SCLC Interim President Dr. Byron Clay (fourth from the right) and others lock arms in a show of support and strength during a luncheon that was one of many activities featured during the historic group’s annual convention in Memphis Aug. 1-4. (Photos by Earl Stanback)

During the course of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference national convention in Memphis (Aug. 1-4), Dr. Dwight Montgomery, president of the local chapter, conducted a special strategy meeting to discuss the possibility of “major nonviolent direction action for social change in Kennett, Mo. and in the state of Arkansas.”

On Wednesday, originally the last scheduled day of the convention, Montgomery and other SCLC stalwarts were marching in Kennett.

Rev. Dr. Dwight Montgomery, head of the Memphis Chapter SCLC, shares thoughts with new University of Men’s basketball coach Josh Pastner (left) and Bank of Bartlett’s Harold Byrd.

Bishop E. Lynn Brown, presiding bishop of the Second Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, speaks during the SCLC national convention. Also pictured (l-r) Senior Bishop William H. Graves and SCLC Interim President Dr. Byron Clay.

Change and adjustments were part of what punctuated a fluid national convention. The convention headquarters, luncheons, gala and workshops were originally scheduled for the Peabody Hotel but moved to the G.E. Patterson Family Life Center after fundraising fell short of its $300,000 goal. Saturday and Sunday conference events were held at Greater Mt. Moriah Baptist and New Sardis Baptist Church.

Throughout the 4-day convention, Dr. Byron Clay, SCLC interim president and CEO, stayed on message: “SCLC is still on the battlefield,” said Clay, during remarks at the G.E. Patterson Family Life Center in Memphis.   

Clay’s sentiment was echoed again and again by national speakers such as SCLC Chairman of the Board Rev. Raleigh Trammell and board member Bishop E. Lynn Brown of Cincinnati, as well as by Montgomery and other participants.

Formed in New Orleans in 1957, SCLC’s founders include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and those fresh from the struggle now known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The intent was to redeem “the soul of America.”  So, 41 years after Dr. King’s death in Memphis, SCLC delegates were here to celebrate “The Legacy, The City, The Man, The Vision.”

“America would not be what it is today without Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” Clay told those gathered at an Aug. 3 luncheon, which combined the Women’s Luncheon and Human Rights Luncheon (originally scheduled for Aug. 4) into one event.  

“America needs SCLC. We are committed to continue the good fight as good soldiers,”  said Clay, a Louisiana native and longtime board member who became interim president in 2008.

‘I came to do God’s will’

Cynthia Willard-Lewis stood in for U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters as keynote speaker for Monday’s luncheon. Elected to the New Orleans City Council in 2000, she also served seven years as a Louisiana state representative.

Willard-Lewis, an experienced orator, former Miss Black Louisiana and Zeta Phi Beta member, spoke about the need for more young people in SCLC. She reminded those present that the work of the civil rights movement was done by young people and that youth need mentors.  

Speaking to an audience with a healthy mix of youth and adults, the Xavier graduate said that before young people go into a world where they will be told that they are not cute enough or good enough, the job of adults is to remind them that “God has a plan for you.”

She wove the words of MLK (and the Bible) with challenges to delegates.  “‘I came to do God’s will,’” she said, quoting Dr. King. “But how many of you came to go to the museum… to visit friends? Did the movement come for a short period or did it come for a century?”

The combined luncheon event also included award presentations.  SCLC recognized April 4th Foundation founder Johnson Saulsberry with its top honor and presented Community Service Awards to four others – Dr. Steve Gaines of Bellevue Baptist Church, Pastor Steve Dodson of Christ United Methodist Church, Tina Birchett of Grace Magazine and Dr. Stacy Spencer of New Direction Christian Church.

‘Alive and well’

Although adult turnout seemed low for a national conference, SCLC delegates came from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and elsewhere to celebrate the legacy of Dr. King and the historic election of the nation’s first African-American president.

“The SCLC is alive and well,” said board member Joseph Boston of Greenville, N.C., warning that just because Barack Obama is president does not mean that discrimination has disappeared.   

Sylvia Barnhill, another North Carolina resident, said she has seen more prejudice at the hospital where she works since the November 2008 election.

Battlefield strategy

The agenda of the special strategy meeting conducted by Memphis Dr. Montgomery looked at situations in Kennett, Mo. and in the state of Arkansas.   

According to Pastor Lee Eggerson of Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Marianna, Ark., U.S. Postal workers in his state are suffering discrimination. He said direct action such as a nonviolent march is warranted. Eggerson said postal employees in West Memphis took their complaints of a hostile work environment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) without success.

Pastor Nathaniel Ellis and his wife Hester Ellis said the need for the Kennett, Mo., march against police brutality and racism is rooted in what happened to their 24-year-old daughter, Heather, three years ago.  

According to the Ellises, the then-Xavier University student came to the attention of police after she made an off-hand comment about ignorance and education at the local Wal-Mart that insulted the store manager and escalated.  

Her parents say she was charged with misdemeanors – disturbing the peace and assault of a police officer – and that those charges gave way to felony charges.

Now it seems, the original charges, which were dropped, have been upgraded and reissued as felonies, according to the Ellises.

The Kennett, Mo., newspaper, the Daily Dunklin Democrat, quotes court documents in which police said were responding to a call about a woman who had become belligerent, angry, and hostile, cursing Walmart employees.

The newspaper reported that Heather Ellis was arrested as part of scenario that included her refusal to cooperate and threats to harm officers if they tried to make her leave the premises. They reported that she resisted arrest, striking one officer in the mouth.

Supporters of Ellis refute the version of police and Wal-mart employees.