August 4, 2025 • 58 mins
Episode Notes My guests include MSCS Board member Michelle McKissack. It has been quite a year from the education perspective and now that another year of school is beginning it’s time to assess and look forward. We talk expectations, County Commission issues, potential state takeover and more. The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis connects the Mid South with nonprofits, individuals and initiatives making an impact and change in our community. Veronica Jamison joins me to talk about Black Philanthropy Month and its support of Black led nonprofits who help to make Memphis strong. Finally, there have been many who are troubled by how the criminal system works in our city and why it seems to be so unequal and even broken. Josh Spickler is the Executive Director of Just City who recently announced a $50,000 community bail fund effort that will help non violent offenders to keep from spending so long behind bars thus giving those an opportunity to reclaim their lives in a clogged and overcrowded system. That and more Monday, 6 pm on WYXR. Also, the wyxr app, Tunein, Facebook Live, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. It’s time to talk!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Real. It's real. It's real talk.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
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It's real talk.
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It's real talk. It's real. It's real talk. It's real.
It's real talk. It's real, it's real. It's real talk.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Jill, Welcome to real Tell your real host, Jill, watch
your wife.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's real.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
It's real talk.
Speaker 6 (00:53):
And here we go. Here we go on this Monday
evening in the city. It is the four day of August.
It's August. I thought I would say that just to
myself because time is flying so fast and it's only
four months left in the year after this. Well, anyway,
it is six o'clock straight up, and that means it
is time. We're in All New Live and you know,
(01:18):
in whatever Real Talk Memphis. I am your humble host.
My name is Chip Washington. It is great to be
here this evening. Have you enjoyed the nice, on summer
like weather we've had for the last several days, Temperatures
in the eighties, low on the humidity factor. It is
(01:39):
just absolutely been loving and all of us, I'm sure,
are taking advantage of it.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
I hope you took advantage of it.
Speaker 6 (01:45):
Over the weekend, got out and enjoyed some beautiful, beautiful weather.
We're going to see it slightly. We're in the eighties now,
Mitte Wepper, but we're going to get back into the
nineties here pretty soon. We're gonna get into the nineties
probably by Wednesday and heading into the weekend, and it
(02:05):
looks like nineties load to mid for the next week
week and a half with very little rain. So I
hope you enjoyed what we had while we had it.
But again, welcome to the broadcast. They glad to have
you with us this evening, and we have a good
show as always. We hope that you stick around and
(02:26):
hang out with us tonight. We're gonna have some good conversation.
We're actually gonna have an in studio guest. We don't
have many of those, but we will have one a
little bit later on in the broadcast. Now, you can
find this show a variety of ways. Of course, we
are live right now on the radio ninety one point
seven WYX are on the FM side. You can catch
(02:49):
us there. You can also catch us on the WYX
our app. You can also find this show on the
tune in app, and we are live streaming the show
tonight on face book live, so if you want to
go over and check that out, you can. You can
do that as well. Uh, and then the next day
or so once the show post, you can listen to
(03:09):
it on the YouTube. And as we are a podcast
and we are a podcasts, you can find us wherever
it is you get your podcasts. You know, if you've
never listened to this show, or you've never seen us
live or listen to us live or whatever, and there's
always another opportunity to do that, and that is the podcast.
Lots of folks are doing podcasts. We're doing one as well,
(03:32):
so check it out. As far as our guest listen tonight,
Michelle McKissick, Memphis and Shelby County school board member.
Speaker 7 (03:41):
We'll be joining me in just a few minutes.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
We hadn't talked to Michelle in a while, and I
find it apropos to do so on this first day
of school. Students back in session today in Memphis and
Shelby County. So we'll be talking to Michelle about a
few things coming up in just a few minutes. A
little bit later on, we'll be speaking with Ronica Jamison.
She is the vice president of Philanthropic Services for the
(04:05):
Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, and of course they do
amazing things and helping all of us citizens here in
Memphis who are doing good things in our community. So
we're going to be talking with her about some initiatives
and some things that are going on with the Community
Foundation of Greater Memphis. And a little bit later on,
(04:28):
we're going to be speaking with Josh Spickler. Josh is
the executive director of Just City, and that is an
organization you may have heard of. They are trying to
come up with ways to change our criminal justice system,
if you will. And last week at the end of
the week he had a press conference organization did about
(04:50):
a bail fund, a fifty thousand dollars bail fund that
they are initiating are kind of moving forward with in
reference to a recent prisoner that died at a two
on one popular, So he's going to talk about that
there are too many offenders, low level, nonviolent crimes, if
(05:12):
you will, that are sitting in two on one popular
and have been sitting there ever since they got arrested.
I mean you're talking weeks and months and and and
a lot of that. So he's trying to alleviate that
back up or that backlog if you will. So he'll
be in studio with me in the second half hour
to talk all about that. So that's the rundown of
(05:32):
the show. We help you stick around for it this evening.
Now we are in a brand new month. August is here,
and you know, each and every Monday we always like
to celebrate you, especially if you were born on a
particular day. And uh yeah, today is no exception to
(05:53):
that rule. It is August first, and we have plenty
of birthdays to talk about, but I can't do that
until I say hit it brand. Happy birthday, Happy birthday,
going out to the following votes, Happy birthday to Marty Miller,
doctor Nikki Gates Golden celebrating her birthday today. Happy birthday
(06:15):
to Barbara Jones. To Wanda Peardle. If that last name
sounds familiar, Pearle, think of Chicken. Yeah, longstanding establishment here
in memphisis to Wanda's birthday today. Happy birthday to Riseland Cicely,
my old brand from television. Brad Nightguard is celebrating his
(06:36):
birthday today.
Speaker 7 (06:38):
Happy birthday to.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Wendy Nicholson and to Rita Lewis. So Happy birthday each
and every what are you born on August first? And
we hope that this day has been filled with fun
and laughter and all of us here at Real Talks Memphis,
we look to be with you next year for your
next trip around.
Speaker 7 (07:01):
Thank you, Brian.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
So, before we move into the news and notes, a
couple of the depths are to report. I don't know
how many of you remember the TV show w KRP
in Cincinnati. That was a show about the radio station
way back in the eighties and Lannie Anderson one of
the stars of that show. She died last day or so.
(07:27):
She was seventy nine years of age. She was one
of the stars of that series. Pretty funny back in
the day. And we caught word late this afternoon, or
at least I did, anyway, that Julian Bolton. Many of
you are familiar with Julian Bolton. He is a well
known attorney in this town. He transitioned today a bit
of a shock in terms of in terms of that
(07:50):
and once I found that out this afternoon, and for
many of you as well, really nice guy, really really
really good guy. And again yeah, he he transitioned today.
I did not get an age on him. But for
each of them. May your memories always be a blessing.
(08:10):
So today, as I stated a minute ago, was the
first day of school for Memphis and Chevy County students.
And along with you know, coming in and senior old
friends and getting excited about a new school year, many
of you came into the we don't want to see
your cell phone rule. It's a law now, by the way,
(08:33):
and if you have a cell phone, you are to
keep it out of sight. It's supposed to be put away.
You are not allowed to pull it out or use
it under any circumstances. And that is like the rule
for every school in the district.
Speaker 8 (08:51):
Now.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
You know, I don't know that we see much of
that in the elementary schools, but yeah, you middle schoolers
and you high schoolers. I know you guys wake up
with the phone on your ear and you go to
bed with them on your ear as well. But yeah,
during the school day that is for learning and edumacation,
is that I like to say, And yes, keep those
cell phones stowed away if you If you don't, you're
(09:13):
going to face us some disciplinary action. And of course
one of the things, of course that nobody wants to
do is to take your cell phone from you and
put it away from you as well.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
So don't make them visible.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Don't keep them visible because they will be taken by
school officials. Okay, So if you didn't know that, and
I don't know how anybody didn't know that, but if
you didn't know that, you know it.
Speaker 7 (09:35):
Now.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
In other news, authorities are still looking for Austin Drummond.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
Now who is that?
Speaker 6 (09:42):
He is the man accused of a quadruple murder in
Dyer County last week. You remember, first, the baby was
found in the yard of a resident in Lake County,
just sitting there. Come to find out that four people
that were found dead were directly associated with that child
(10:03):
by means of being its mother, father, grandmother, and uncle.
And they were all found dead. And so the law
enforcement folks, the TBI, have identified Austin Drummond, age twenty eight,
as a man accused of these crimes. Now, over the weekend,
the TBI arrested two individuals in connection with this case
(10:27):
as accomplices, and this afternoon they arrested a twenty three
year old female who has been labeled and accompliced after
the fact. In all of this as well, mister A.
Drummond that should be considered very armed, very dangerous. He's
armed and very dangerous. Rather, he was last seen in Jackson, Tennessee,
(10:51):
on Wednesday, and early this afternoon, law enforcement cordon off
a two mile area very close to the Union University
out there, and they thought they may have seen him
or got information that he might have been out in
the woods. They had drones flying around, they had helicopters
flying around, They barricaded streets the whole nine yard. So far,
(11:14):
to this point they have not found anybody or not
found him as of yet. So again, be on the
lookout for this guy because he is accused of killing
four people last week in a very very heinous and
terrible crime. I'm going to take a break and when
we come back, we're going to kickstart this broadcast. It's
(11:35):
the first day of school and I have our good
friend Michelle McKissick, school board member is going to be
joining me. We're going to talk about a number of things.
This is real talk, Memphis. I am chip glad to
be here, glad to have you out there on this
beautiful Monday evening in the city.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
Don't go away, We'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
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Now back to more Real Talk with Jib Washington's.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
And welcome back to Real Talk Memphis on a beautiful
Monday evening in the city.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
Chip with you.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Glad to be here and glad to have you aboard
and glad to have my next guest. She is one
of my favorites. Uh and uh, I've known her for
a very very long time. And you know, today is
the first day of school. Was the first day of school,
and I wanted to have her on to talk about
some school related issues. Please welcome to the show, school
Boy member Michelle McKissick.
Speaker 8 (13:59):
Hi, Michelle, Hi, Chis, how are you.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. It's great to see
you now. She told me during the break that it's
a big day. It's a big day in the McKissick
family because the daughter is starting high school today.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Yeah, a little miss Bliss as they call her. Bliss's uh,
ninth grader going into what going into She stepped into
it today, her first year, first day of high school. See,
I'm all this tongue time.
Speaker 7 (14:24):
Yes you are.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
You're very excited for Bliss. You're very excited for your daughter.
And uh and and and what we are we saying
with what school she's going to?
Speaker 8 (14:32):
Yeah, Proud White Station High School, Spartans where I graduated from.
My three sons all graduated from there.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
Following absolutely shout out to White Station High School. There
you go, I have to they had to put that
all in there. Absolutely that. Well, listen, that's that's It's
great to have you with us. And of course a
lot going on continually and still I saw you recently
on Behind the Headlines, you and one of your colleagues
talking about some of the issues at hand. And of course,
(15:00):
of recent the Shelby County Commission has been having conversations
and we thought there was going to be a vote
in reference to changing the school board elections to the
regular county election schedule, which would be next year. And
of course, for several school board members who were elected
(15:23):
in twenty twenty four, which was last year, if this
thing were to pass, it would cut those terms basically
in half. And of course this has generated a lot
of conversation, and I guess, before we get too far
into this, what is your take on all of that.
