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 Get Your Community Service Hours Through JJP!!!


The Juvenile Justice Project of Mid-South Peace and Justice Center is looking for adults with court ordered community service who have a passion for the future of our youth. Get all of your hours taken care of through canvassing, PTA/PTO meetings, teaching young people their constitutional rights, and so much more!

We are also looking to build a youth council for young people interested in influencing the future of Hickory Hill. If you are in middle or high school and have a passion for the future of your neighborhood and community we are looking for you. We hope this council will be a combination of youth who have been involved with the juvenile justice system as well as other interested teens. This is a great way to get service hours and make a difference.

The JJP is working with Juvenile Court to build networks of churches and organizations to address our high number of youth offenders and the lack of opportunities for court ordered community service, specifically in the areas of Hickory Hill & Bartlett. We believe that youth are the solution, not the problem so we work with these teens to help them find their place in their​  communities through transformative service opportunities. Studies continue to show that punitive measures often lead to a continued life of crime as opposed to seeking more rehabilitative opportunities, MSPJC firmly adheres to the idea of working with those most affected by the issues. Help us build a better Memphis and partner with our youth.

If this interests you contact Faith Pollan at faith@midsouthpeace.org or at 901-725-4990.

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5 Ways to Give the Gift of Peace & Justice This Winter Holiday Season!

The end of the year is quickly approaching. It is a time for reflection, and a time for recommitment to the movement for Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice. As we close out 2017 (and what a year it has been), many are finishing up last minute shopping and charitable giving. Many of us are  looking forward to taking some well deserved time for rejuvenation, to prepare for the work ahead, so that we can be energized, despite the challenges we know 2018 will bring.

There’s still time to give a few gifts that don’t necessarily come in bows or festive wrapping. Here’s a list of 5 gifts you can give Peace & Justice before the end of 2017.

1. Give The Gift Of HOPE, Help Feed the Movement!

Each and every week, members of Homeless Organizing for Power & Equality (HOPE) meet at Memphis Center for Independent Living (1633 Madison Avenue) to fellowship, share their struggles, and plan ways the group can raise the issues of those most affected by Memphis’ unaddressed housing crisis. For many groups and organizations offering free food at meetings is a nice bonus for their attendees, but for H.O.P.E. it is a necessity, due to the fact that most often the meal offered at H.O.P.E. meetings may be the only meal they will have that day.

You can help by committing to making a monthly donation of  prepared foods one of our weekly Wednesday meetings. Don’t have time to cook or buy prepared foods and bring them to our meeting space? We also accept monetary donations towards this cause. As always, all forms of donations are completely tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Also, BIG Thanks to Marcos Pizza on Madison Ave for feeding the movement once a month by providing pizza! If you would like to discuss how you can offer support to HOPE please call Tamara @ 901-254-5964 or email tamara@midsouthpeace.org.

2. Send the Mayor a Christmas Carol For The Cause

Mid-South Peace & Justice Center has been working for months to get answers from the Strickland Administration concerning a database that may contain your protected healthcare information.
The City now says that there is no written policy on MPD’s practice of placing “hazard indicators” or “premise advisories” on addresses at certain locations that MPD deems “hazardous.” Last week, we placed “Community Hazard Indicator” placards at the headquarters for both the Memphis Police Department and the Mayor, declaring them HAZARDS for failure to be transparent and accountable to the public.

The City should release a policy that governs this practice and ensures that the public knows how their private information is being used by the department.

Make sure the Mayor doesn’t forget this over the holiday break! Just copy & paste the christmas carol below in an email to jim.strickland@memphistn.gov . If you’re feeling particularly festive, call and sing it to him: (901) 636.600:

We Want A Hazard Policy For Memphis
(to the tune of I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas)

We want a Hazard Policy for Memphis!
Only a detailed policy will do!
No talking points–no hyperbole–
A detailed Hazard Policy is what we need to see!

We want a Hazard Policy for Memphis!
To protect our private health-care info too!
There’s not a policy, but there really ought to be,
Release one for the sake of account-a-bility!

