WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): As state lawmakers move forward on various bills, local candidates are showing us the campaign money. With us again is Memphis political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Glad to be with you.
BLANK: Otis, civil rights icon Jesse Jackson died this week at age 84. And for someone who didn't live here, he always had a political presence in this city. I know you've interviewed him on several occasions, and I want to start today by asking you how would you characterize Jesse Jackson's place in Memphis history?
SANFORD: Oh, he has a strong place there, Chris. Probably more than any other political and civil rights figure who didn't call this home. Among all of the people who were associated with Dr. King, after Dr. King's assassination, Rev. Jackson came to Memphis far more than any of the others, Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Stokely Carmichael. Rev. Jackson was always here.
BLANK: And he supported so many different causes in this city over the years.
SANFORD: No question about it. I mean, he continued to support the sanitation workers even after Dr. King's assassination. Operation PUSH, which became Rainbow PUSH, really got its start here in Memphis. And he would come to the editorial board at the Commercial Appeal, where I served, just to have conversations and to bring us up to speed on what he was doing and sort of encourage us to get on board with editorial statements. I mean, he will be an iconic figure for this community forever.
BLANK: I know you've written a lot about this, but maybe you can remind us how 1968 -- the death of Dr. King -- was a turning point in Memphis politics that, in some ways, we are still the beneficiaries of that turning point.
SANFORD: Oh, no question about it. I considered after Dr. King's assassination and what happened here with the sanitation strike in '68 to be a reckoning on racial injustice here in Memphis and across the country. Now, where Memphis is concerned, it created an exodus of white Memphians from the city. And so, that started the shift in the population in which Memphis became a majority Black city in the 1990 census. But in terms of just understanding that this country, this city, the South had gone too far with racial inequality and racial injustice, you have to look at 1968 as the barometer for that.
BLANK: Well, let's take a quick look at state law. You know, Democrats today just don't have the votes for big changes, but local lawmakers have made some small victories lately. One bill expands access to birth control. Women can finally get an annual supply of the pill. There's a bill that puts free feminine hygiene products into low-income schools. Democrats seem to have found a niche where they can make some progress. How would you describe their game plan here?
SANFORD: Well, I think when you have political leaders on the Democratic side in the legislature like Sen. Raumesh Akbari and London Lamar, and then you have some some fairly active house members who are Democrats, I think you see that they are able to get some things done. I would consider Sen. Akbari as probably the most effective member of the Shelby County delegation in the legislature and she was the sponsor of this bill on birth control. And so she has a way of reaching across the aisle when maybe some others do not. And so, you have to give her credit. And not just her, but a few others, as well. The credit for at least getting some things done like this pill legislation that I think is very needed.
BLANK: We also saw some campaign finance reports this week. At this point in the county mayoral Democratic primary, city council member JB Smiley and county commissioner Michael Lowry are about even with more than $300,000 in raised funding. Do you think they are the ones to beat at this point?
SANFORD: Oh, I think they are. I mean, obviously, money does not vote in the voting booth, but money helps you to get your message out there. And it helps to get it out there in a lot of different ways, especially on television and in mailings and in a lot of other ways. And so, you have to think at this point that Smiley and Lowery are the two to beat. But of course, you have Heidi Kuhn who came in third in fundraising so far. Let's not sleep on her, because with at least seven candidates who will be on the ballot probably, the votes could be split a lot of different ways in this primary and we'll see what happens.