Speaker 8 (15:40):
Well, I was at that County Commission meeting last week
when they decided to delay the vote, and I want
to apply with the County Commission for doing that to
really just take an even deeper dive than they already
have been in listening to the community, listening to board
members as well. And making a very very tough decision.
I was glad that they were being thoughtful about that,
(16:03):
or even more thoughtful, But it's something that I'm torn over,
to be quite honest with you, because I understand they
have built the mindset of holding school board members accountable
for what they believe that perhaps maybe they aren't at
this time. But at the same time, this is something
that I'm concerned if it's our county commission overseeing school districts, right,
I'm concerned about it isolating it to just one school
(16:25):
district within this county. People need to remember there are
several others, I think with like six or seven total
school districts within Shelby County and from you know, Germantown, Bartlett, Colierville, Millington, Arlington,
Lakeland and so including MSCs. So that's my only concern
that it's just isolated to the school district.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Now, you know, this law was offered up at the
State House in Nashville by a couple of members up there,
and I guess you know my one of my biggest
concerns in reference to this is, once again it seems
to me like we're moving forward on the elected official
side of things with the County Commission with not really
(17:06):
paying a lot of attention to the will of the
people one way or the other.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (17:11):
This is something that they had completed atom totolomists, you know. Uh,
they could do what they wanted to do in terms
of this.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (17:20):
But I know, GA Representative Ja Hardaway got up and said, well,
wait a minute, you know, might we need to slow down,
put the brakes on a little bit about all of
this and maybe get an opinion from the Attorney General
to see if this is even lawful or legal. Now,
I have spoken to a couple of your other colleagues
who who said that, you know, they don't think it
(17:42):
is and and this could this could this if if
they decided to move forward in this way, this could
lead to a loss suit potentially in reference to all
of that. So you know, we're taking a very critical
uh situation, and we could be making it worse, couldn't we.
I mean, if they decided that they want to move
forward with all of this. Now, I can understand the
(18:02):
term limit part of it. I get that, and I
think most people understand that as well. However, you know,
my first thought is give the people a right to
make a decision and maybe put a referendum on the
ballot or something.
Speaker 7 (18:16):
I just wanted to get your thought about all that.
Speaker 8 (18:18):
Well, that was the concern that was, as you said,
mentioned by some of my colleagues several other people about
how when the County Commission and the City Council were
determined to be term limited, the public decided that via
a vote via referendum. And so that's what is another concern.
And you know, as far as the term limits, I
(18:39):
think everyone is okay with saying, hey, we you know,
we need.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
To move forward.
Speaker 8 (18:43):
Actually, one of the first people that actually this vote
would impact more than almost any other boarder or yes,
it would cause them to have the option to run again,
but that would mean that it would bring an end
to my tenure on the school board because I'm coming
toward the end of my second term and since I
felt like I was just getting my sea legs, so
to speak. But I'm always gonna serve this community in
(19:06):
whatever capacity. But that's the concern. It's like, you know,
is it being fair and balanced? And I'm not debating
whether or not the County Commission is completely within their
purview to make this decision and I know there's been
a lot of talk about holding war members accountable and
not being response to the public. So it's just a
lot's happened and a whole lot of time, short amount
(19:31):
of time, and so I just I wish everything would
have slowed down. I think everything's been moving way too
fast since last December when this really kind of hit
a fever pitch.
Speaker 7 (19:40):
Yeah, absolutely that.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
And you know, it just doesn't seem to you, like
you're right, it doesn't seem like there's any settling here.
There's always I mean, there's always something going on. Now
we're in the middle of a we're starting a brand
new school year. We have a new superintendent, interian superintendent
of education who's got to get his feet with you
know as well up good points.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
Now.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
You know, if they were to move forward with this,
uh and you said you're coming to the end of
your second term, but it would be it would be
cut short as well. Uh, And that experience aspect of things,
because there's a couple of you on there that who've
been around for a while who understand how this how
this train moves.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (20:17):
That would that could be very very detrimental.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
And that's why I keep saying to myself, people need
to slow down, take a breath and pause and really
understand the ramifications of all of this.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Would you have an issue because you know, we have
this quote unquote possibility of a takeover first of the
year when they get back in session, would you have
a problem with the County Commission. I think one of
the proposals was to have them oversee you all, you know,
as a body as well or or what exactly are
your thoughts about that.
Speaker 8 (20:50):
As far as the County Commission or the state renewing
their efforts to take over.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
The school district.
Speaker 8 (20:55):
Yes, I'm definitely not in favor of that. This is
the largest school district state and there's been a lot
of good that's also transpired in this school district. Has
not all been this horrible, awful news. Of course, there's
always room for improvement and growth, but this school district
is dealing with something that no other school district in
the state is dealing with, the level of poverty. It
(21:16):
is so concentrated here in Memphis, and that's what impacts
a lot of the outcome of the performance. Not that
students who have a high knee cannot be academically excellent.
They absolutely can, but there are just so many challenges,
so many hurdles that you have to jump over and
address before you can even start addressing the academic part
(21:37):
of teaching a child. And we have to make sure
they're fed, that they have coats in the wintertime, and
in some cases that they even have power on in
their homes. So it's all of that that plays into
it that I had had a front row seat to
for the last several years and just really have learned
so much about what impacts a child's learning. You know it,
(22:00):
but when you see it in real time up close,
it really just it breaks your heart and it has
an impact and you understand better why the scores are
where they are right now. Plus, believe it or not,
folks think, you know, COVID is over with, but we're
still being impacted by COVID nineteen and the impact that
had on children learning.
Speaker 7 (22:19):
So you're talking here, So you mentioned brought us some
good points.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
You brought up a lot of factors that people might
not necessarily think about in reference to all this.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Now they didn't know before.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
They know now you're a fighter, and you know you
you fight for what you believe is right, and you
have every sense the last year's a situation. And now
you know, I I guess, I guess I wonder if
the County Commission seems so attached now all of a
sudden to you all, I mean making critical These are
(22:51):
very important and critical decisions. And I couldn't and I
just couldn't even I couldn't even begin to see how
this could be as impactful is I don't know that
they think they don't they understand how impactful this could
possibly be, should they make that decision, should they make
that move in the future. And now I'm gonna go back,
just for a second, back to what happened with doctor
(23:12):
Vegas last year. There was no concern whatsoever, Uh, to
the to the will of the public. Uh. You you
had a front row seat to all of that. And
I mean it was absolutely there was no concern. And
I don't think that anybody can argue that.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (23:30):
And yeah, absolutely, and and and and and they went.
Speaker 6 (23:36):
Ahead and moved forward with this with this decision. Now, Uh,
you know, we're we're looking at the same thing again
by saying, well, we're a body of however many I
think there's thirteen county commissioners and and we can make
this decision one way or another. Once again, uh, Michelle,
And you tell me if I'm wrong. The public seems
(23:57):
to be overlooked in this process. Now right now, there's
a temporary stop sign because they have to sort of
get their ducks in a row, which they didn't do
when they brought this up in the first place.
Speaker 7 (24:06):
In my opinion, but.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
This to me reflects once again the lack of consideration
for the general public. And I don't know how you
feel about that, but I mean, I'm curious to know.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
Well, I believe that in this case, perhaps and I
can't speak for any county commissioner, but that they were
elected by the people, so perhaps they believe that they
are speaking for the people. Certainly that was the case
for maybe that's what some of my colleagues saw on
look forward when they really pushed hard and made a
(24:42):
decision that impacted this school district. And I didn't support
that decision. But at this point, I'm focused on here
we are at a new school year, and how do
we just move forward. I can't continue to look in
the rear view mirror, and that is my job. That's
what I am tasked with as a school board member
of how to make things better for the school district,
(25:04):
for the students, the families of the school district. So
that's what I'm focused on. I'm gonna let the other
folks know it's their turn to make that decision, and
I hope they do listen to what the community wants.
That's what we are all here for, is to serve.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
The public educationally speaking, Michelle, what are the challenges that
you as a school board member are looking at, you know,
as a whole in terms of our school district. They
are all well, there are always metrics, there are always
things that you look forward to in a new school year,
new challenges and things like that. What are some of
the challenges that you see that that you would really
(25:40):
like the board as a body to address this year
in terms of our.
Speaker 8 (25:44):
Schools, you know, just the stability. I think that's what
our district needs more than anything else. It has been
a bit of a rollercoaster quite honestly for the last
few years, and that I think that can potentially have
an impact on our education who are doing the job
very hard every day and Superintendent Interim Superintendent doctor Richmond
(26:07):
did unveil his academic plan and platform of how to
go about stable lize in the district, So I'm hopeful
I saw elements of it that I was pleased with,
where that there is a lot of support for new
teachers so that they don't have to figure everything out,
they can truly just hit the ground running when they
get into the classroom. They have lessons plans that have
(26:27):
been sanctioned by the district from top educators, and that's
just something that I really want to emphasize that. I
read something in the Memphis Flyer the other day, was
the editor's letter, and she mentioned in there about how
this was a subpar school system, and I'm like, you know,
those types of phrases really bother me because I know
there are amazing and excellent educators and I know that
(26:50):
the light that happens outside of our school doors, that's
what impacts inside the school doors. And I use my
own children. They all went to their zoned elementary school
down to elementary and at the time my oldest was there,
they were put homes with still open. You know, that's
a you know, now defunct public housing development, and these
kids were coming into the exact same school building being
(27:11):
touched by the exact same, you know, teachers, but it's
their lived experiences outside of this that impacted their test scores.
Because I'm like, you know, they my children didn't have
to think about anything but going to school. They were fed,
they were clothed, they you know, slept, they had power
on none of those things. So all those teachers had
to do let's educate them. Then we had children where
(27:33):
I personally bought school supplies and school uniforms and kept
a clothes closet at Downtown Elementary for children who did
not have that level of support because of the challenging
financial environment that they were coming from. Memphis is a
high poverty city. That's what impacts our education. So I'm
here to say, how can we support our children? So
(27:54):
that's why I'm hopeful every new school year. I loved
the beginning of a new school year. I'm always full
of hope of how we can help all of our children.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Well, absolutely that, and you're right, and it doesn't it doesn't.
It doesn't help you. We can't ignore what the problem is,
but we do need to be more involved in the
process of educating our young people and getting them to
the place where they belong. Well, congratulations to you and
congratulations to your daughter for starting high school. And and
of course we will be keeping a very close eye
on what happens with the Memphis Chevy County school Board
(28:25):
all and others as time moves forward. Michelle McKissick, school
board member, Thank you, my friend, for coming on the
show tonight.
Speaker 7 (28:33):
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 8 (28:34):
Thank you, Chip. Always a pleasure being with you.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Talking to you soon. Okay, there you go, ladies and gentlemen.
There's a few from somebody who knows best. And you know,
we can't hide a run away from the challenges that
we face as a city in our community. But at
the end of the day, how do we get our
children to the place that they need to be. How
do we help those who are in unfortunate situations? Those
(28:57):
are questions that we need to address on a daily
bits and we need to keep in mind as well.
Thank you to Michelle McKissick for joining. I mean, let's
take a break and when we come back we will
continue on this Monday ride. We'd like to call Real
Talk Memphis. Don't go away. There's more to come.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
If you like real talk. Here's the way you can
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Get Real Talk on the tune in mo app under
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more Real Talk with Chip Washington.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
It's real, it's real, It's.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
Real, And welcome back to Real Talk Memphis on this
Monday evening in the city, a beautiful Monday evening at that.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
Welcome back to the big broadcast.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
Chip with you and my next guest works for an
organization that flat out gets done, the Community Foundation of
Greater Memphis. I mean, they provide so much help for
so many groups and organizations and nonprofits out there, connecting
folks together to make the Mid South strong as it
(31:53):
should be. And my next guest is the vice president
of Philanthropic Services for the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis.
