Category: Courage

WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2017

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Rev. Lisa Anderson

In 2010, Lisa Anderson, pastor of Colonial Cumberland Presbyterian Church, asked the congregation if they would open their doors to shelter the homeless. They said “yes” and Room in the Inn-Memphis was born. The program has grown from one church open one night per week to thirty-six churches, offering at least one location for shelter seven nights a week, November through April.

Lisa comes from a family of pastors, married a pastor and is a pastor herself. She was participating in a Bible study group that wanted to take their study from the page into an active service ministry. Due to her connection to the Burrito Ministry and the Urban Bicycle Ministry, she recognized the need for a free shelter for the homeless. She asked her church members to open the doors one night a week during the winter to those less fortunate, to feed them a home-cooked meal and to provide a safe place to sleep in unused classrooms upstairs. Based on a program in Nashville, visitors were to be treated as honored guests with congregation members preparing and sharing the meal and spending the night.

After two successful seasons, Lisa and the Colonial congregation decided they needed to recruit more faith communities to be a part of this important ministry. Peace Lutheran joined the effort in 2012. Five more congregations became Room in the Inn-Memphis sites in 2013.

Among those was Trinity United Methodist. Due to its location, the City Council ruled that opening the doors to the homeless would be a code violation.

According to Peace and Justice Center archives, “The City Planning Office is helping Trinity UMC to craft language to change the size of the property requirement in the code. It will go to the Land Use Board and then to the City Council and County Commission for three readings each, giving the public chances to object. However, this process begins in December and will last at least a couple of months. Our immediate need is to get started in November without the fear of a church being cited for this violation. This code is ignored for all other groups, the only reason it is coming up for Trinity now is the prejudice against the guests being homeless.”

Lisa went into action, giving many interviews standing on the steps of the church, speaking at a town hall meeting and appearing before the City Council. Her passionate explanations were heard and the program at Trinity went ahead.

Since that time, over twenty more congregations have joined.

Rev. Lisa, as she is affectionately known to her congregation, says that the biggest barrier to expanding the program is combating the many stereotypes surrounding homelessness: They’re lazy and don’t want to work. They’re crazy and not taking their medication. They’re drug addicts and not to be trusted. And, they’re dangerous. It’s not safe to be around them.

Some congregations have to be convinced that the homeless are people just like us and deserve to be recognized as such. Lisa Anderson’s explanations help allay these fears and bring support to the program.

Room in the Inn is not an attempt to resolve all the issues of homelessness. It is not a social service agency. Room in the Inn-Memphis is about changing people, guests and hosts alike. It creates an environment and an opportunity for the guests to learn that there are people who care and for the hosts to come to understand that the faceless figure on the street corner is more than a statistic. It is about serving without prejudice or pride. It is about accepting everyone. Room in the Inn-Memphis is about people of religion putting the tenets of their faith into practice. It is a ministry of love.

To quote her nominator, “Though small in stature, Rev. Lisa is tall in spirit.” She fearlessly fights to improve the lives of the homeless and to change the lives of those who help.

Women of Achievement
2012

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Vanessa Luellen

Vanessa Luellen’s neighborhood was being taken over by drug dealers, vandals and prostitutes. Vanessa experienced that and knew someone had to do something about it.

Vanessa knows the troubles on the streets well – she has had two sons in prison, one for murder. She was raised right, but she says, “I was a hard-headed child. I had the best parents. My parents prayed for me and told me right from wrong. But when I got grown, I chose the path I went down. I lived the street life.” In 1992, she herself briefly served time on drug-related charges. The day before her arrest, she prayed to God for help. Of her time in jail she says, “It gave me time to get my life together. That’s where God spoke to me and let me know it was time to get it right.” She has stayed clean ever since.

In 1999, she bought her current home on Pope Street in the Mitchell Heights neighborhood. Originally valued at $55,000, the home’s value dropped to considerably. As property values were declining, so was the neighborhood. Property owners lost their homes and those homes became the property of absentee landlords and the county and city. Grass grew up and trash marred the neighborhood.

As unemployment rose, there were an increasing number of young men out of work and out on the streets with nothing productive to do. There was more drinking, more drugs, more fights. And you couldn’t sleep for the gunfire. In December 2004, her cousin was staying with her, trying to get his life back together. He was shot near her home because of an argument that took place months earlier and he died before she could get there. It was this violent death that lead her to start walking the streets of Mitchell Heights, meeting neighbors and talking about their mutual concerns. Vanessa Luellen made sense and the neighbors listened.

