls heavily against changes in educational structure that would create more segregated schools (some opponents of consolidation even used this argument, saying merger would trigger middle-class flight from suburbs and therefore undermine the notion of "unity"). Another key in any legal battle over the municipal districts will be whether President Obama wins re-election in 2012. A Democratic justice departments would likely react much differently than a Republican justice department to claims the municipal school districts would in effect be allowing a more segregated school structure in Shelby County.
The closing prayer, from pastor Noel Hutchinson, who was a finalist for one of the new board positions, did allude to more work neededing to be done to create real unity: "When we leave here we pray that suburban and urban residents will walk together for the sake of their children."
One of the merger transition team members, Collierville real-estate developer and former Shelby County Commissioner Tommy Hart, told me last week that he wants that group to create a list of benchmarks for what it would consider success in the short-term and long-term. High on that list, Hart said, is this: "Creating a system to where those in the suburbs don't reel there is a need for a different system. I think they are expecting more of the same and they are doubting Thomases."
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