Past Events

February – April 2020

Civil Rights: Stories to Inspire Change

Led by University of Memphis students, the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change is releasing a short video series focused on civil rights history. The video series, Civil Rights: Stories to Inspire Change, will release weekly on the Hooks Institute’s YouTube page and run for seven consecutive weeks. Each week, a UofM student will share a story of people who worked to create a more just society, proving that it is possible for ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Subjects to be featured and the UofM undergraduates who will lead the videos include:

• Tom Lee, March 10  – Jeremiah Jones, Journalism, senior
• 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike, March 17  – Thomas McDaniel, History, senior
• Orange Mound, March 24 – Carl Bledsoe Jr., African and African American Studies, sophomore
• WDIA, March 31 – Amanda Campbell, African and African American Studies, senior
• First Beale Street Baptist Church, April 7 – Jazmyne Wright, Political Science/African and African American Studies, freshman
• Mason Temple, April 14 – Anna Weiner, History and Psychology, sophomore
•  Burkle Estate, April 21 – Makayla Bommer, Biology, freshman

The series is produced by Nathaniel C. Ball, Hooks media and programs coordinator, and Rebekkah Mulholland, Hooks graduate assistant, with executive producer Daphene R. McFerren, executive director of the Hooks Institute.

University of Memphis students who are interested in participating in future videos are encouraged to contact Ball at ncball@memphis.edu.

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March 5

Stax Music Academy: From Soulsville to Italy

Reception 5:30 PM | Viewing of Film 6 PM
Thursday, March 5, 2020 | University Center, Bluff Room (304), University of Memphis, 499 University St., Memphis, TN 38152

Join the Hooks Institute and WKNO-TV Memphis for a screening of Stax Music Academy: From Soulsville to Italy with panelist, Hooks Institute executive director Daphene McFerren. This film follows talented young musicians from Memphis as they perform to audiences in Italy the songs of Soul Legends Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave and Aretha Franklin. A question and answer period with members of Stax Academy about the school’s mission and the trip will follow the viewing.

This event is free and open to the public. Convenient parking is located at the public parking garage on Zach Curlin.

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Feb. 3 – Mar. 3, 2020

“Uplift the Vote: Everyone Should Have a Voting Story” Exhibit

M–F, 2–4 p.m. | Sat. Feb. 15 and 29, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Fayette County Public Schools, Central Administration Building,10425 Hwy 76 S. Somerville, TN 38068

The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis and Fayette County Public Schools hosted the experience “Uplift the Vote: Everyone Should Have a Voting Story,” an exhibit on the importance of our most basic civil right – the right to vote. The exhibit showed through photographs, documents and reflections, how African Americans’ demand for the right to vote in Fayette County, Tenn., in 1959 helped to create a more just and inclusive nation.

Wreath Laying Ceremony

To commemorate the Fayette County activists, Leadership Fayette placed  a wreath on the south side of the Fayette County Courthouse, 16755 Hwy. 64 in Somerville, Jan. 23 at noon. The public was invited.

Guest Speakers

Daphene McFerren, Hooks Institute executive director, was the guest speaker at noon on Feb. 15 and Feb. 29. On Feb. 15, a reception for the public followed her talk.

Sponsors

The exhibit’s sponsors included Leadership Fayette, the Somerville Police Department, The Bank, Fayette County Public Schools, AARP, Print Solutions and the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change.

Photograph, © Art Shay, John and Viola McFerren leading protectors to the Fayette County, Tennessee Courthouse, March, 1965.