She revived the old Mitchell Heights Neighborhood Association. She has spoken to mayors and City Council meetings and code enforcement and police officials. She photographs vacant buildings and pushes for repairs by absent owners. She recalls a meeting with Mayor Wharton, who walked through the neighborhood with her despite the rain. She’s very persuasive and that very day, crews were there to cut the grass and bushes on the vacant lots. In 2009, she organized a Christmas parade, a first in the area’s history.

And most telling of all perhaps — the Perfect Grocery, where alcohol and cigarettes were sold to minors and drugs were available to anyone with the money, was closed down by law officials. It reopened as All Good Grocery with new owners who marched in the parade and joined the association. Those owners are still trying to do the right thing.

There are still young men out there looking for work and with little to do, but now they know her. She says 75% of them want to work but can’t find jobs because of their records, which Vanessa says is a problem. She treats them with respect and when she sees them engaging in inappropriate behavior, she’ll tell them “you gotta move that on down.” She provides encouragement and hope for the future.

The challenges and the work continue. Now Mitchell Heights is joining with Brinkley Heights, Highland Heights, Grahamwood Heights and several other groups. The new Corner of the Heights hopes that together they can move all of their neighborhoods forward. It may take a long time and a whole lot of work, but Vanessa Luellen believes that effort and consistency will make it happen. She says, “It’s a struggle, but Glory Be to God.”

Vanessa Luellen’s courage has allowed her to confront the negative forces at work in her neighborhood, forces that have the potential to be vicious when their terrain is policed. Her willingness to offer leadership, to work vigorously with law enforcement and political leaders, shows a strong spirit, true grit, an ability to use her own bad choices to rebuild her community. Vanessa’s work earns recognition by Women of Achievement.

 

In 2018, Governor Bill Haslam granted Luellen a pardon for her 1984 conviction of fraudulent breach of trust and her 1992 conviction of facilitating the sale of a controlled substance for her exceptional positive contributions to her community.

Women of Achievement
2010

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Teri Craven

From big deputies in rural Mississippi to big security guards in Wal-Mart parking lots and gunfire on picket lines, Teri Craven has repeatedly faced big opposition in her years as a union organizer and political action director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1529.

She has sweated and spent some sleepless nights – and smoked some packs of cigarettes – but she has not quit, she has not backed down and she has never lost courage for the job of getting America’s working people the rights they are due.

Teri grew up in a union house. Her father was longtime president of UFCW Local 1529, representing workers in Mississippi, West Tennessee and east Arkansas. Teri heard his stories of the fights and the arguments and the abuses and the needs of the people – all people.

She started her union career as secretary for the local in 1980 while earning an associate’s degree in business and raising a young son. She grew to love the work.

Two years later she joined the union’s staff, representing workers at 18 Kroger groceries in Mississippi. In 1990 she was dispatched to Indianola, MS, where she ended up in a three-month strike at Delta Pride’s catfish processing plant, facing bullet fire on the picket line and community pressure to force workers back to the plant. Workers stood firm.

Craven later took on the Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign, battling the giant retailer for its abuse of worker hours and pay. She joined the Living Wage coalition in Memphis and rallied union support for the votes in City Hall and County Commission to secure improved wages for local government employees and contractors.

Still a regular work week could find her on a lonely back road in Mississippi, headed north after a political campaign meeting, being pulled over by deputies who know her car and want to harass her, being put into their back seat for a while, just because they know her work and because they can.

Teri Craven has courageously stood up for and stood with ordinary working people in the fight for just wages, safe working conditions and decent hours – things that too many employers still notoriously try to avoid and will go to great lengths to dodge.

She loves the cause and loves the work, but she laughs at herself because sometimes, on a plane, asked what she does, she answers, “’I’m a housewife.’ You see, sometimes, when you bring up unions, people get ugly!”

Teri has championed the cause of workers, especially women, whose labor is often forgotten, whether they work as a nursing home aide or on a catfish farm. She also campaigns tirelessly in electoral campaigns for candidates she believes are the best voice for working people, even in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee where the likelihood of success was not always great.

Beyond her courage, perhaps her greatest trait is that, even if a cause does not seem to have a great chance of success at the outset, this does not stop her from organizing with all her energy if she believes it could improve conditions for workers.

For her career of courageous service, we honor Teri Craven with the 2010 Women of Achievement Courage award.

Women of Achievement
2009

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Africa Gonzalez

As director of Immigrant Women’s Services for the Memphis YWCA, Africa Gonzalez can find herself in tense and difficult situations, facing angry husbands or clerics, neighbors or community members intent on their own interpretation of what immigrant women should be doing.