She is Veronica Jameson and Veronica's great to have you
on the show.
Speaker 7 (32:06):
Welcome to Real Talk Memphis.
Speaker 8 (32:09):
Thank you, Jip.
Speaker 11 (32:09):
What a generous introduction. I appreciate that. I'm glad to
be here this evening.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Well, listen, you know the greater you know to me,
the Mark of a successful organization is you just continue
to do what you do for so long a period
of time and helped so many people along the way
that we almost take take it for granted every now
and again. And that's why I think it's good to
(32:34):
bring out, you know, folks who are really doing that
work on a daily basis. And I know that this
has to be heartfelt, you know, to be to work
for this organization. I really think you have to have
a heart for others. Now, how long have you been
with the Community Foundation?
Speaker 11 (32:53):
You know what, I can't believe I'm even close to
saying it, but it'll be four years in October?
Speaker 7 (32:59):
Is that right?
Speaker 11 (32:59):
It'll be four years? And you're right, it is hard work.
It's hard work. You have to absolutely love what you
do and love this community and show up for this community.
And I appreciate you, Shane and a light.
Speaker 8 (33:11):
Now.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
You know, one of the things that I looked at
when I was checking things out, you know, in terms
of the organization is August and August is and I
absolutely did not know this, but August is Black Philanthropy Month,
and I thought that that was pretty intriguing and I
wanted to find out a little bit about that, but
(33:32):
that's all about how you all prepare for that and.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
What goes on.
Speaker 8 (33:35):
Oh.
Speaker 11 (33:36):
I love that you stumbled across it. And that's the
exact reason why we're stepping a bit bolder and more
forward this year. You know, National Black Philanthropy Month has
been a thing since twenty and eleven. It's actually a
global initiative. It's a global movement, and the Community Foundation
(33:57):
really joined that movement in twenty twenty one of my
tenuere starting here at the Foundation, and we've done a
marad of things, but you know, we are really honing
in on that this year.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (34:11):
It really is a month that celebrates philanthropic contributions and
uh and the power and the giving of black people
and organizations every day Memphians. And so we're excited this
year to host a couple of different things. I know
we'll probably get to it at some point, but it
(34:31):
is National Black Philanthropy Month. It is our month, for sure,
and we know that to help and heal this community
is going to take all of us.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
You know that, and that and that particular point is
very very relevant, and let's let's talk about it. You
do have some some some big events that are happening
that I think that people need to know about because
one thing I've always been very cognizant of is the
generosity of Memphians towards one another as a people. And
(35:02):
you know, for us in particular, this is this is
an opportunity, I think, for really us to showcase as
a people how we help each other and how we
help to lift and move each other forward.
Speaker 7 (35:15):
Am I correcting?
Speaker 8 (35:16):
That's right?
Speaker 11 (35:17):
That's right, And that was the exact notion when we
were sitting around the table, you know, in the office
and really thinking about how we really amplify the voices
and bring the people together this year, and so we
curated with a fantastic host committee a symposium this year,
a half day symposium, the Power by Us Symposium, highlighting
(35:39):
the generosity of Memphians. As you mentioned, Chip, on Friday,
August twenty second. It is a free event. It will
be at Bridges. The registration is live and open down.
It's an opportunity for everyday Memphians, whether you are a
small business owner, whether you you know are affiliated in
(36:00):
your church or your faith based community, who are just
the neighborhood you know, grandmother or aunt, your cousin that's
giving back and you don't even realize that you're giving back.
It's an opportunity for us all to come together to
talk about the power that is within us, especially given
the times that we are in in this predominantly black community.
(36:23):
It's truly going to be powered by us, and we
need to pause and think about how are we keeping
it in our family, how are we setting up the
next generation. So it's going to be a powerful day,
powerful day that we are excited about.
Speaker 8 (36:35):
Again, see's unlimited.
Speaker 11 (36:36):
We want everyone to get there, so the again, the
registration is live. Now you'll get on CFGM dot org,
backslash powered and please register. We want everyone there.
Speaker 6 (36:50):
You know, when I read the description of it, Black
Philanthropy Month is a global celebration every August that uplifts
black giving, leadership and community. In it highlights black philanthropists,
promotes funding equity, and inspires collective action. Now that last part,
inspiring collective action, is really one of the one of
(37:12):
the standouts in all of that. Because you're going to
let us know through this event, you just talked about
how to be able to do that. I think a
lot of people may and you can correct me if
I'm wrong, may want to UH to to figure out
how to do more. You know, I want to do more,
but I don't know exactly how to do it or
how to go about this. When you're going to have
(37:32):
people at this event, UH specifically designed to be able
to to talk to folks about all of this, to
explain about all of this, to answer questions about all
of this. Uh and and and as you said earlier,
to try to make us stronger as the people.
Speaker 7 (37:48):
Am I correct?
Speaker 11 (37:49):
Correct? That's correct. We will have folks from all walks
of life. Breakout sessions will come together collectively as a group.
They will be incredible amount of time for networking and
really just for us to love on each other. And
and I love that you're honing in on the collective
power because what we believe and what we want to
(38:10):
cascade more in our community is, you know, it's not
just about our treasure, the amount of money that we
can give, whether it's a dollar, five dollars, whatever that is,
but our time, our talent, our treasure and the people
we know so are ties. How does that all collectively
come together so that we are doing whatever it takes
(38:32):
to to be empowered and be emboldened and be inspired
collectively together.
Speaker 6 (38:39):
Yeah, you know, I think that's a that's a really
big deal and I would urge folks to find out
more about it and if they want to participate, to
be a part of it. Just just before you know,
I let you get out of here. Some of the
other initiatives that you all in, the partnerships that you
all work with. It's just amazing to me because you
(39:01):
can't do what you do as an organization or a
foundation without the help of so many people making a
successful an organizations as it is. And if someone were
to ask you, Veronica, what what what is this organization
all about?
Speaker 7 (39:19):
How would you describe it? Oh?
Speaker 6 (39:20):
And by the way, before I forget I read I
read that you are you were one of forty under
forty that were celebrated. Was it last year?
Speaker 7 (39:32):
Did I? Did I get that right?
Speaker 8 (39:34):
That's correct? That's correct?
Speaker 6 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, I do my homework on things. Well, congratulations
about that, And I think and I think that says
a lot about you as a person, but in the organization.
Speaker 7 (39:44):
But but if you had to give a.
Speaker 6 (39:46):
Nutshell description of what the community Foundation is really all about,
how would you describe it?
Speaker 8 (39:53):
Great? Question.
Speaker 11 (39:54):
I'm glad you asked again. I've been we have been
collectively wanting to say this loud. But we are the hall.
We are the hub, the philanthropic hub that connects capital,
which is our resources, to solutions. So it is how
do we connect the dollars to the solutions to really
(40:15):
make our community better? So, in a nutshell, that's what
we do. We work with nonprofits, as you mentioned, lots
of nonprofits, agencies, individuals and families. Got a small business
or corporation. How do all those things come together to
collectively make them iph it's better. Again, connecting those the
capital to the resources is the key.
Speaker 6 (40:37):
I tell you, it's an amazing organization. It's amazing foundation,
and I really appreciate you taking the time to come
on and talk to us about the organization. But more importantly,
Black Philanthropy Month, which is the month of August. And again,
tell people once again, if they want to find out
more about this particular month in the event you have
(40:58):
coming up, how they reach out, how they connects.
Speaker 11 (41:03):
Right, so you're gonna go to www. Dot cf GM
dot org backslash BPM. That's gonna tell you everything that's
going on on. Then in the month of August. That's
www dot CFGM dot org backslash BPM. You can register
for the symposium. You can find out how you can
(41:24):
actually give on A to eight. Giving A to eight
is a giving day where we can all collectively give
to these organizations that are boots on the ground. So
there's a simposing you can attend, and then there's a
giving day you can participate in. But visit www dot
CFGM dot org backslash BPM.
Speaker 6 (41:44):
Veronica Jamison, ladies and gentlemen, the vice president of Philanthropic
Services for the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. Veronica, great
to meet you. Great to have you on the show.
This was your first time. I hope you don't make
it your last time.
Speaker 8 (41:57):
Oh I appreciate it you.
Speaker 11 (41:59):
Thank you for having me and I'll certainly be back.
Speaker 7 (42:01):
Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here evening. Yes,
ma'am you too. Here you go, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 6 (42:06):
If you didn't know about the fine works that the
folks at the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis do, I
think you know a little bit more now.
Speaker 7 (42:14):
Great to have Veronica on the show.
Speaker 6 (42:16):
We're gonna take a final break, and when we come
back we're gonna shift gears, and we're gonna talk about
the local criminal justice system and what one organization is
doing to try to change things a little bit. This
is Real Talk Memphis. I'm Chip. Don't you dare go away.
We're not done yet.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
If you like real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion. I want to be considered a guest or
have a guest idea, Then send Chip a message on
his Real Talk show page and you can be a
part of the Real Talk experience. So, as he always says,
go out and tail somebody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
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(43:34):
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Now back to more Real Talk with Jim Washington.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
It's it's it's hey, welcome back to Real Talk Memphis
on this Monday evening in the city Chip with you.
Speaker 6 (44:38):
And uh, you know, criminal justice reform in this city
has been a topic of conversation.
Speaker 7 (44:45):
For a very long time.
Speaker 6 (44:48):
And uh, you know there's always been uh and the
question about uh folks who are incarcerated. Uh and and
many folks who have been incarcerated on low level, non
violent offenders, low level crimes in this town city in
jail for a very long period of time, some of
(45:08):
them for a very long period of time.
Speaker 7 (45:10):
We all know.
Speaker 6 (45:11):
About the problems going on at two oh one Popular.
They have so many people now that they have to
put people in intake when they intake these folks they have,
they have to house them down there because of the
overcrowded problem. Well, this organization that we're about to talk
about is called Just City, and by the way, they
just celebrated their tenth anniversary. They've been doing the work
(45:33):
for a long time. Very pleased to have a studio
with me. Their executive director. He is Josh Spickler, and
Josh is great to see him, my friend.
Speaker 12 (45:40):
Good to see you too, Chip, Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 6 (45:42):
Absolutely, man, it's been a minute since you and I
have a reconvened and had a conversation. Now, on Friday,
your organization, you and your organization had a big press
conference to announce fifty thousand dollars was it bond situation
we have.
Speaker 12 (46:02):
We have a community bail fund jail, which is money
that the community donates to Just City, and the way
cash bail, we pay the full cash amount. We're not
bail bondsmen, so we pay. If you have a five
hundred dollars bond, we pay five hundred dollars cash and
once the case is over, we get that five hundred
dollars back. I'll use it for the next person. So
we've had a revolving bail fund for a long time,
and in light of Rocks McDaniel's tragic death a week
(46:22):
go tonight, we worked with his family and announced a
fifty thousand dollars draw down of that same Memphis Community
bail fund. So we're committing fifty thousand dollars to get
as many people out of that jail as quickly as
possible because of the conditions in that jail. We wouldn't
normally do that because we want the bail fund to
last as long as possible, but right now, the situation
into a one popular in the jail is so critical
(46:44):
that we felt we had to do something to get
as many people out of there as possible.
