The Neighborhood History Project
River City Rising
The Neighborhood History Project leaves such a powerful imprint on the lives it reaches that many who get involved choose to find ways to remain involved long after their appointed time and position with the project has come to an end. This project, the result of a partnership between Memphis’ Center for Transforming Communities (CTC) and South Memphis Shalom Zone, The Corners of Highland Heights Shalom Zone, Knowledge Quest and Crossroads to Freedom (Rhodes College), gives young Memphians the opportunity to learn about the communities in which they have grown up; to learn about the neighborhoods in which many of those whom these young students consider to be leaders and heroes have grown up. Through the Neighborhood History Project high school students work as summer interns and, alongside students with the Crossroads to Freedom program, collect historical information about the South Memphis and Highland Heights neighborhoods. All of the information is then placed in the Crossroads digital archive at Rhodes College, where it can be accessed by members of our Memphis community.
It is the process of collecting the information, often through personal interviews, that brings together diverse groups of learners who all seem to walk away from the experience with a deepened sense of pride for the city’s neighborhoods and a strong desire to share that pride with others.
Sumi Montgomery, now a full-time employee with the CTC, applied to be a fellow with Crossroads to Freedom while a student at Rhodes. When she was accepted into the program her driving force to do well was initially tied to this being her very first job. That quickly changed. Her interactions with both the high school interns and community members they interviewed shifted her perspective. The drive to do well was now tied to ensuring that others would be privy to all that she was learning. “I didn’t realize how much history there was in Memphis until I started this project… I saw a whole new side of South Memphis I didn’t know existed there.”
It is the process of collecting the information, often through personal interviews, that brings together diverse groups of learners who all seem to walk away from the experience with a deepened sense of pride for the city’s neighborhoods and a strong desire to share that pride with others.
Sumi Montgomery, now a full-time employee with the CTC, applied to be a fellow with Crossroads to Freedom while a student at Rhodes. When she was accepted into the program her driving force to do well was initially tied to this being her very first job. That quickly changed. Her interactions with both the high school interns and community members they interviewed shifted her perspective. The drive to do well was now tied to ensuring that others would be privy to all that she was learning. “I didn’t realize how much history there was in Memphis until I started this project… I saw a whole new side of South Memphis I didn’t know existed there.”
She speaks fondly of the community elders whose historical accounts were documented for the project: “The passion and love with which they talked about their community…it came across so easily during these interviews. We really fell in love with them.” Sumi says that while many expressed sadness at the loss of landmark buildings such as theatres, once part of the fabric of the neighborhood, they wouldn’t think of moving away. South Memphis is their home and they will always remember the thriving community it once was. “You students are doing some really good work here,” she recalls several of the elders telling her and her team members. They were again reminded of the influential community that once was and hoped that it will someday be again.
Stevion Young’s name came up numerous times during my conversations with Sumi and Kenny Latta, manager of Special Projects for the CTC. He is the intern who was known for his unrivaled passion about the Neighborhood History Project- even before becoming officially involved! Stevion would tag along with friends to meetings and was always eager to help with the camera work and interviews. Yet it was at summer’s end during the Neighborhood History Celebration when his zeal for the project fully came to be. Sumi excitedly shares, “He gave such a moving speech that came out of nowhere. It was phenomenal, we were all blown away. He spoke the same way the elders did.”
He spoke the same way the elders did.
Stevion had spent childhood summers and weekends in South Memphis but didn’t know much about its history until exposed to it by the Neighborhood History Project. “Maybe that’s why people don’t care much about it because they don’t know much about it,” he says with somber tone. Now he is excited with all that’s unfolded before his eyes and is eager to help restore some of that beauty the elders spoke of. Before the project, Stevion says he didn’t see much good. Now he sees Knowledge Quest and other organizations that are helping people in the community, changing things for the better. He also embraces a core principle of the CTC: its focus on asset-based community development, asking those involved, “What assets already exist in our communities upon which we can build?” He wants to be a doctor and someday come back to South Memphis and help rebuild. Stevion pauses then affirms:
“There’s life still in South Memphis. People say there isn’t, but there is.”
Stevion Young’s name came up numerous times during my conversations with Sumi and Kenny Latta, manager of Special Projects for the CTC. He is the intern who was known for his unrivaled passion about the Neighborhood History Project- even before becoming officially involved! Stevion would tag along with friends to meetings and was always eager to help with the camera work and interviews. Yet it was at summer’s end during the Neighborhood History Celebration when his zeal for the project fully came to be. Sumi excitedly shares, “He gave such a moving speech that came out of nowhere. It was phenomenal, we were all blown away. He spoke the same way the elders did.”
He spoke the same way the elders did.
Stevion had spent childhood summers and weekends in South Memphis but didn’t know much about its history until exposed to it by the Neighborhood History Project. “Maybe that’s why people don’t care much about it because they don’t know much about it,” he says with somber tone. Now he is excited with all that’s unfolded before his eyes and is eager to help restore some of that beauty the elders spoke of. Before the project, Stevion says he didn’t see much good. Now he sees Knowledge Quest and other organizations that are helping people in the community, changing things for the better. He also embraces a core principle of the CTC: its focus on asset-based community development, asking those involved, “What assets already exist in our communities upon which we can build?” He wants to be a doctor and someday come back to South Memphis and help rebuild. Stevion pauses then affirms:
“There’s life still in South Memphis. People say there isn’t, but there is.”