Helping women who are victims of domestic violence become safe and secure, helping them achieve their rights in a new country, helping them maneuver a strange landscape to get medical care and education for their children – all these things are the daily “to do” list for Africa, herself a survivor of a violent relationship.

After first coming to Memphis from Mexico 12 years ago, Africa moved here in 1999 to take a job with the Memphis Police Department communication division as a liaison for the Latino community. She was an interpreter and helped people deal with the legal process in the Criminal Justice Center where she was allowed to open the Hispanic Office.

When she learned that the Memphis YWCA was seeking an advocate for immigrant women, she left the police department and developed the program to help women in the domestic violence court and in the Order of Protection hearing room. Starting with Africa in 2003, the program now includes one full-time court advocate and three part-time. Almost 3,000 calls for help came to the Spanish line last year, 900 attended support group and 270 victims were helped with court matters – over 900 assists with filing orders, appeals or violations.

Africa collaborates with Latino Memphis, the Exchange Club Family Center, the Memphis Child Advocacy Center and other groups to connect immigrant women and their children to services. Africa is co-chair of the Shelby County Domestic Violence Council, speaks to groups and on the radio and is known for her work – but that’s not always a good thing.

She has had harassing emails, complaints from strangers at community events, even abusers who confront her in court.

“There’s a strong patriarchal rule that women should be in the house serving men,” Africa said. “Women helping other women stand up for themselves – these men see that as a threat, that we are changing these women and they’re becoming bad women.”

After one abuser showed up at her home, she moved to protect her children. “It was too dangerous to live there,” Africa said. “No one really knows where I live.”

Women caught in domestic violence suffer isolation, injury and fear. When that woman is a newcomer to this country, struggling to communicate and understand how to use the laws to protect herself and her family, perhaps unskilled or unemployed and with no financial resources or place to live – the challenges she faces are enormous. The YWCA Immigrant Women’s Services tries to understand that tangle of problems and help women find a way out. And Africa wants them to find their own voices.

She said, “My hope is to empower the Latino women I come across when I speak or do presentations, helping these women to have more control over their lives, to be able to use birth control if they want to, to report sexual abuse, to be more educated in terms of things that will better their lives – English, parenting skills, sexual education.

“If I don’t do this, the problem will continue generation after generation.”

Her dream is to add Arabic- and Vietnamese-speaking advocates to do outreach in those communities where she knows need is high and growing.

Africa Gonzalez speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. She guides the lost and vulnerable. Africa’s courage fortifies her every day as she continues the necessary, dangerous work of rescuing women and children.

WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
2016

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Ashley Coffield

On a list of taboo subjects in our community, the right of a woman to make her own reproductive choices would be near the top. In this conservative part of the country, that’s a conversation that most people would rather avoid, yet in her role as President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region, Ashley Coffield stands up and speaks out daily.

As columnist Gail Collins said in The New York Times this fall, “Being at the helm of Planned Parenthood in the current climate is more like steering a boat carrying unstable explosives…while surrounded on both sides by enemy pirates throwing burning torches.”

But Ashley Coffield is up to the challenge. A fearless leader, passionate advocate and champion for women’s health, she joined Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region at a watershed moment and has led PPGMR through many transitions. She has overseen the expansion of advocacy efforts to empower patients, led staff and hundreds of volunteers throughout Tennessee during the Vote No on Amendment One campaign in the fall of 2014 and led the battle against new anti-abortion laws in Tennessee in 2015.
Born and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Ashley came to the “big city” to attend Rhodes College. As a student with no insurance, she was a patient of Planned Parenthood. She was so impressed with the organization’s compassionate and confidential care that she became a volunteer health educator. That sparked an interest and set her on the path of a 20-year career in public health that has included time in Washington, DC, at the Public Health Foundation and later leading the advocacy group Partnerships for Prevention for 12 years, three as executive director.

When she and her husband decided to return to Memphis to start their family, she telecommuted to her job in Washington but joined Planned Parenthood as a board member for 9 years, serving 2 as board chair. She left the board for a couple of years but was asked to serve on the Search Committee for a new Executive Director. This led her to apply for the job with an organization she reveres.

Founded in 1938, as a result of women’s kitchen table talks, the Memphis Planned Parenthood provides high-quality, affordable reproductive services and education to women and men throughout the Mid-South, regardless of their ability to pay. This year PPGMR celebrates its 75th anniversary.
Ashley became President and CEO on April 1, 2013. It has been a momentous three years.