We want a Hazard Policy for Memphis!
We’ve been waiting far too long it’s true!
To ensure there’s no abuse, we need to know the truth
Release a policy at once, no need to be obtuse!

Release a Hazard Policy for Memphis
a process for appeal, We’d like to see!
We want a Hazard Policy for Memphis,
Cause We deserve account-a-bility!

3. You Can’t Go Wrong With Pizza!

Image may contain: pizza and food

Pizza Rev is helping Mid-South Peace & Justice Center RAISE SOME DOUGH!
On Saturday, December 23rd, 20% of your restaurant purchases will support MSPJC if you just mention Mid-South Peace & Justice Center at the register.

This fundraiser is valid at both Memphis Pizza Rev locations, but during lunch hours at the Wolfchase location, we’ll also be selling NECESSARY TROUBLEMAKER ($25) and OTHER MSPJC T-SHIRTS ($20).

The Wolfchase Pizza Rev is across from the Wolfchase Mall. You can find it in between AT&T and Chick-fil-A — in the same shopping center as Best Buy.

The address of the second Pizza Rev location is 6450 Poplar Ave.

Invite your friends to this event on facebook!

4. Rosa ‘Round The Corner! Give The Gift of Tickets!
Join the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center this January as we celebrate 36 years of people-powered change, with a keynote address from organizer, journalist, scholar, and former Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Rosa Clemente.

Rosa has been a prominent figure in Black and Latinx struggles throughout her long career. From her central role in the world of hip-hop activism, to her research on Black and Brown liberation movements, to her Vice Presidential run in 2008, Clemente understands that we should be fighting for social change on all fronts. According to legendary rap artist and activist Chuck D, “Rosa speaks from the heart with truth, fire, and passion. She is one of this generation’s most important political voices and community organizers.”

On January 13, 2018, help us kick off the new year at First Congregational Church as we continue to do what we’ve always done: engage, organize, and mobilize for a better Memphis. Tickets are on sale now–get yours TODAY!

Get Tickets TODAY: https://midsouthpeace.org/event/living-legacy-nonviolence-2018-anniversary-gala/

Become a Sponsor: https://midsouthpeace.org/sponsor-living-legacy-nonviolence-2018-anniversary-gala/

5. Give the Gift of Justice!

Have you considered giving a donation to Mid-South Peace and Justice Center in honor of those on your gift list? When you do, we’ll send your loved one a personal holiday card to inform them of the contribution you made in their name along with information about MSPJC!

This holiday season choose the gift that gives back!

Use this link for easy and purposeful holiday shopping:midsouthpeace.org/donate

Simply follow the link above, choose a donation amount, choose the in honor of option, then input the recipient of the holiday card’s name and address. It’s that easy!

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Everyone please take a moment to watch the video, Puerto Rico Rising, sent to us by Rosa Clemente about the current state of the families in Puerto Rico post Hurricane Maria. As of Dec. 4th, the death toll has been reported that over 1,000 women, children, and men have died POST Hurricane Maria, and that number is still expected to rise due to the lack of aid, support, and accurate reporting.

Putting Puerto Rico Back On The Map
Puerto Rico is experiencing a devastating humanitarian crisis. However, the mainstream news media has all but neglected the story, with data from Media Cloud, a database that collects news published on the Internet every day, showing that the devastation in Puerto Rico is getting relatively little attention from digital and cable news outlets compared to its coverage on Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. (Read More)

The Current Narrative
In Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.4 million, the people are hungry, homeless and dying. The situation is dire, and, per San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, with many towns without potable water, communication or transportation to major cities, it is only getting worse. Despite this reality, the federal government and mainstream news media alike have alleged that the situation is getting better, that it is a “good news story,” as Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke described it just last week.