Speaker 6 (46:47):
Now, why this case? What was there about this case
that made you decide to change things around them?
Speaker 12 (46:53):
Yeah, I mean that's a great question. A lot of
people go through that system. But Rocas McDaniel didn't make
it out. He died last Monday night, and he died
having been in that jail for about eight days. And
as far as we can tell and from everyone I
can speak with, he never moved from the second floor
of the jail in the eight days that he was there.
And I can tell you, as an attorney and someone
who's worked in that system for a long long time,
(47:14):
that anybody who took a look at his case, whether
that be a judge, a prosecutor, or a defense attorney,
would have gotten him out. A prosecutor would have dropped
the case. A judge would have released him on his
own recognissance, a public defender would have called just City
and said, hey, can you pay this one thousand dollars bail,
and we would have paid it within an.
Speaker 7 (47:29):
Hour or two.
Speaker 12 (47:30):
But instead he sat there for eight days, seemingly never
moved from his position in the second floor to court.
He had three court court dates on the calendar that
he didn't make and that's just completely unacceptable and it's
what goes on in there every day. And it cost
Rachas McDaniel his life, and it cost his family, a brother,
a son, a loved one, a father. He was a
father of a young child in that case. Just we
(47:52):
couldn't stand by and so we had to do something.
It's not much. We may get twenty to thirty people
out with this amount of money, and it's they're three
thousand people, thirty two hundred people in the jail today.
So it's not much, but it's what we can do.
Speaker 6 (48:06):
Why is, in your opinion, because you do this on
a daily basis, why is there such a bottleneck inside
that build? I mean, why why do things move so slowly?
Speaker 12 (48:17):
It seems there's a lot of answers to that question.
I think the simplest one is that we're putting too
many people in there. Number one. People are making those decisions.
There are judicial commissioners making that decision when they set
a bond that's too high. There are prosecutors making that decision.
They are judges making the decision to keep too many people,
as you said in your introduction, who are on low
(48:38):
level offenses, who are not accused of non violent charges.
Too many of those people in there. Our bail fund
only pays bails up to four thousand dollars, which by
definition means it's a low level, typically non violent offense,
And so that's part of it. But then, you know,
we've had surges in jail population before, but we've never
seen three hundred and seventy people like we did last week,
sitting in the intake area, which is designed for about
(49:01):
fifty people. Right, So somebody's not doing their job. And
that somebody probably works for Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner.
He determines how most of this works inside the jail,
Who gets moved where, when the paperwork gets done, who
gets transferred to another part, who gets released, who gets
booked in? His employees do that, and somebody's not doing
their job.
Speaker 7 (49:20):
I don't.
Speaker 12 (49:20):
I'm trying to find out who, just like you are,
because it's it's absolutely embarrassing and it's deadly.
Speaker 7 (49:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (49:26):
You know, you've been talking about this for a very
long time now, and it seems like, you know, one
would think that we would be making some progress, but
I mean, this overabundance of so many people are being
locked up these days, and I guess there needs to
be some relief at some particular point in time. And
you said in your press conference that the young man
(49:48):
who died a week ago that was a needless death.
Speaker 7 (49:52):
And I'm sure that a hundred.
Speaker 12 (49:53):
Percent, and I haven't said it was the seventh as
far as we know, death in that jail this year.
That's one per month, which is just an astonishing mortality
rate for a jail. Most jail deaths should be preventable
because you have health care on site because you are
observing people and surveilling them twenty four hours a day.
You are assessing them when they come in for their
(50:13):
health conditions, for their mental health conditions, and you should
know who is a risk. This is how jails and
prisons work, and so to have seven people dead is
just inexcusable.
Speaker 6 (50:22):
The mental health component in all of this is a
very very big issue, and it has been said by
many you and many other organizations that people who are
dealing with mental health issues should not be locked up.
Speaker 7 (50:37):
At two one.
Speaker 6 (50:38):
There seems to be that there are more facilities available
for that. What's your take on that situation.
Speaker 12 (50:46):
Well, that's another reason that this case drew our attention,
because this case began with a call for help, a
call for mental health care help to this young man
who is apparently having some sort of crisis, and the
police showed up and they tased him and they dragged
him to the hospital and he tried to it away,
and then they grabbed him again and brought him to jail.
There was no crime being committed when the police recalled,
and instead of getting the mental health care he needed
(51:08):
at a place like Alliance Healthcare Services out on Summer Avenue.
We have a brand new crisis center out there with
forty five beds that has a spot for police officers
to drop people off. Instead of going there, he went
to jail and he stayed in one spot for eight
days and then he died.
Speaker 6 (51:21):
Yeah, that was It was a very very sad, sad story.
Let me ask you a question about the relationship with
your organization and District Attorney Molroy's office in terms of it,
because I saw him. I saw something that he posted
the other day, and it seems like there was some
sort of commingling in terms of maybe you know your organization,
(51:44):
or maybe him supporting kind of what you're doing, or
am I wrong?
Speaker 12 (51:49):
Yeah, I'm not sure what that might be.
Speaker 7 (51:51):
Chip.
Speaker 12 (51:51):
We don't have any formal partnership with the DA's office.
Speaker 7 (51:53):
No, No, Yeah, it was. It was sort of like
a post. It was a posting on social media that
he was talking about.
Speaker 6 (52:00):
But does he share your thought process and or frustration
in where the criminal justice system is here?
Speaker 12 (52:08):
I think he shares some of it. But Steve Mulroy
and the people who work for him are prosecutors. Their
job is to prosecute people who are accused of breaking
the law. I was a public defender. My job was
to make sure that those people's rights were defended, and
if they were not guilty, then we got a not
guilty verdict. And so we see the world very differently.
I mean, I think anyone who's looking at this system
(52:28):
right now, no matter what role they play, is not
going to be pleased and is going to share some
of my viewpoints. But ultimately I'm working in support of
people who he is trying to prosecute. Now, you know,
I like Steve. Steve and I talk regularly, and I
think he's a better prosecutor than we've had in this
(52:48):
city in the past, but we are ultimately on different
sides of most cases. And so you know, I'm not
sure what you saw, but he has supported some of
our work. He was at our gala that you mentioned,
So I don't know if you saw a photo I did.
(53:09):
I need to I need to get my hands on
all these photos of me and Steve mulroy and make
sure they're scrubbed absolutely anyway.
Speaker 7 (53:15):
He's just join speaking with Josh Fickler. He's the executive
director of j Just City.
Speaker 6 (53:19):
And now you laid out some very specific thoughts in
reference to what should happen at two on one Poplar
and with the Sheriff's office in the Sherby County Jail.
Kind of for our audience who may not know there.
There were at least three specific points that you made
kind of go over those.
Speaker 12 (53:39):
Points, yeah, and we tried to choose three places where
we believe Sheriff Bonner has some control because he does
control the people who who do these functions. And so
the first one is this intake process. We know from
the Sheriff's own report card that the average length of
time it takes to intake to book someone into the
jail seventy two hours, and that's that's way too high.
(54:01):
We believe that if you surge some employees and some
resources to that part of the jail, you can reduce
that time in half pretty quickly, and you can probably
get it down to twenty five hours by the end
of the year. So that's what we ask Another thing
that we wanted the sheriff to do is monitor people
who stay in court for more than forty eight hours
without a court date. There's some constitutional implications to staying
in jail for more than forty eight hours without meeting
(54:23):
with an attorney or seeing a judge. The sheriff has
data on who those people are. So that was another
area where we want one hundred percent of the people
who are in jail for seventy two hours to have
been to court. And then the last one was this
mental health issue that we already talked about, is that
if folks are in a mental health crisis, they don't
get booked into the jail at all, but that they
get diverted into a place like Alliance health Care Services
(54:44):
or another community facility that is ready to deal with
someone in a mental health crisis. Those folks should not
be booked into the jail at all.
Speaker 7 (54:50):
At the end of the day.
Speaker 6 (54:52):
The last question at the end of the day, what
do you want people to really understand for those who
don't have a family member, a loved one, or an
individual locked up for a crime or a low level crime
or what have you. What do you want people in
our community in this city to understand about the work
(55:14):
that you're trying to do every day for these folks.
Speaker 12 (55:17):
Well, I think just City gets a bad rap sometimes
because people think we just want everybody out of jail,
We just want everybody out of prison. No one should
be held accountable, and that's the farthest thing from the truth.
I have children in this community. I've lived in this
community for a long time. I have family and loved
ones in this community. I want this to be a
safe community. And what decades now of evidence tells us
that if you have a fair criminal justice system, if
(55:38):
you have a criminal justice system that holds someone accountable
quickly and fairly and evenly, then you have a safer community.
We want fairness. We want someone who has one hundred
thousand dollars job at FedEx to get the same treatment
as the person who works for fifteen or twenty dollars
an hour at FedEx. And that is not the case
in the system we have, and that just makes for
an unsafe city. It has to be the same for
(55:59):
every one. If it's not, it's eventually going to get
to the people who make one hundred thousand dollars or more.
We want to think that we can keep folks separate,
that we can other them, that we can label them,
and that they will stay over there and we can
have our lives over here. That's not true with any system,
and it's especially not true with the criminal justice system.
And so we want fairness. We want people to be
treated just the same, no matter how much money they have,
(56:22):
and we are so far from that, and we put
people in this jail and we forget them, and it
takes deaths and tragedies and families just grieving in order
to get anyone's attention, and it just it shouldn't be
like that. So that's that's kind of what we're about.
Speaker 6 (56:38):
Josh Bickler, ladies and gentlemen, he is the executive director
of Just City. They've been around ten years. They just
celebrated their tenth anniversary. Time gone fast for you, man.
Speaker 12 (56:48):
Sometimes it seems quick, sometimes it seems.
Speaker 7 (56:50):
Like one hundred years. Thanks for coming many thanks Chip.
Speaker 12 (56:53):
It is good to be here.
Speaker 7 (56:54):
Well, there you go, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 6 (56:55):
That's a realistic look at what is happening in our
criminal justice decision a situation, and we thank Josh for
for being here. And as Bryn plays us out, you know,
don't go anywhere. Brind's show is next. It is an
event Horizon and uh play some pretty interesting music. You
ought to check this show out. He really is pretty good. Uh,
(57:16):
but listen, thank you for being a part of this
broadcast up tonight as always, really appreciate you for watching,
paying attention what we try.
Speaker 7 (57:23):
To do here every week, like what we do.
Speaker 6 (57:26):
Go, I tell somebody we're here every Monday evening from
sixty six pm since the time, and of course we're
a podcast as well, and so for all of us
here at Real Talk Memphis. Of course I'm waiting for
I'm waiting for her to come this way. Uh, lovely, Lola,
that's right, you're yeah.
Speaker 7 (57:46):
Yes, Lola.
Speaker 6 (57:49):
And for Brin who's manning the production board and getting
ready to do his own show.
Speaker 7 (57:53):
In about a minute.
Speaker 8 (57:54):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (57:55):
And for your humble hope for me Chip. Thank you
Memphis for being a part of what we do here,
and we really appreciate you. Go out, make it a
great week, do something good for somebody. You will be
surprised how good it makes you feel. So until next time,
take care, God bless and we are out.