Asked if she worries about the daily protesters outside the clinic, she said, “They don’t worry me…though there have been some dark days……It’s the politicians in office who want to remove the rights for which we’ve fought.”
Ashley says that the courage required for this job is not in facing the protesters or the threats but the courage needed to talk about abortion; to work to remove the stigma around discussing unplanned pregnancy.

She fights for women who have no voice, especially poor women who struggle to get family planning services through Obamacare or Medicaid Insurance.
She credits the debate over Amendment One for opening the public conversation in Tennessee. She sees a huge difference in Tennessee women’s willingness to speak out since that battle over the state constitution and women’s rights. The silent majority was activated – and Ashley and PPGMR led that fight. She worked literally day and night for weeks on end in the finally-unsuccessful effort to defeat the amendment and is vigilant now in efforts to block new laws it made possible that can further restrict or end a woman’s right to full reproductive healthcare in Tennessee.

Ashley feels strongly that people should live the lives they want to lead, not based on what someone else wants them to do – whether a partner, spouse, parents or government. She works to provide a safe place for women and men to make their own important decisions free of judgment or coercion. That’s what motivates her to have the courage to get up every day and keep fighting to keep the doors open and choices available.

Ashley Coffield is the 2016 Woman of Achievement for Courage.

Women of Achievement
2008

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Corinne Derenburger

In 1994, Corinne and Todd Derenburger’s third child, Ryan, was born. His birth was difficult. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. From the first, his mother knew something was wrong. It took a year of doctor’s visits for a diagnosis. His birth injuries had caused severe physical and mental disabilities including mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and autism. A year after Ryan’s birth, a fifth child was born, and the entire family struggled to cope with Ryan’s conditions while maintaining as a normal family life as possible.

In February, 2003, Ryan received a terminal diagnosis. He was expected to live only until the end of the year.

Struggling with the news, Corrine wanted to do something to honor Ryan’s life and perpetuate his memory. After many tears and prayers, she knew she must do two things – first, keep a journal of this difficult time – and second, remembering her family’s nine years of coping on their own, start a support group for parents of children with non-specific severe disabilities.

The journal turned into the book, RAISING RYAN, which was published by Thanksgiving 2003.

The first support group meeting was held in September of that year at Christ the Rock Church. Word spread through email and word of mouth. Fifteen families came that first night, as well as teachers and friends. Because of their great need, people came to Collierville from as far away as West Memphis and Millington and Ryan’s Hope was born. The group incorporated and within 3 months had their 501(c)(3) status. Thankfully in 2007, against all odds, Ryan was still alive and Ryan’s Hope was going strong and Ryan’s Playground was underway.

What next? Respite and recreation.

Families with children with special needs live under tremendous stress. Ninety-five percent of these families are torn apart by divorce.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a place with universal accessibility where families could have fun together? Corrine and her family had looked everywhere, including Disneyland, and such a place didn’t exist.

Corrine and the board of Ryan’s Hope got busy and came up with an idea: Turn 132 acres of public land into a semi-private recreational complex. In May 2007, they presented a well-developed plan that included goals, facility descriptions, timelines, a communications plan, and a list of project team members. Best of all, the plan would use public land but privately raised funds. The Collierville Board of Aldermen was impressed. But on June 15th, angry neighbors swarmed a meeting to protest the project and it was put on hold.

But Corrine didn’t give up. Soon other communities were clamoring to become home for the Ranch.

Corrine’s dream has always been for Ryan’s Hope, Ryan’s Playground and Ryan’s Ranch to be models for other facilities and the dream is becoming a reality. There are already two programs in Tennessee, one in Oklahoma, and two that are underway in Mississippi. And Ryan’s Hope is partnering with six other groups to have one here.

Corrine is now working with Mayor Wharton’s Sustainable Shelby Committee, introducing the idea that truly integrated communities are universally accessible communities. She talks about the need for adult changing tables and other things most of us have never even considered. And she’s also getting ready to run for public office.

On December 22, 2008, Ryan’s Hope has its fifth birthday. And thanks to the courage of Corrine Derenburger, we’re on our way to becoming an accessible community.

Corinne Derenburger and her family relocated to New Orleans but continue to support development of recreational facilities for handicapped children and their families.

 

Corinne Derenburger continues to work for the Ryan’s Hope.