There is nothing “good” about the disaster plundering Puerto Rico. This is a crisis of many facets: humanitarian, environmental, economic and political. (Read More)

What’s Missing
There is a public health crisis due to the precarious conditions in hospitals and the threat of epidemics stemming from contaminated water. Cities, towns and neighborhoods outside the metropolitan area have been abandoned. What is missing from many of those reports is coverage from the western part of the island and concrete information of plans and immediate, achievable initiatives to move the country ahead, as well as an ongoing plan. Explanations are necessary for why relief has been so slow and insufficient.

The Team
We have put together a team of Puerto Rican and Latinx journalists and media professionals to tell these unreported stories from an independent lens, to investigate why efforts to reach, house, feed and clothe Puerto Ricans are unsuccessful, to highlight the conditions in the western part of the island, to hear the people’s response to the slow and inadequate aid from the U.S. and to obtain information on plans for relief and rebuilding. (Read More)

What Will We Deliver
Together, the team will travel the small island and speak with the people devastated and the local organizations offering relief to guarantee several deliverables:
• We will work with various outlets, including The Intercept, Truthout, mitú, The Root, GRIT Tv, Rising Up and more, to push news items about unreported municipalities
• Make an educational and social media toolkit
• Produce a 15-minute short film on the crises, which will also act as a fundraising tool for a feature-length project
• Produce a full-length documentary, to be produced under Clemente’s Know Thy Self Productions, looking at the island’s progress, or lack thereof, over time and how the people’s politics about its colonial status may shift as a result.

How can YOU help? 
Watch the documentary centering the community of Loiza: Puerto Rico Rising, share it with your network of friends, family, and/or community partners, and donate to support the work of the journalists on the ground bringing awareness to the devestation and need of the families in Puerto Rico.

Video: http://pronthemap.com/

Donation Link: https://www.gofundme.com/reportreimaginerevive-puerto-rico

https://midsouthpeace.org/2017/12/08/2471/

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This Wednesday, 3PM, MPD Headquarters (170 N Main), join us as we stand with MSPJC member, Reginald Johnson, who has been patiently and persistently seeking answers after MPD labeled him as a “hazard.”

We’ve been telling you for weeks about MPD’s practice of placing “hazard indicators” on people’s home addresses without notification or due process for appeal. MSPJC member, Reginald Johnson discovered that his home was placed “in the hazard” after he filed a complaint against officers who unlawfully entered his home, beat and arrested him in 2016. MPD has admitted to using the practice, but both MPD Director Rallings and Mayor Jim Strickland have refused to answer this simple YES-or-NO question:

“Does MPD have a policy on their practice of using hazard categorizations?”

If they don’t, then they SHOULD–and if they do, they should release the policy to the public so we can put this issue to rest and get Mr. Johnson the peace he deserves.

What is a HAZARD?

Good question, and one that would better answered in writing by MPD and the Mayor’s administration, but as we understand it, the practical purpose is for dispatch to be able to provide responding officers with information about potentially dangerous situations at a differnet locations, which makes sense in theory, but without a detailed policy to govern this practice, it has great potential for misuse. We believe that in this case, the indicator was placed on Mr. Johnson’s home as a form of extrajudicial retaliation after he filed a complaint against officers for excessive force.

What we’re asking for:

(1) MPD release an official written memo stating that any hazard categorization be lifted from Reginald Johnson’s name and home address.

(2) If there is a policy outlining the process and criteria for MPD’s use of hazard indicators, it should be made available to the public so that those accused have recourse.

In the meantime, contact your officials, amplify our demands:
Mayor Strickland: jim.strickland@memphistn.gov, (901) 636-6000
MPD Director Rallings: Michael.Rallings@memphistn.gov, (901) 636-3700

https://midsouthpeace.org/2017/11/13/2467/

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Meeting THIS Weekend! MBRU at Indie Memphis! Outreach with Rhodes!

The Memphis Bus Riders Union is a grassroots organization fighting for accessible, affordable, and equitable public transit in our city. Our members are people who depend on MATA and supporters, and our work is essential for highlighting the racism and classism present in Memphis’ grossly inadequate bus system. 

Wanna learn about transit justice? Come to our meeting THIS Saturday, November 11, from 12 to 2 PM! This month, we’ll hear from Innovate Memphis about long-term plans for MATA, update folks on our 31 Firestone outreach, and talk about the work of riders unions across the country. We’ll meet at the Cossitt Library, 33 S. Front Street–you can get there on the #4, 12, 13, or 39 bus. Hope to see you there!

This past Friday, MBRU did a service plunge with the Kinney Economic Justice Program at Rhodes College! We took a ride on the new 31 route and talked about our work and the current state of Memphis transit. Kinney is the center for community service at Rhodes, and students work on a wide range of issues–from Hunger & Homelessness to Mentoring & Education. We look forward to working more with Rhodes students in the future!

We also got to see ourselves on the big screen at Indie Memphis! Robert Rowan followed one of our co-chairs in the middle of the 31 Crosstown campaign for his short film, “Get Off the Bus.” The whole night featured short films by Memphians that speak to the social forces affecting our city. Thanks for taking an interest in our fight! We’ll let people know if the film becomes available for public viewing.
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MBRU holds meetings on the 2nd Saturday of each month. If you have any questions, or you’re interested in joining our work, contact organizer Justin Davis at justin@midsouthpeace.org.

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Welcome Cassandra & The Whole Child Project!

Help us welcome our newest MSPJC Organizing Coordinator, Cassandra Smith!

Cassandra M. Smith is a Memphis Native and entrepreneur. She graduated from the Academy of Cosmetology and acquired her Cosmetology Licenses in1996 from the state of Tennessee and received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Memphis in May 2010. She worked as a licensed hairstylist as she started her own business Bowen 2b Beautiful and worked for Memphis City Schools after volunteering as a room mother in her oldest son’s first grade class. From 1998 to 2010 she worked as an educational assistant, from 2010 to 2015, she worked as a Parent Counselor and Community Liaison for Memphis City Schools and Gestalt Community Schools. From 2015-2017, she worked as an Office manager for Gestalt Community Schools. She recently joined the MSPJC team as a Neighborhood Organizer supporting the Whole Child Strategy in Klondike Smokey City.

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The vision of the Whole Child Strategy is to make sure all children in Shelby County are on track to graduate from high school college or career ready. The Whole Child Strategy is focused on laying a strong foundation for children’s futures in the neighborhood that support them. Because Whole Child knows that children face considerable out of school barriers that keep them from learning, Whole Child is giving additional resources and partnering with service providers such as Communities in the Schools TN at Memphis, Family and Safety Center, Agape Child & Family Services, Seeding Success, Mid-South Peace & Justice Center and City Year Memphis in order to get children to school each day and ready to learn.

There are three priorities that the project focuses. Attendance, Discipline and Neighborhood Cohesion. To make this vision a reality, Whole Child is asking for the collaboration of parents, students, neighborhood residents, representatives from the school cluster, (Caldwell-Guthrie, Humes, and Manassas), business leaders/local community organizations and faith-based leaders to form a Neighborhood council. The council is responsible for identifying the needs of their neighborhood and creating a plan to address those needs. To extend extra support for the implementation of Whole Child, an implementation team made up of staff members from Seeding Success and Midsouth Peace and Justice Center that is comprised of a Facilitator, Meeting Specialist and Organizer who will work daily in the neighborhood that they serve.

The role as the Organizer from Mid-South Peace & Justice Center is to represent the MSPJC’s strategy and its mission to support the Whole Child Strategy; recruit a diverse range of participants to serve on the Neighborhood Council, ensuring representation from all neighborhood stakeholders; work closely with the Neighborhood Facilitator and Neighborhood Meeting Specialist from Seeding Success to facilitate the development of the Neighborhood Council through capacity building and training opportunities; execute a plan to engage, develop and assist local leaders to build long-term community engagement in Klondike Smokey City.

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MATA Public Hearing! MCIL Food Drive!

The Memphis Bus Riders Union is a grassroots organization fighting for accessible, affordable, and equitable public transit in our city. Our members are people who depend on MATA and supporters, and our work is essential for highlighting the racism and classism present in Memphis’ grossly inadequate bus system. 

This past Saturday, MBRU organizer Justin Davis spoke on a panel at our local Environmental Justice Conference, hosted by the Sierra Club and University of Memphis! The panel was about the intersection of labor unions and environmental justice, and also featured leaders from Sierra Club and United Campus Workers. We also had a great time at our monthly general meeting, where we talked about rider outreach and MATA’s new proposed service changes for this December, which you can view here.MATA will be presenting these changes at MATA Headquarters (1370 Levee Road) on Thursday, October 19 from 4:30 to 6 PM. There are timing adjustments planned on 15 bus routes, including the #42 Crosstown, 56 Lamar, 12 Florida, and 34 Walnut Grove. If you can’t make it to that public hearing, you can also mail comments to MATA Headquarters or send them an email at publiccomments@matatransit.com. We want to be sure bus riders are represented in this process, so remember to give MATA your feedback!

Finally, we’d like to give a shout out to our friends at the Memphis Center for Independent Living, who are accepting donations of non-perishable food items until December 15th! You can bring them to their office (1633 Madison Ave) on weekdays between 9:30 AM and 4:30 PM.

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MBRU holds meetings on the 2nd Saturday of each month. Our next meeting is November 11th, from 12-2 PM–keep an eye out in the newsletter for our meeting location! If you have any questions, or you’re interested in joining our work, contact organizer Justin Davis at justin@midsouthpeace.org.

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MPD Offers Semantic Defense on “Hazard List” -Sign The Petition!

Last Thursday, Memphis United & the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center held a press conference after we learned that anti-violence advocate, and grieving father, Reginald Johnson was told by police that he had been placed on a “hazard list” after filing an internal Affairs complaint concerning a 2016 incident when he was unjustly beaten, maced, and arrested by officers after he called them to assist a man who knocked on his front door after being shot. We called on Mayor Jim Strickland and MPD to release a memo that Reginald be removed from any type of “hazard list” and release a policy outlining the criteria for categorization as a hazard, as well as the process for removal of such a characterization from one’s name or home address.

Many community members attended to demand justice for a man who has received ill treatment from MPD since he spoke out to media about the lack of answers and communication concerning the still-unsolved murder of his son, Samuel Johnson, in 2014. Unfortunately, MPD and the Strickland Administration have chosen to respond in the form of semantic games, saying, “there is no hazard list.” It may be technically true that MPD does not maintain a single, compiled list of individuals categorized as hazards, but that is NOT the issue, and both MPD and the Strickland administration know it. They go on to admit that MPD DOES categorize certain individuals’ addresses as hazards.

“Hazards are placed on locations were [sic] an officer has experienced some type of incident which has been identified as a possible hazard for officers. A few examples: locations where prior barricade situations have occurred, violent and/or combative mental consumers, a combative party, someone who has fought with officers, etc,”

Mr. Johnson doesn’t fit any of those categories. Apparently, his home was categorized as a hazard after one of the officers he filed a complaint against accused Mr. Johnson of making a threat against his wife and child, an accusation that is completely without merit or substantiation. Since then, Mr. Johnson has experienced squad cars driving by his home, shining lights into his windows at night, and back in February of 2017, when his daughter called to file an non-emergency accident report from his home after her car was struck in a hit and run, the dispatcher asked, “Is Mr. Johnson there?…is he okay?” His daughter, confused,  asked, “y’all know him?” to which the dispatcher responded, “Yeah…we do.” Four squad cars showed up with lights blazing while one officer took the accident report.

Mr. Johnson has met with officials at every level of government to resolve this issue. He has met personally with Deputy Chief Shearin, Deputy Director Ryall, Police Director Rallings, and even Mayor Strickland. For months, he has been promised that they were “working on it” and yet the hazard categorization remains on his home and MPD has not released a policy outlining the hazard categorization. On August 15, The Mid-South Peace & Justice Center made a written inquiry on Mr. Johnson’s behalf, asking them to lift the categorization and release the policy. The only response we received was from Deputy Director Ryall stating, “Thank you, Mr. Garner.  I appreciate you providing this information.  We have been communication with  Mr. Johnson and will continue to do so.” Yet, nothing has changed.