Kenny Latta grew up in Memphis, just as Stevion did, but until he returned home after a teaching assignment in New York, their worlds had never crossed. Now Kenny spends his days working with students such as Stevion, learning about a Memphis he only recently discovered. He says that it took him stepping away from the city to appreciate it in a different way- and want to come back. Kenny reflects on a day he was sitting in his New York office and thought “I really want to get back to Memphis and get involved in making Memphis a better place, whatever that meant.” What it meant for him is pulling from his undergraduate degrees in religion and philosophy, graduate degree in Applied Anthropology, and seeking ways to develop communities within Memphis that had irreplaceable foundational assets vital to the very heartbeat of Memphis and its residents.
Through his work at CTC, Kenny realized just how central a neighborhood is to the identity of a city (as a whole); how so many significant moments in our history as a city are tied back to a person or a place in South Memphis.
“I’ve developed tremendous respect for that neighborhood and its strength and resiliency.”
He admits that during his first go-round as a Memphian he lived in a bubble without really understanding or knowing what neighborhoods such as South Memphis or Highland Heights truly had contributed to the city, even the nation. Many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement came from those neighborhoods; without them the trajectory of the movement and the strength infused in the fight for equal rights would not have been the same. Kenny has also found, since working with the Neighborhood History Project, that many students in these very neighborhoods are growing up in a bubble just like he did. And he is working very hard to change that.
“A kid can live an entire life in South Memphis and have no idea of the rich history, having seen only the challenges. Once they understand things happened (in their neighborhood) that transformed our country, their whole attitude towards their place and their role in it changes.”
He sees how the project has changed students like Stevion, whose desire for learning was so strong that he was accepted into the program as an exceptional middle school student, bypassing the high school requirement. Kenny saw how that desire to learn translated into a desire to be present in the community and seek out possibilities for how things could be changed. He saw how Stevion’s peers listened to him and respected his words because they could relate to him, having grown up in the very same bubble he did. Watching these young students’ perspective and commitment to doing good transform, literally, right before his eyes confirms for Kenny he was meant to return home. He learns vicariously through the interns, the interviews and information they collect, the stories they’ve heard. More than he could have imagined.
“I hope (the project) motivates them to continue to come and turn into leaders who will stick around and take pride in their places, their neighborhoods.”
Everyone involved in the project agrees that there are countless more stories to be shared and archived, countless more students eager to learn about the leaders, right here in Memphis, who paved the way for people nationwide to reach the crossroads of freedom. Stevion doesn’t see an end to his involvement any time soon and is excited about the possibilities ahead:
“I want to talk to people about where they’ve been and what they’ve been through. The stories help us all (and) teach us how we should feel about our community.”
To learn more about this life-changing project, please visit www.ctcmidsouth.org.
The Neighborhood History Project currently has a fundraising campaign via ioby. Please visit its fundraising page at www.ioby.org/project/neighborhood-history-project and consider donating before the May 15 deadline.
Through his work at CTC, Kenny realized just how central a neighborhood is to the identity of a city (as a whole); how so many significant moments in our history as a city are tied back to a person or a place in South Memphis.
“I’ve developed tremendous respect for that neighborhood and its strength and resiliency.”
He admits that during his first go-round as a Memphian he lived in a bubble without really understanding or knowing what neighborhoods such as South Memphis or Highland Heights truly had contributed to the city, even the nation. Many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement came from those neighborhoods; without them the trajectory of the movement and the strength infused in the fight for equal rights would not have been the same. Kenny has also found, since working with the Neighborhood History Project, that many students in these very neighborhoods are growing up in a bubble just like he did. And he is working very hard to change that.
“A kid can live an entire life in South Memphis and have no idea of the rich history, having seen only the challenges. Once they understand things happened (in their neighborhood) that transformed our country, their whole attitude towards their place and their role in it changes.”
He sees how the project has changed students like Stevion, whose desire for learning was so strong that he was accepted into the program as an exceptional middle school student, bypassing the high school requirement. Kenny saw how that desire to learn translated into a desire to be present in the community and seek out possibilities for how things could be changed. He saw how Stevion’s peers listened to him and respected his words because they could relate to him, having grown up in the very same bubble he did. Watching these young students’ perspective and commitment to doing good transform, literally, right before his eyes confirms for Kenny he was meant to return home. He learns vicariously through the interns, the interviews and information they collect, the stories they’ve heard. More than he could have imagined.
“I hope (the project) motivates them to continue to come and turn into leaders who will stick around and take pride in their places, their neighborhoods.”
Everyone involved in the project agrees that there are countless more stories to be shared and archived, countless more students eager to learn about the leaders, right here in Memphis, who paved the way for people nationwide to reach the crossroads of freedom. Stevion doesn’t see an end to his involvement any time soon and is excited about the possibilities ahead:
“I want to talk to people about where they’ve been and what they’ve been through. The stories help us all (and) teach us how we should feel about our community.”
To learn more about this life-changing project, please visit www.ctcmidsouth.org.
The Neighborhood History Project currently has a fundraising campaign via ioby. Please visit its fundraising page at www.ioby.org/project/neighborhood-history-project and consider donating before the May 15 deadline.