Speaker 7 (58:13):
Talk to you soon.
Real. It's real. It's real talk.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's real.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
It's real.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's real.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's real talk.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
It's real.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's real talk. It's real. It's real talk. It's real.
It's real talk. It's real, it's real. It's real talk.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Jill, Welcome to real Tell your real host, Jill, watch
your wife.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's real.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
It's real talk.
Speaker 6 (00:53):
And here we go. Here we go on this Monday
evening in the city. It is the four day of August.
It's August. I thought I would say that just to
myself because time is flying so fast and it's only
four months left in the year after this. Well, anyway,
it is six o'clock straight up, and that means it
is time. We're in All New Live and you know,
(01:18):
in whatever Real Talk Memphis. I am your humble host.
My name is Chip Washington. It is great to be
here this evening. Have you enjoyed the nice, on summer
like weather we've had for the last several days, Temperatures
in the eighties, low on the humidity factor. It is
(01:39):
just absolutely been loving and all of us, I'm sure,
are taking advantage of it.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
I hope you took advantage of it.
Speaker 6 (01:45):
Over the weekend, got out and enjoyed some beautiful, beautiful weather.
We're going to see it slightly. We're in the eighties now,
Mitte Wepper, but we're going to get back into the
nineties here pretty soon. We're gonna get into the nineties
probably by Wednesday and heading into the weekend, and it
(02:05):
looks like nineties load to mid for the next week
week and a half with very little rain. So I
hope you enjoyed what we had while we had it.
But again, welcome to the broadcast. They glad to have
you with us this evening, and we have a good
show as always. We hope that you stick around and
(02:26):
hang out with us tonight. We're gonna have some good conversation.
We're actually gonna have an in studio guest. We don't
have many of those, but we will have one a
little bit later on in the broadcast. Now, you can
find this show a variety of ways. Of course, we
are live right now on the radio ninety one point
seven WYX are on the FM side. You can catch
(02:49):
us there. You can also catch us on the WYX
our app. You can also find this show on the
tune in app, and we are live streaming the show
tonight on face book live, so if you want to
go over and check that out, you can. You can
do that as well. Uh, and then the next day
or so once the show post, you can listen to
(03:09):
it on the YouTube. And as we are a podcast
and we are a podcasts, you can find us wherever
it is you get your podcasts. You know, if you've
never listened to this show, or you've never seen us
live or listen to us live or whatever, and there's
always another opportunity to do that, and that is the podcast.
Lots of folks are doing podcasts. We're doing one as well,
(03:32):
so check it out. As far as our guest listen tonight,
Michelle McKissick, Memphis and Shelby County school board member.
Speaker 7 (03:41):
We'll be joining me in just a few minutes.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
We hadn't talked to Michelle in a while, and I
find it apropos to do so on this first day
of school. Students back in session today in Memphis and
Shelby County. So we'll be talking to Michelle about a
few things coming up in just a few minutes. A
little bit later on, we'll be speaking with Ronica Jamison.
She is the vice president of Philanthropic Services for the
(04:05):
Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, and of course they do
amazing things and helping all of us citizens here in
Memphis who are doing good things in our community. So
we're going to be talking with her about some initiatives
and some things that are going on with the Community
Foundation of Greater Memphis. And a little bit later on,
(04:28):
we're going to be speaking with Josh Spickler. Josh is
the executive director of Just City, and that is an
organization you may have heard of. They are trying to
come up with ways to change our criminal justice system,
if you will. And last week at the end of
the week he had a press conference organization did about
(04:50):
a bail fund, a fifty thousand dollars bail fund that
they are initiating are kind of moving forward with in
reference to a recent prisoner that died at a two
on one popular, So he's going to talk about that
there are too many offenders, low level, nonviolent crimes, if
(05:12):
you will, that are sitting in two on one popular
and have been sitting there ever since they got arrested.
I mean you're talking weeks and months and and and
a lot of that. So he's trying to alleviate that
back up or that backlog if you will. So he'll
be in studio with me in the second half hour
to talk all about that. So that's the rundown of
(05:32):
the show. We help you stick around for it this evening.
Now we are in a brand new month. August is here,
and you know, each and every Monday we always like
to celebrate you, especially if you were born on a
particular day. And uh yeah, today is no exception to
(05:53):
that rule. It is August first, and we have plenty
of birthdays to talk about, but I can't do that
until I say hit it brand. Happy birthday, Happy birthday,
going out to the following votes, Happy birthday to Marty Miller,
doctor Nikki Gates Golden celebrating her birthday today. Happy birthday
(06:15):
to Barbara Jones. To Wanda Peardle. If that last name
sounds familiar, Pearle, think of Chicken. Yeah, longstanding establishment here
in memphisis to Wanda's birthday today. Happy birthday to Riseland Cicely,
my old brand from television. Brad Nightguard is celebrating his
(06:36):
birthday today.
Speaker 7 (06:38):
Happy birthday to.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Wendy Nicholson and to Rita Lewis. So Happy birthday each
and every what are you born on August first? And
we hope that this day has been filled with fun
and laughter and all of us here at Real Talks Memphis,
we look to be with you next year for your
next trip around.
Speaker 7 (07:01):
Thank you, Brian.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
So, before we move into the news and notes, a
couple of the depths are to report. I don't know
how many of you remember the TV show w KRP
in Cincinnati. That was a show about the radio station
way back in the eighties and Lannie Anderson one of
the stars of that show. She died last day or so.
(07:27):
She was seventy nine years of age. She was one
of the stars of that series. Pretty funny back in
the day. And we caught word late this afternoon, or
at least I did, anyway, that Julian Bolton. Many of
you are familiar with Julian Bolton. He is a well
known attorney in this town. He transitioned today a bit
of a shock in terms of in terms of that
(07:50):
and once I found that out this afternoon, and for
many of you as well, really nice guy, really really
really good guy. And again yeah, he he transitioned today.
I did not get an age on him. But for
each of them. May your memories always be a blessing.
(08:10):
So today, as I stated a minute ago, was the
first day of school for Memphis and Chevy County students.
And along with you know, coming in and senior old
friends and getting excited about a new school year, many
of you came into the we don't want to see
your cell phone rule. It's a law now, by the way,
(08:33):
and if you have a cell phone, you are to
keep it out of sight. It's supposed to be put away.
You are not allowed to pull it out or use
it under any circumstances. And that is like the rule
for every school in the district.
Speaker 8 (08:51):
Now.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
You know, I don't know that we see much of
that in the elementary schools, but yeah, you middle schoolers
and you high schoolers. I know you guys wake up
with the phone on your ear and you go to
bed with them on your ear as well. But yeah,
during the school day that is for learning and edumacation,
is that I like to say, And yes, keep those
cell phones stowed away if you If you don't, you're
(09:13):
going to face us some disciplinary action. And of course
one of the things, of course that nobody wants to
do is to take your cell phone from you and
put it away from you as well.
Speaker 7 (09:24):
So don't make them visible.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Don't keep them visible because they will be taken by
school officials. Okay, So if you didn't know that, and
I don't know how anybody didn't know that, but if
you didn't know that, you know it.
Speaker 7 (09:35):
Now.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
In other news, authorities are still looking for Austin Drummond.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
Now who is that?
Speaker 6 (09:42):
He is the man accused of a quadruple murder in
Dyer County last week. You remember, first, the baby was
found in the yard of a resident in Lake County,
just sitting there. Come to find out that four people
that were found dead were directly associated with that child
(10:03):
by means of being its mother, father, grandmother, and uncle.
And they were all found dead. And so the law
enforcement folks, the TBI, have identified Austin Drummond, age twenty eight,
as a man accused of these crimes. Now, over the weekend,
the TBI arrested two individuals in connection with this case
(10:27):
as accomplices, and this afternoon they arrested a twenty three
year old female who has been labeled and accompliced after
the fact. In all of this as well, mister A.
Drummond that should be considered very armed, very dangerous. He's
armed and very dangerous. Rather, he was last seen in Jackson, Tennessee,
(10:51):
on Wednesday, and early this afternoon, law enforcement cordon off
a two mile area very close to the Union University
out there, and they thought they may have seen him
or got information that he might have been out in
the woods. They had drones flying around, they had helicopters
flying around, They barricaded streets the whole nine yard. So far,
(11:14):
to this point they have not found anybody or not
found him as of yet. So again, be on the
lookout for this guy because he is accused of killing
four people last week in a very very heinous and
terrible crime. I'm going to take a break and when
we come back, we're going to kickstart this broadcast. It's
(11:35):
the first day of school and I have our good
friend Michelle McKissick, school board member is going to be
joining me. We're going to talk about a number of things.
This is real talk, Memphis. I am chip glad to
be here, glad to have you out there on this
beautiful Monday evening in the city.
Speaker 7 (11:51):
Don't go away, We'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
If you like real talk. Here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion, want to be considered a guest or have
a guest idea, Then send Chip a message on his
Real Talk show page and you can be a part
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go out and tell somebody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
It's it's it's real, It's real.
Speaker 9 (12:36):
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Now back to more Real Talk with Jib Washington's.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
And welcome back to Real Talk Memphis on a beautiful
Monday evening in the city.
Speaker 7 (13:37):
Chip with you.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Glad to be here and glad to have you aboard
and glad to have my next guest. She is one
of my favorites. Uh and uh, I've known her for
a very very long time. And you know, today is
the first day of school. Was the first day of school,
and I wanted to have her on to talk about
some school related issues. Please welcome to the show, school
Boy member Michelle McKissick.
Speaker 8 (13:59):
Hi, Michelle, Hi, Chis, how are you.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
I'm doing great. I'm doing great. It's great to see
you now. She told me during the break that it's
a big day. It's a big day in the McKissick
family because the daughter is starting high school today.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Yeah, a little miss Bliss as they call her. Bliss's uh,
ninth grader going into what going into She stepped into
it today, her first year, first day of high school. See,
I'm all this tongue time.
Speaker 7 (14:24):
Yes you are.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
You're very excited for Bliss. You're very excited for your daughter.
And uh and and and what we are we saying
with what school she's going to?
Speaker 8 (14:32):
Yeah, Proud White Station High School, Spartans where I graduated from.
My three sons all graduated from there.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
Following absolutely shout out to White Station High School. There
you go, I have to they had to put that
all in there. Absolutely that. Well, listen, that's that's It's
great to have you with us. And of course a
lot going on continually and still I saw you recently
on Behind the Headlines, you and one of your colleagues
talking about some of the issues at hand. And of course,
(15:00):
of recent the Shelby County Commission has been having conversations
and we thought there was going to be a vote
in reference to changing the school board elections to the
regular county election schedule, which would be next year. And
of course, for several school board members who were elected
(15:23):
in twenty twenty four, which was last year, if this
thing were to pass, it would cut those terms basically
in half. And of course this has generated a lot
of conversation, and I guess, before we get too far
into this, what is your take on all of that.
Speaker 8 (15:40):
Well, I was at that County Commission meeting last week
when they decided to delay the vote, and I want
to apply with the County Commission for doing that to
really just take an even deeper dive than they already
have been in listening to the community, listening to board
members as well. And making a very very tough decision.
I was glad that they were being thoughtful about that,
(16:03):
or even more thoughtful, But it's something that I'm torn over,
to be quite honest with you, because I understand they
have built the mindset of holding school board members accountable
for what they believe that perhaps maybe they aren't at
this time. But at the same time, this is something
that I'm concerned if it's our county commission overseeing school districts, right,
I'm concerned about it isolating it to just one school
(16:25):
district within this county. People need to remember there are
several others, I think with like six or seven total
school districts within Shelby County and from you know, Germantown, Bartlett, Colierville, Millington, Arlington,
Lakeland and so including MSCs. So that's my only concern
that it's just isolated to the school district.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Now, you know, this law was offered up at the
State House in Nashville by a couple of members up there,
and I guess you know my one of my biggest
concerns in reference to this is, once again it seems
to me like we're moving forward on the elected official
side of things with the County Commission with not really
(17:06):
paying a lot of attention to the will of the
people one way or the other.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (17:11):
This is something that they had completed atom totolomists, you know. Uh,
they could do what they wanted to do in terms
of this.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (17:20):
But I know, GA Representative Ja Hardaway got up and said, well,
wait a minute, you know, might we need to slow down,
put the brakes on a little bit about all of
this and maybe get an opinion from the Attorney General
to see if this is even lawful or legal. Now,
I have spoken to a couple of your other colleagues
who who said that, you know, they don't think it
(17:42):
is and and this could this could this if if
they decided to move forward in this way, this could
lead to a loss suit potentially in reference to all
of that. So you know, we're taking a very critical
uh situation, and we could be making it worse, couldn't we.
I mean, if they decided that they want to move
forward with all of this. Now, I can understand the
(18:02):
term limit part of it. I get that, and I
think most people understand that as well. However, you know,
my first thought is give the people a right to
make a decision and maybe put a referendum on the
ballot or something.
Speaker 7 (18:16):
I just wanted to get your thought about all that.
Speaker 8 (18:18):
Well, that was the concern that was, as you said,
mentioned by some of my colleagues several other people about
how when the County Commission and the City Council were
determined to be term limited, the public decided that via
a vote via referendum. And so that's what is another concern.
And you know, as far as the term limits, I
(18:39):
think everyone is okay with saying, hey, we you know,
we need.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
To move forward.
Speaker 8 (18:43):
Actually, one of the first people that actually this vote
would impact more than almost any other boarder or yes,
it would cause them to have the option to run again,
but that would mean that it would bring an end
to my tenure on the school board because I'm coming
toward the end of my second term and since I
felt like I was just getting my sea legs, so
to speak. But I'm always gonna serve this community in
(19:06):
whatever capacity. But that's the concern. It's like, you know,
is it being fair and balanced? And I'm not debating
whether or not the County Commission is completely within their
purview to make this decision and I know there's been
a lot of talk about holding war members accountable and
not being response to the public. So it's just a
lot's happened and a whole lot of time, short amount
(19:31):
of time, and so I just I wish everything would
have slowed down. I think everything's been moving way too
fast since last December when this really kind of hit
a fever pitch.
Speaker 7 (19:40):
Yeah, absolutely that.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
And you know, it just doesn't seem to you, like
you're right, it doesn't seem like there's any settling here.
There's always I mean, there's always something going on. Now
we're in the middle of a we're starting a brand
new school year. We have a new superintendent, interian superintendent
of education who's got to get his feet with you
know as well up good points.
Speaker 7 (20:00):
Now.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
You know, if they were to move forward with this,
uh and you said you're coming to the end of
your second term, but it would be it would be
cut short as well. Uh, And that experience aspect of things,
because there's a couple of you on there that who've
been around for a while who understand how this how
this train moves.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (20:17):
That would that could be very very detrimental.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
And that's why I keep saying to myself, people need
to slow down, take a breath and pause and really
understand the ramifications of all of this.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
Let me ask you a question.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Would you have an issue because you know, we have
this quote unquote possibility of a takeover first of the
year when they get back in session, would you have
a problem with the County Commission. I think one of
the proposals was to have them oversee you all, you know,
as a body as well or or what exactly are
your thoughts about that.
Speaker 8 (20:50):
As far as the County Commission or the state renewing
their efforts to take over.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
The school district.
Speaker 8 (20:55):
Yes, I'm definitely not in favor of that. This is
the largest school district state and there's been a lot
of good that's also transpired in this school district. Has
not all been this horrible, awful news. Of course, there's
always room for improvement and growth, but this school district
is dealing with something that no other school district in
the state is dealing with, the level of poverty. It
(21:16):
is so concentrated here in Memphis, and that's what impacts
a lot of the outcome of the performance. Not that
students who have a high knee cannot be academically excellent.
They absolutely can, but there are just so many challenges,
so many hurdles that you have to jump over and
address before you can even start addressing the academic part
(21:37):
of teaching a child. And we have to make sure
they're fed, that they have coats in the wintertime, and
in some cases that they even have power on in
their homes. So it's all of that that plays into
it that I had had a front row seat to
for the last several years and just really have learned
so much about what impacts a child's learning. You know it,
(22:00):
but when you see it in real time up close,
it really just it breaks your heart and it has
an impact and you understand better why the scores are
where they are right now. Plus, believe it or not,
folks think, you know, COVID is over with, but we're
still being impacted by COVID nineteen and the impact that
had on children learning.
Speaker 7 (22:19):
So you're talking here, So you mentioned brought us some
good points.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
You brought up a lot of factors that people might
not necessarily think about in reference to all this.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Now they didn't know before.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
They know now you're a fighter, and you know you
you fight for what you believe is right, and you
have every sense the last year's a situation. And now
you know, I I guess, I guess I wonder if
the County Commission seems so attached now all of a
sudden to you all, I mean making critical These are
(22:51):
very important and critical decisions. And I couldn't and I
just couldn't even I couldn't even begin to see how
this could be as impactful is I don't know that
they think they don't they understand how impactful this could
possibly be, should they make that decision, should they make
that move in the future. And now I'm gonna go back,
just for a second, back to what happened with doctor
(23:12):
Vegas last year. There was no concern whatsoever, Uh, to
the to the will of the public. Uh. You you
had a front row seat to all of that. And
I mean it was absolutely there was no concern. And
I don't think that anybody can argue that.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Uh.
Speaker 8 (23:30):
And yeah, absolutely, and and and and and they went.
Speaker 6 (23:36):
Ahead and moved forward with this with this decision. Now, Uh,
you know, we're we're looking at the same thing again
by saying, well, we're a body of however many I
think there's thirteen county commissioners and and we can make
this decision one way or another. Once again, uh, Michelle,
And you tell me if I'm wrong. The public seems
(23:57):
to be overlooked in this process. Now right now, there's
a temporary stop sign because they have to sort of
get their ducks in a row, which they didn't do
when they brought this up in the first place.
Speaker 7 (24:06):
In my opinion, but.
Speaker 6 (24:09):
This to me reflects once again the lack of consideration
for the general public. And I don't know how you
feel about that, but I mean, I'm curious to know.
Speaker 8 (24:21):
Well, I believe that in this case, perhaps and I
can't speak for any county commissioner, but that they were
elected by the people, so perhaps they believe that they
are speaking for the people. Certainly that was the case
for maybe that's what some of my colleagues saw on
look forward when they really pushed hard and made a
(24:42):
decision that impacted this school district. And I didn't support
that decision. But at this point, I'm focused on here
we are at a new school year, and how do
we just move forward. I can't continue to look in
the rear view mirror, and that is my job. That's
what I am tasked with as a school board member
of how to make things better for the school district,
(25:04):
for the students, the families of the school district. So
that's what I'm focused on. I'm gonna let the other
folks know it's their turn to make that decision, and
I hope they do listen to what the community wants.
That's what we are all here for, is to serve.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
The public educationally speaking, Michelle, what are the challenges that
you as a school board member are looking at, you know,
as a whole in terms of our school district. They
are all well, there are always metrics, there are always
things that you look forward to in a new school year,
new challenges and things like that. What are some of
the challenges that you see that that you would really
(25:40):
like the board as a body to address this year
in terms of our.
Speaker 8 (25:44):
Schools, you know, just the stability. I think that's what
our district needs more than anything else. It has been
a bit of a rollercoaster quite honestly for the last
few years, and that I think that can potentially have
an impact on our education who are doing the job
very hard every day and Superintendent Interim Superintendent doctor Richmond
(26:07):
did unveil his academic plan and platform of how to
go about stable lize in the district, So I'm hopeful
I saw elements of it that I was pleased with,
where that there is a lot of support for new
teachers so that they don't have to figure everything out,
they can truly just hit the ground running when they
get into the classroom. They have lessons plans that have
(26:27):
been sanctioned by the district from top educators, and that's
just something that I really want to emphasize that. I
read something in the Memphis Flyer the other day, was
the editor's letter, and she mentioned in there about how
this was a subpar school system, and I'm like, you know,
those types of phrases really bother me because I know
there are amazing and excellent educators and I know that
(26:50):
the light that happens outside of our school doors, that's
what impacts inside the school doors. And I use my
own children. They all went to their zoned elementary school
down to elementary and at the time my oldest was there,
they were put homes with still open. You know, that's
a you know, now defunct public housing development, and these
kids were coming into the exact same school building being
(27:11):
touched by the exact same, you know, teachers, but it's
their lived experiences outside of this that impacted their test scores.
Because I'm like, you know, they my children didn't have
to think about anything but going to school. They were fed,
they were clothed, they you know, slept, they had power
on none of those things. So all those teachers had
to do let's educate them. Then we had children where
(27:33):
I personally bought school supplies and school uniforms and kept
a clothes closet at Downtown Elementary for children who did
not have that level of support because of the challenging
financial environment that they were coming from. Memphis is a
high poverty city. That's what impacts our education. So I'm
here to say, how can we support our children? So
(27:54):
that's why I'm hopeful every new school year. I loved
the beginning of a new school year. I'm always full
of hope of how we can help all of our children.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
Well, absolutely that, and you're right, and it doesn't it doesn't.
It doesn't help you. We can't ignore what the problem is,
but we do need to be more involved in the
process of educating our young people and getting them to
the place where they belong. Well, congratulations to you and
congratulations to your daughter for starting high school. And and
of course we will be keeping a very close eye
on what happens with the Memphis Chevy County school Board
(28:25):
all and others as time moves forward. Michelle McKissick, school
board member, Thank you, my friend, for coming on the
show tonight.
Speaker 7 (28:33):
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 8 (28:34):
Thank you, Chip. Always a pleasure being with you.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Talking to you soon. Okay, there you go, ladies and gentlemen.
There's a few from somebody who knows best. And you know,
we can't hide a run away from the challenges that
we face as a city in our community. But at
the end of the day, how do we get our
children to the place that they need to be. How
do we help those who are in unfortunate situations? Those
(28:57):
are questions that we need to address on a daily
bits and we need to keep in mind as well.
Thank you to Michelle McKissick for joining. I mean, let's
take a break and when we come back we will
continue on this Monday ride. We'd like to call Real
Talk Memphis. Don't go away. There's more to come.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
If you like real talk. Here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
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a guest idea, Then send Chip a message on his
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Get Real Talk on the tune in mo app under
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more Real Talk with Chip Washington.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
It's real, it's real, It's.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
Real, And welcome back to Real Talk Memphis on this
Monday evening in the city, a beautiful Monday evening at that.
Speaker 7 (31:28):
Welcome back to the big broadcast.
Speaker 6 (31:30):
Chip with you and my next guest works for an
organization that flat out gets done, the Community Foundation of
Greater Memphis. I mean, they provide so much help for
so many groups and organizations and nonprofits out there, connecting
folks together to make the Mid South strong as it
(31:53):
should be. And my next guest is the vice president
of Philanthropic Services for the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis.
She is Veronica Jameson and Veronica's great to have you
on the show.
Speaker 7 (32:06):
Welcome to Real Talk Memphis.
Speaker 8 (32:09):
Thank you, Jip.
Speaker 11 (32:09):
What a generous introduction. I appreciate that. I'm glad to
be here this evening.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Well, listen, you know the greater you know to me,
the Mark of a successful organization is you just continue
to do what you do for so long a period
of time and helped so many people along the way
that we almost take take it for granted every now
and again. And that's why I think it's good to
(32:34):
bring out, you know, folks who are really doing that
work on a daily basis. And I know that this
has to be heartfelt, you know, to be to work
for this organization. I really think you have to have
a heart for others. Now, how long have you been
with the Community Foundation?
Speaker 11 (32:53):
You know what, I can't believe I'm even close to
saying it, but it'll be four years in October?
Speaker 7 (32:59):
Is that right?
Speaker 11 (32:59):
It'll be four years? And you're right, it is hard work.
It's hard work. You have to absolutely love what you
do and love this community and show up for this community.
And I appreciate you, Shane and a light.
Speaker 8 (33:11):
Now.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
You know, one of the things that I looked at
when I was checking things out, you know, in terms
of the organization is August and August is and I
absolutely did not know this, but August is Black Philanthropy Month,
and I thought that that was pretty intriguing and I
wanted to find out a little bit about that, but
(33:32):
that's all about how you all prepare for that and.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
What goes on.
Speaker 8 (33:35):
Oh.
Speaker 11 (33:36):
I love that you stumbled across it. And that's the
exact reason why we're stepping a bit bolder and more
forward this year. You know, National Black Philanthropy Month has
been a thing since twenty and eleven. It's actually a
global initiative. It's a global movement, and the Community Foundation
(33:57):
really joined that movement in twenty twenty one of my
tenuere starting here at the Foundation, and we've done a
marad of things, but you know, we are really honing
in on that this year.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (34:11):
It really is a month that celebrates philanthropic contributions and
uh and the power and the giving of black people
and organizations every day Memphians. And so we're excited this
year to host a couple of different things. I know
we'll probably get to it at some point, but it
(34:31):
is National Black Philanthropy Month. It is our month, for sure,
and we know that to help and heal this community
is going to take all of us.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
You know that, and that and that particular point is
very very relevant, and let's let's talk about it. You
do have some some some big events that are happening
that I think that people need to know about because
one thing I've always been very cognizant of is the
generosity of Memphians towards one another as a people. And
(35:02):
you know, for us in particular, this is this is
an opportunity, I think, for really us to showcase as
a people how we help each other and how we
help to lift and move each other forward.
Speaker 7 (35:15):
Am I correcting?
Speaker 8 (35:16):
That's right?
Speaker 11 (35:17):
That's right, And that was the exact notion when we
were sitting around the table, you know, in the office
and really thinking about how we really amplify the voices
and bring the people together this year, and so we
curated with a fantastic host committee a symposium this year,
a half day symposium, the Power by Us Symposium, highlighting
(35:39):
the generosity of Memphians. As you mentioned, Chip, on Friday,
August twenty second. It is a free event. It will
be at Bridges. The registration is live and open down.
It's an opportunity for everyday Memphians, whether you are a
small business owner, whether you you know are affiliated in
(36:00):
your church or your faith based community, who are just
the neighborhood you know, grandmother or aunt, your cousin that's
giving back and you don't even realize that you're giving back.
It's an opportunity for us all to come together to
talk about the power that is within us, especially given
the times that we are in in this predominantly black community.
(36:23):
It's truly going to be powered by us, and we
need to pause and think about how are we keeping
it in our family, how are we setting up the
next generation. So it's going to be a powerful day,
powerful day that we are excited about.
Speaker 8 (36:35):
Again, see's unlimited.
Speaker 11 (36:36):
We want everyone to get there, so the again, the
registration is live. Now you'll get on CFGM dot org,
backslash powered and please register. We want everyone there.
Speaker 6 (36:50):
You know, when I read the description of it, Black
Philanthropy Month is a global celebration every August that uplifts
black giving, leadership and community. In it highlights black philanthropists,
promotes funding equity, and inspires collective action. Now that last part,
inspiring collective action, is really one of the one of
(37:12):
the standouts in all of that. Because you're going to
let us know through this event, you just talked about
how to be able to do that. I think a
lot of people may and you can correct me if
I'm wrong, may want to UH to to figure out
how to do more. You know, I want to do more,
but I don't know exactly how to do it or
how to go about this. When you're going to have
(37:32):
people at this event, UH specifically designed to be able
to to talk to folks about all of this, to
explain about all of this, to answer questions about all
of this. Uh and and and as you said earlier,
to try to make us stronger as the people.
Speaker 7 (37:48):
Am I correct?
Speaker 11 (37:49):
Correct? That's correct. We will have folks from all walks
of life. Breakout sessions will come together collectively as a group.
They will be incredible amount of time for networking and
really just for us to love on each other. And
and I love that you're honing in on the collective
power because what we believe and what we want to
(38:10):
cascade more in our community is, you know, it's not
just about our treasure, the amount of money that we
can give, whether it's a dollar, five dollars, whatever that is,
but our time, our talent, our treasure and the people
we know so are ties. How does that all collectively
come together so that we are doing whatever it takes
(38:32):
to to be empowered and be emboldened and be inspired
collectively together.
Speaker 6 (38:39):
Yeah, you know, I think that's a that's a really
big deal and I would urge folks to find out
more about it and if they want to participate, to
be a part of it. Just just before you know,
I let you get out of here. Some of the
other initiatives that you all in, the partnerships that you
all work with. It's just amazing to me because you
(39:01):
can't do what you do as an organization or a
foundation without the help of so many people making a
successful an organizations as it is. And if someone were
to ask you, Veronica, what what what is this organization
all about?
Speaker 7 (39:19):
How would you describe it? Oh?
Speaker 6 (39:20):
And by the way, before I forget I read I
read that you are you were one of forty under
forty that were celebrated. Was it last year?
Speaker 7 (39:32):
Did I? Did I get that right?
Speaker 8 (39:34):
That's correct? That's correct?
Speaker 6 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, I do my homework on things. Well, congratulations
about that, And I think and I think that says
a lot about you as a person, but in the organization.
Speaker 7 (39:44):
But but if you had to give a.
Speaker 6 (39:46):
Nutshell description of what the community Foundation is really all about,
how would you describe it?
Speaker 8 (39:53):
Great? Question.
Speaker 11 (39:54):
I'm glad you asked again. I've been we have been
collectively wanting to say this loud. But we are the hall.
We are the hub, the philanthropic hub that connects capital,
which is our resources, to solutions. So it is how
do we connect the dollars to the solutions to really
(40:15):
make our community better? So, in a nutshell, that's what
we do. We work with nonprofits, as you mentioned, lots
of nonprofits, agencies, individuals and families. Got a small business
or corporation. How do all those things come together to
collectively make them iph it's better. Again, connecting those the
capital to the resources is the key.
Speaker 6 (40:37):
I tell you, it's an amazing organization. It's amazing foundation,
and I really appreciate you taking the time to come
on and talk to us about the organization. But more importantly,
Black Philanthropy Month, which is the month of August. And again,
tell people once again, if they want to find out
more about this particular month in the event you have
(40:58):
coming up, how they reach out, how they connects.
Speaker 11 (41:03):
Right, so you're gonna go to www. Dot cf GM
dot org backslash BPM. That's gonna tell you everything that's
going on on. Then in the month of August. That's
www dot CFGM dot org backslash BPM. You can register
for the symposium. You can find out how you can
(41:24):
actually give on A to eight. Giving A to eight
is a giving day where we can all collectively give
to these organizations that are boots on the ground. So
there's a simposing you can attend, and then there's a
giving day you can participate in. But visit www dot
CFGM dot org backslash BPM.
Speaker 6 (41:44):
Veronica Jamison, ladies and gentlemen, the vice president of Philanthropic
Services for the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. Veronica, great
to meet you. Great to have you on the show.
This was your first time. I hope you don't make
it your last time.
Speaker 8 (41:57):
Oh I appreciate it you.
Speaker 11 (41:59):
Thank you for having me and I'll certainly be back.
Speaker 7 (42:01):
Absolutely. Thank you so much for being here evening. Yes,
ma'am you too. Here you go, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 6 (42:06):
If you didn't know about the fine works that the
folks at the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis do, I
think you know a little bit more now.
Speaker 7 (42:14):
Great to have Veronica on the show.
Speaker 6 (42:16):
We're gonna take a final break, and when we come
back we're gonna shift gears, and we're gonna talk about
the local criminal justice system and what one organization is
doing to try to change things a little bit. This
is Real Talk Memphis. I'm Chip. Don't you dare go away.
We're not done yet.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
If you like real Talk, here's the way you can
get involved. Do you have a show topic, idea or
a suggestion. I want to be considered a guest or
have a guest idea, Then send Chip a message on
his Real Talk show page and you can be a
part of the Real Talk experience. So, as he always says,
go out and tail somebody, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
It's It's It's real Dome.
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(43:34):
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put w y XR in the search box and hit subscribe.
Now back to more Real Talk with Jim Washington.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
It's it's it's hey, welcome back to Real Talk Memphis
on this Monday evening in the city Chip with you.
Speaker 6 (44:38):
And uh, you know, criminal justice reform in this city
has been a topic of conversation.
Speaker 7 (44:45):
For a very long time.
Speaker 6 (44:48):
And uh, you know there's always been uh and the
question about uh folks who are incarcerated. Uh and and
many folks who have been incarcerated on low level, non
violent offenders, low level crimes in this town city in
jail for a very long period of time, some of
(45:08):
them for a very long period of time.
Speaker 7 (45:10):
We all know.
Speaker 6 (45:11):
About the problems going on at two oh one Popular.
They have so many people now that they have to
put people in intake when they intake these folks they have,
they have to house them down there because of the
overcrowded problem. Well, this organization that we're about to talk
about is called Just City, and by the way, they
just celebrated their tenth anniversary. They've been doing the work
(45:33):
for a long time. Very pleased to have a studio
with me. Their executive director. He is Josh Spickler, and
Josh is great to see him, my friend.
Speaker 12 (45:40):
Good to see you too, Chip, Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 6 (45:42):
Absolutely, man, it's been a minute since you and I
have a reconvened and had a conversation. Now, on Friday,
your organization, you and your organization had a big press
conference to announce fifty thousand dollars was it bond situation
we have.
Speaker 12 (46:02):
We have a community bail fund jail, which is money
that the community donates to Just City, and the way
cash bail, we pay the full cash amount. We're not
bail bondsmen, so we pay. If you have a five
hundred dollars bond, we pay five hundred dollars cash and
once the case is over, we get that five hundred
dollars back. I'll use it for the next person. So
we've had a revolving bail fund for a long time,
and in light of Rocks McDaniel's tragic death a week
(46:22):
go tonight, we worked with his family and announced a
fifty thousand dollars draw down of that same Memphis Community
bail fund. So we're committing fifty thousand dollars to get
as many people out of that jail as quickly as
possible because of the conditions in that jail. We wouldn't
normally do that because we want the bail fund to
last as long as possible, but right now, the situation
into a one popular in the jail is so critical
(46:44):
that we felt we had to do something to get
as many people out of there as possible.
Speaker 6 (46:47):
Now, why this case? What was there about this case
that made you decide to change things around them?
Speaker 12 (46:53):
Yeah, I mean that's a great question. A lot of
people go through that system. But Rocas McDaniel didn't make
it out. He died last Monday night, and he died
having been in that jail for about eight days. And
as far as we can tell and from everyone I
can speak with, he never moved from the second floor
of the jail in the eight days that he was there.
And I can tell you, as an attorney and someone
who's worked in that system for a long long time,
(47:14):
that anybody who took a look at his case, whether
that be a judge, a prosecutor, or a defense attorney,
would have gotten him out. A prosecutor would have dropped
the case. A judge would have released him on his
own recognissance, a public defender would have called just City
and said, hey, can you pay this one thousand dollars bail,
and we would have paid it within an.
Speaker 7 (47:29):
Hour or two.
Speaker 12 (47:30):
But instead he sat there for eight days, seemingly never
moved from his position in the second floor to court.
He had three court court dates on the calendar that
he didn't make and that's just completely unacceptable and it's
what goes on in there every day. And it cost
Rachas McDaniel his life, and it cost his family, a brother,
a son, a loved one, a father. He was a
father of a young child in that case. Just we
(47:52):
couldn't stand by and so we had to do something.
It's not much. We may get twenty to thirty people
out with this amount of money, and it's they're three
thousand people, thirty two hundred people in the jail today.
So it's not much, but it's what we can do.
Speaker 6 (48:06):
Why is, in your opinion, because you do this on
a daily basis, why is there such a bottleneck inside
that build? I mean, why why do things move so slowly?
Speaker 12 (48:17):
It seems there's a lot of answers to that question.
I think the simplest one is that we're putting too
many people in there. Number one. People are making those decisions.
There are judicial commissioners making that decision when they set
a bond that's too high. There are prosecutors making that decision.
They are judges making the decision to keep too many people,
as you said in your introduction, who are on low
(48:38):
level offenses, who are not accused of non violent charges.
Too many of those people in there. Our bail fund
only pays bails up to four thousand dollars, which by
definition means it's a low level, typically non violent offense,
And so that's part of it. But then, you know,
we've had surges in jail population before, but we've never
seen three hundred and seventy people like we did last week,
sitting in the intake area, which is designed for about
(49:01):
fifty people. Right, So somebody's not doing their job. And
that somebody probably works for Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner.
He determines how most of this works inside the jail,
Who gets moved where, when the paperwork gets done, who
gets transferred to another part, who gets released, who gets
booked in? His employees do that, and somebody's not doing
their job.
Speaker 7 (49:20):
I don't.
Speaker 12 (49:20):
I'm trying to find out who, just like you are,
because it's it's absolutely embarrassing and it's deadly.
Speaker 7 (49:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (49:26):
You know, you've been talking about this for a very
long time now, and it seems like, you know, one
would think that we would be making some progress, but
I mean, this overabundance of so many people are being
locked up these days, and I guess there needs to
be some relief at some particular point in time. And
you said in your press conference that the young man
(49:48):
who died a week ago that was a needless death.
Speaker 7 (49:52):
And I'm sure that a hundred.
Speaker 12 (49:53):
Percent, and I haven't said it was the seventh as
far as we know, death in that jail this year.
That's one per month, which is just an astonishing mortality
rate for a jail. Most jail deaths should be preventable
because you have health care on site because you are
observing people and surveilling them twenty four hours a day.
You are assessing them when they come in for their
(50:13):
health conditions, for their mental health conditions, and you should
know who is a risk. This is how jails and
prisons work, and so to have seven people dead is
just inexcusable.
Speaker 6 (50:22):
The mental health component in all of this is a
very very big issue, and it has been said by
many you and many other organizations that people who are
dealing with mental health issues should not be locked up.
Speaker 7 (50:37):
At two one.
Speaker 6 (50:38):
There seems to be that there are more facilities available
for that. What's your take on that situation.
Speaker 12 (50:46):
Well, that's another reason that this case drew our attention,
because this case began with a call for help, a
call for mental health care help to this young man
who is apparently having some sort of crisis, and the
police showed up and they tased him and they dragged
him to the hospital and he tried to it away,
and then they grabbed him again and brought him to jail.
There was no crime being committed when the police recalled,
and instead of getting the mental health care he needed
(51:08):
at a place like Alliance Healthcare Services out on Summer Avenue.
We have a brand new crisis center out there with
forty five beds that has a spot for police officers
to drop people off. Instead of going there, he went
to jail and he stayed in one spot for eight
days and then he died.
Speaker 6 (51:21):
Yeah, that was It was a very very sad, sad story.
Let me ask you a question about the relationship with
your organization and District Attorney Molroy's office in terms of it,
because I saw him. I saw something that he posted
the other day, and it seems like there was some
sort of commingling in terms of maybe you know your organization,
(51:44):
or maybe him supporting kind of what you're doing, or
am I wrong?
Speaker 12 (51:49):
Yeah, I'm not sure what that might be.
Speaker 7 (51:51):
Chip.
Speaker 12 (51:51):
We don't have any formal partnership with the DA's office.
Speaker 7 (51:53):
No, No, Yeah, it was. It was sort of like
a post. It was a posting on social media that
he was talking about.
Speaker 6 (52:00):
But does he share your thought process and or frustration
in where the criminal justice system is here?
Speaker 12 (52:08):
I think he shares some of it. But Steve Mulroy
and the people who work for him are prosecutors. Their
job is to prosecute people who are accused of breaking
the law. I was a public defender. My job was
to make sure that those people's rights were defended, and
if they were not guilty, then we got a not
guilty verdict. And so we see the world very differently.
I mean, I think anyone who's looking at this system
(52:28):
right now, no matter what role they play, is not
going to be pleased and is going to share some
of my viewpoints. But ultimately I'm working in support of
people who he is trying to prosecute. Now, you know,
I like Steve. Steve and I talk regularly, and I
think he's a better prosecutor than we've had in this
(52:48):
city in the past, but we are ultimately on different
sides of most cases. And so you know, I'm not
sure what you saw, but he has supported some of
our work. He was at our gala that you mentioned,
So I don't know if you saw a photo I did.
(53:09):
I need to I need to get my hands on
all these photos of me and Steve mulroy and make
sure they're scrubbed absolutely anyway.
Speaker 7 (53:15):
He's just join speaking with Josh Fickler. He's the executive
director of j Just City.
Speaker 6 (53:19):
And now you laid out some very specific thoughts in
reference to what should happen at two on one Poplar
and with the Sheriff's office in the Sherby County Jail.
Kind of for our audience who may not know there.
There were at least three specific points that you made
kind of go over those.
Speaker 12 (53:39):
Points, yeah, and we tried to choose three places where
we believe Sheriff Bonner has some control because he does
control the people who who do these functions. And so
the first one is this intake process. We know from
the Sheriff's own report card that the average length of
time it takes to intake to book someone into the
jail seventy two hours, and that's that's way too high.
(54:01):
We believe that if you surge some employees and some
resources to that part of the jail, you can reduce
that time in half pretty quickly, and you can probably
get it down to twenty five hours by the end
of the year. So that's what we ask Another thing
that we wanted the sheriff to do is monitor people
who stay in court for more than forty eight hours
without a court date. There's some constitutional implications to staying
in jail for more than forty eight hours without meeting
(54:23):
with an attorney or seeing a judge. The sheriff has
data on who those people are. So that was another
area where we want one hundred percent of the people
who are in jail for seventy two hours to have
been to court. And then the last one was this
mental health issue that we already talked about, is that
if folks are in a mental health crisis, they don't
get booked into the jail at all, but that they
get diverted into a place like Alliance health Care Services
(54:44):
or another community facility that is ready to deal with
someone in a mental health crisis. Those folks should not
be booked into the jail at all.
Speaker 7 (54:50):
At the end of the day.
Speaker 6 (54:52):
The last question at the end of the day, what
do you want people to really understand for those who
don't have a family member, a loved one, or an
individual locked up for a crime or a low level crime
or what have you. What do you want people in
our community in this city to understand about the work
(55:14):
that you're trying to do every day for these folks.
Speaker 12 (55:17):
Well, I think just City gets a bad rap sometimes
because people think we just want everybody out of jail,
We just want everybody out of prison. No one should
be held accountable, and that's the farthest thing from the truth.
I have children in this community. I've lived in this
community for a long time. I have family and loved
ones in this community. I want this to be a
safe community. And what decades now of evidence tells us
that if you have a fair criminal justice system, if
(55:38):
you have a criminal justice system that holds someone accountable
quickly and fairly and evenly, then you have a safer community.
We want fairness. We want someone who has one hundred
thousand dollars job at FedEx to get the same treatment
as the person who works for fifteen or twenty dollars
an hour at FedEx. And that is not the case
in the system we have, and that just makes for
an unsafe city. It has to be the same for
(55:59):
every one. If it's not, it's eventually going to get
to the people who make one hundred thousand dollars or more.
We want to think that we can keep folks separate,
that we can other them, that we can label them,
and that they will stay over there and we can
have our lives over here. That's not true with any system,
and it's especially not true with the criminal justice system.
And so we want fairness. We want people to be
treated just the same, no matter how much money they have,
(56:22):
and we are so far from that, and we put
people in this jail and we forget them, and it
takes deaths and tragedies and families just grieving in order
to get anyone's attention, and it just it shouldn't be
like that. So that's that's kind of what we're about.
Speaker 6 (56:38):
Josh Bickler, ladies and gentlemen, he is the executive director
of Just City. They've been around ten years. They just
celebrated their tenth anniversary. Time gone fast for you, man.
Speaker 12 (56:48):
Sometimes it seems quick, sometimes it seems.
Speaker 7 (56:50):
Like one hundred years. Thanks for coming many thanks Chip.
Speaker 12 (56:53):
It is good to be here.
Speaker 7 (56:54):
Well, there you go, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 6 (56:55):
That's a realistic look at what is happening in our
criminal justice decision a situation, and we thank Josh for
for being here. And as Bryn plays us out, you know,
don't go anywhere. Brind's show is next. It is an
event Horizon and uh play some pretty interesting music. You
ought to check this show out. He really is pretty good. Uh,
(57:16):
but listen, thank you for being a part of this
broadcast up tonight as always, really appreciate you for watching,
paying attention what we try.
Speaker 7 (57:23):
To do here every week, like what we do.
Speaker 6 (57:26):
Go, I tell somebody we're here every Monday evening from
sixty six pm since the time, and of course we're
a podcast as well, and so for all of us
here at Real Talk Memphis. Of course I'm waiting for
I'm waiting for her to come this way. Uh, lovely, Lola,
that's right, you're yeah.
Speaker 7 (57:46):
Yes, Lola.
Speaker 6 (57:49):
And for Brin who's manning the production board and getting
ready to do his own show.
Speaker 7 (57:53):
In about a minute.
Speaker 8 (57:54):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (57:55):
And for your humble hope for me Chip. Thank you
Memphis for being a part of what we do here,
and we really appreciate you. Go out, make it a
great week, do something good for somebody. You will be
surprised how good it makes you feel. So until next time,
take care, God bless and we are out.
Speaker 7 (58:13):
Talk to you soon.
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