By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-897407.mp3
Memphis, TN – Next to Greater Middle Baptist Church is the church gymnasium; the gym is named after civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks (who spent more than half a century preaching at Greater Middle Baptist), and today it's serving as an early voting station in Shelby County's primary elections.
The church itself is an L-shaped brick building with a white steeple. Inside the carpets are crimson. Today hundreds of mourners tread them to pay their respects at Hooks' open casket.
Hooks was a lawyer, a judge, a Baptist minister, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, head of the NAACP, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Ask people what it was like to hear him speak, and one word comes to mind: "Fiery."
But Hooks was also funny. At a remembrance for his good friend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Hooks told this story about a black man who got into a fight, and ended up in court:
"The judge said, What happened?'
" He called me a black S.O .' You know what," Hooks winked.
The judge said that wasn't anything to fight about, and the man replied, " Well, Judge, suppose he had called you a black S.O What would you do?'
" We'll you can't do that, first of all, I'm not black.'
" Well suppose he called you what kind you is? What would you do?'"
Hooks and his audience laughed.
Hooks said the leaders of the Civil Right Movement told jokes, "To strengthen ourselves, because this has been a hard struggle."
Many people at Greater Middle Baptist had stories about being encouraged and emboldened by Hooks.
Cordella Smith runs a job center for 16 and 17-year-olds in Mississippi. Hooks worked on the center's board.
"Because of Dr. Hooks many of our students have been trained," Smith said, "they're going out into the workforce, and they're tax-paying citizens now."
As Smith waited for her students, George Henderson stood weeping outside the church door. "You don't find many people like him," Henderson said.