On January 14, 2012 more than 800 people joyfully crammed into the sanctuary at First Congregational Church to celebrate thirty years of work at the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. It was by far our largest gathering yet, which can mainly be attributed to our amazing keynote speaker, Prof. Noam Chomsky. As Prof. Chomsky sad to a reporter from the Commercial Appeal, the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center is “carrying out King’s actual work and actual concerns.”
We cannot think of a more appropriate quote to synopsize our work today. We were after all founded on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in order to carry forward the work that he and his peers and forerunners began before us. Indeed, we do stand on the shoulders of so many past heroes that have come before us.
One of those heroes, Mary Ruth Robinson, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the event. In addition to recognizing our past heroes we were able to honor our current ones. Josephine Alexander, who recently stepped down as the coordinator for the GrowMemphis program, received the first annual Golden Pitchfork Award for her work not only to till the soil for justice, but to raise hell when necessary as well.
The evening was also enriched with dance performances by the Performance Arts Network and Bridging Souls Productions, a photo exhibit by Mary Ruth Robinson, the Global Goods pop-up store, a delicious meal provided by Just for Lunch and much, much more.
We cannot thank our amazing community, the volunteers that made the evening possible, and most of all our members for making this work possible. We especially want to thank our sponsors for the evening United Healthcare, Rhodes College, First Congregational Church, St. Patrick Catholic Church, Marriott Hotels, Bartlett Art and Printing, Bridging Souls Productions, Christian Brothers University, Performance Art Network, David and Carol Ciscel, TN Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, Janice Vanderhaar and Ed Wallin, Underground Art, Memphis Flyer, Bluff City Backsliders, Just for Lunch and Interfluency Translation+Culture.
If you are not already, please take a moment to consider becoming a member of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. We are only able to do this work because of the generosity of time and resources of people like you!
You can view all the photos from this evening on our Flickr stream here. Please also take a moment to enjoy Prof. Chomsky’s talk: