by Daniel Johnson
September 8, 2024
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Memphis Mayor Paul Young discussed different ways they have worked to effect change in their majority Black cities in a conversation hosted by the Change Collective
In a conversation hosted by nonprofit community organization Change Collective, Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Memphis Mayor Paul Young discussed different ways they have worked to effect change in their majority Black cities.
According to the Clarion Ledger, the pair’s conversation discussed the commonalities they share as mayors of their respective cities. While Jackson and Memphis both deal with poverty, infrastructure problems, and crime, mayors of both cities are determined to create change.
The two-day event took place Sept. 6-7 at the Jackson Convention Complex in Jackson, Mississippi.
“What I see in Memphis is that gritty spirit where despite the odds that are against us… in the South there are systematic structures that inhibit progress,” Young said. “But, still we continue pushing.”
The pair agree that it takes the wisdom of older generations and the energy of younger people to push forward positive changes in their respective cities.
“They are here and now,” Lumumba said of the younger generation. “They contribute to the view or the quality of life that people enjoy in spaces like Jackson… there’s a spirit that I think exists among young people where they’re no longer satisfied with the status quo.”
Lumumba continued, saying that retaining the youth of Jackson is critical in combating the loss of that demographic of the city’s residents.
“The demographic that we’re losing at the most rapid pace are our younger residents, our young professionals. We have to start asking the question and engage them in the process to see why that is happening. Being a college town where we have more than five institutions in the city of Jackson, our greatest exports are our talent and our money,” Lumumba said. “We’re trying to figure out how we reverse that.”
When the topic turned to crime, Young talked about how to change the narrative around public safety.
“In Memphis, the conversation is all about crime and how scared people are,” Young said. “Everybody is talking about the fears they have around public safety. My goal was to figure out how can we change the narrative where we’re not just captives of this negativity, but we are actually proactively trying to address public safety in our communities.”
Young also discussed his meeting with Memphis gang members about how to bring crime in the city down.
“I came to the table and I said, ‘Look. I want to see what it takes for us to get seven days of a ceasefire in our community. No shooting,’” Young said. “And, they said a couple of very simple things. Number one, you got to go tell the other folks not to come shoot at us. Number two, they said, ‘Well, our kids need things to do because the reason that our young guys go out and are breaking in these cars is because they’re bored.”
Young continued, “To be sitting in Jackson, Mississippi with the mayor, with all these great people, these are things that are unimaginable to some of the kids in our communities,” Young said. “I know it’s not just Memphis. This is all across this country. That means that all of us have a responsibility not just to talk about them but to talk to them, to hear from them.”
Lumumba also discussed how the prevailing wisdom of funding the police to address public safety concerns is not necessarily the right answer.
“What we often do when we talk about public safety is we act like a carpenter with one tool: a hammer,” Lumumba said. “So, everything looks like a nail, right? We come up with the same solution: police, police, police, police.”
Lumumba continued, “The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and look for a different result,” Lumumba said. “We have to dive into that and understand, well, what are the unique challenges and what are other nations doing? What are the other investments that we should be making in order to create safer conditions?”
According to Mayor Young, the pair will also continue to collaborate, just as they have for the entirety of their careers in politics, to effect more positive changes in their communities.
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