This amounts to a form of extrajudicial punishment for Mr. Johnson exercising his right to file a complaint in an attempt to hold officers accountable. Mr. Johnson has not been found guilty of any crime. The accusations made by one officer against Mr. Johnson have never been substantiated, because it never happened. This means that anyone who speaks out against harassment or misconduct may be subject to retaliation without standard due process protections like notice of the accusation and the right to a hearing.

Director Rallings’, and especially the Mayor’s failure to act on this issue isn’t just disappointing, it’s unacceptable, signaling a complete lack of leadership and accountability which has become commonplace in this administration. The Mayor’s office told Mr. Johnson that they don’t intervene in police matters. If this is true, then what do we have the Mayor for? The Police Director is not an elected position like the County Sheriff—he serves at the will and pleasure of the mayor who appointed him. When civilians can’t get an appropriate response through MPD’s bureaucracy, it is incumbent on the Mayor to ensure that issues such as these are resolved in a fair and timely manner.

We’ve heard Strickland and Rallings offer endless talking points about their commitment to transparency and accountability in government, and yet here is just one more example to the contrary. Semantic games and empty talking points are no substitute for governance. We urge the public to continue to contact their Mayor and demand that MPD release a written memo, removing any “hazard” categorization from Mr. Johnson’s name or home, as well as make MPD’s policy on hazard categorizations public. Reginald Johnson deserves peace and justice, and we as a governed people deserve leadership that is fair and accountable, not only in word, but in deed.

Please sign this petition demanding the removal of Mr. Johnson from any “hazard” categorization, and the release of a public policy outlining the criteria and process for removal of such a categorization: SIGN THE PETITION

We are also asking that you continue to call your Mayor & your Police Director, and tell them to do the right thing.
(1) MPD release an official written memo stating that Reginald Johnson’s name and home address be removed from any “hazard” categorization.
(2) Release a policy defining this categorization and the process whereby individuals can be removed from the categorization as a “hazard”
Mayor Strickland: mayor@memphistn.gov, (901) 636-6000
MPD Director Rallings: Michael.Rallings@memphistn.gov, (901) 636-3700“

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Juvenile Justice Project Update!


Memphis United: Know Your Rights Theatre has had a busy couple of weeks! Faith Pollan, Paul Garner, and Kyamran Mohammad spent the day with Mr. Crowder’s government class at Soulsville Charter School this past Thursday. We were so impressed with how much his students already knew about their constitutional rights!

Saturday we got to visit the youth at Capleville Church. Their youth pastor, William Parker, frequently engages them on conversations around racism, gender equality, and more. Capleville Church is also a proud partner of the Juvenile Justice Project. It is always an honor to work with them.

Most of us, even us “woke” folks, have been well schooled on what we think our rights are when it comes to encounters with police officers. Cop dramas and movies have informed many of our beliefs about the way police interact with the public, and often this has shaped the way we engage with law enforcement in real life either consciously or unconsciously. Memphis United wants to clear up these misconceptions so that we can all be successful when we encounter law enforcement.These unique workshops use interactive theatre to educate young people about their rights and how to better communicate with law enforcement. Participants become the actors playing out real-life scenarios without the real-life consequences of an encounter with law enforcement. We run these workshops for free and we’ll come to you. We love visiting schools, youth groups, clubs, etc.

If you want us to do a workshop with your organization reach out to Faith Pollan at faith@midsouthpeace.org
You can follow us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MemphisUnited/ and instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mphs_united/ 

Memphis United and the Know Your Rights Theatre workshop is a project of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.  To sustain our work, please click here. 

Want to help transform your community? Join our monthly giving program #MyMSPJC Sustainers!