Posted in a private group; so am sharing without attribution. Fantastic, inspiring story about one of the Tennessee Three🙏

"When I was a young organizer, we would often sit in MCS (Memphis City Schools) board meetings, even when we had nothing pressing on the agenda, to listen and observe. In those days, public comments came last, which meant if you wanted to say something you were sitting in a 3 hour meeting into the night in order to do so. This often culled many a poorly planned or not determined speaker. Often by the point they’d be called it was 10 PM and the three minutes they were about to get didn’t seem worth it anymore.

As the meeting wore on it always thinned and it was usually me, a few reporters, and staff. This particular night I looked over and noticed a young man who was sitting and waiting to speak. We didn’t often get young people who came and spoke in those days and I was very interested in what he was going to say. He was the very last of the public comments called which meant it was nearly 10:30 by the point he got to speak.

Once he got to the podium and started talking the room completely shifted. This young man was from Mitchell High School and he wanted to know why his school wasn’t respected enough to have textbooks students could use. He explained he was going to college and the credits that Mitchell offered wasn’t even enough for him to qualify for most prestigious schools. He challenged the board to answer for why they had such low expectations for his school and his community and how those expectations were reflected in the resources they allocated. He pushed them in a way I had never seen another public speaker do. I was amazed. Once he was done I gave him a standing ovation.

From there, that kid got some things in motion. Books were distributed. People paid closer attention. I went to go speak with his dad who was a pastor and I never forgot him speaking about intentionally moving into New Chelsea and sending his child to his alma mater because he believed in investing back in the communities that raised you. I remember telling him, your kid is going to change the world, and he said, that’s the hope.

That kid is an adult now and that adult just got expelled from our house floor making national news. I stand with Justin J. Pearson. I stood with him when he was 17 and I stand with him now. And I can tell you one thing, he has been unstoppable since 2012, and that ain’t changing any time soon."