Mid-South Coliseum: integration article transcripts

              Result of meeting and "picnic" infuriated whites because the building was new
and beautifully furnished and a source of civic pride . Turning point with whites
to get behind the mayor's uncompromising position.
2/25/68 Black leaders met and formed COME, Community on the Move for
Equality. The objectives were justice for strikers and jobs for blacks. Marching
began.
3/18/68 Martin Luther King came to Memphis to address rally. He urged a
general strike and promised to return to lead a march through downtown.
3/21/68 City council adopted a resolution to call for mediation of the strike.
3/22/68 Loeb decided to cut off food stamps for strikers.
3/28 Union talks break off, Dr. King's peaceful march ended in violence with the
death of a sixteen year old looter. King vows to return and lead another march
to prove that nonviolence is still viable.
4/4/68 Loeb, fearing riots, went to federal court to get an injunction forbidding
King's return march. King is murdered on that day.
4/7/68 6,000 citizens meet in Crump Stadium under the slogan "Memphis
cares". The event was carried live on NBC but buried in the Commercial Appeal.
June 11, 1968 At the Mid-South Coliseum Presidential Candidate George Wallace
rally, attendance of 10,000, "eight negroes were counted in the crowd at the coliseum."
(Please note the newspaper did not capitalize Negroes even though it is a proper
name.)
June 29, 1968 At the Mid-South Coliseum PigMeat Markham, Joe Tex, Rufus Thomas,
Percy sledge, The Box Tops, The BarKays and The Intruders
• July 26, 1968 Federal Judge is asked to order Memphis city school officials to
come up with a plan to effectively bring about more complete integration of city
schools in accordance with May 27 US Supreme Court ruling. Attempting to
stop identification of any school as white or "Negro".
• 1969, Commercial Appeal, agreed to yield to black pressure 1969 removed
"Hambone" an offensive cartoon featuring a poorly dressed elderly Negro man
who mouthed platitudes in a heavy dialect.
• By 1978 Memphis was legally integrated. No more separate water fountains,
special "black" days at the public library and zoo, the seats on the back of the
bus. The public schools were integrated with black children in the majority by a
margin of approximately 70 percent to 30 percent. There were black members of
the school board. Although country clubs continued to exclude blacks from
membership, they did begin to allow integrated groups to use their facilities.
Rotary was integrated in 1978 and the newspaper sporadically covered black
social events and activities .