Women of Achievement
2007

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Modeane Nichols Thompson

In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most violent, severely segregated cities in the south. There were sit-ins at lunch counters and kneel-ins on church steps. Protesters who marched that spring were met with policemen and dogs. And yet that is where, due to work opportunities for beloved husband and father Harry, Modeane, and their five children found themselves living.

At that time Modeane’s main responsibility was caring for her family, no small task anytime. In those violent days, Harry Thompson had been pulled over and harassed by the police. The men in their neighborhood formed a group and assigned times to patrol during the night to keep their families safe.

One September Sunday morning Harry took the four older children to church while Modeane stayed home with the baby. Listening to the radio, Modeane heard that the Ku Klux Klan had bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. She knew her family was near that location and was panic stricken until they returned home safely. Others were not so fortunate; four little girls were killed in the bombing and by the end of the day 2 teenagers were dead.

After listening to the radio one day three-year-old Arnold said, “A Negro’s going to get you, Mommy.” Out of frustration Modeane wrote an article that was published in Redbook magazine in 1964. The article, titled “What Can We Tell Our Children?,” vividly describes the dual role of African American mothers during that time. Her goal was to create an atmosphere that encouraged the children to grow up to be confident American kids who believed they could be anything they wanted to be. Her challenge was to explain to them the painful reality of the institutional racism they would have to face.

There were two articles in that issue: Modeane’s, which had her by-line and showed a picture of her children at a birthday party, and one by a white mother, by-line anonymous and a blank rectangle for illustration.

The Thompson family returned home to Memphis at the beginning of the Sanitation Strike and Modeane intensified her efforts to work to effect community change. She immediately affiliated with causes that were dedicated to developing communication and understanding. She was an active member of the Rearing Children of Goodwill Workshop, Dialogue in Black and White and the Panel of American Women, a group that spoke publicly about their own biases and prejudices as a way to help others recognize prejudice in themselves. She was a founding member of the Vollintine-Evergreen Community Action Association, which helped stabilize the neighborhood during white flight.

Modeane began her 21 years with Family Services in 1971. Using the degree in Social Work she received from Lemoyne-Owen College, she counseled unwed teenagers, conducted family education groups, and worked with many special projects.

As a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the Coalition of 100 Black Women, Shelby County Interfaith, Chair of the Action Audit for Change Committee of the YWCA of Greater Memphis and a lifetime member of the NAACP other organizations her advocacy has continued.

In 2006, Modeane was one of six national recipients of the first “Everyday Freedom Heroes Award” from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Modeane is modest about any recognition. She says she just does things she thinks everyone should do.

 

Modeane Nichols Thompson passed away on February 25, 2019.

Women of Achievement
2000

HEROISM
for a woman whose heroic spirit was tested and
shown as a model to all in Shelby County and beyond:

Molly Meisenheimer

In 1990, Molly Meisenheimer was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 35, too young at the time for a routine mammogram. With the support of her husband and two sons, she underwent a mastectomy, extensive chemotherapy, and reconstructive surgery. Faith in her family and church helped her survive the experience. “It’s not a death sentence,” Molly insists. “I’m here, I have hair on my head and a smile on my face.”

But Molly realized that women she knew didn’t talk about breast cancer, and she was desperate to find a way to reach out to other women and share her feelings. She came across an article on the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen Foundation, which raises money to fund treatment for breast-cancer patients. The group began the Race for the Cure 5K walk or run with women participants only, followed by a one-mile family fun run. Molly decided to help bring this fundraiser to Memphis, thus assisting women who didn’t have access to doctors and hospitals. In 1993, the event took place in 18 cities, including Memphis, with 1,753 participating, and net profits of $35,000. In 1999, in Memphis, 12,640 participated and $462,900 was raised.

The race is now held in more than 100 cities. Seventy-five percent of the funds raised locally stay in Memphis to pay for diagnostic screening, surgery, wigs and prostheses, videos, books, and support groups. The Race for the Cure office, run by volunteers and one paid staff member, has a sign prominently displayed reading, “Leave your ego at home.”

“I wish I hadn’t had breast cancer, but I really like the person I’ve become,” says Molly. Along with organizing the annual Race for the Cure, Molly addresses women in factories and jails, urging them to do regular self-examinations and to get mammograms.

“We are all women, we all have breasts, and cancer has no barriers.”

This May will mark the fifth year of a Memphis pro/amateur golf event that men can enter. Donations to the race and to the Komen Foundation come in throughout the year. A luncheon held locally once a year to honor all breast-cancer survivors will have 500-600 attendees. They come by word of mouth and are recognized by the number of years they have survived the cancer.

Molly has become a heroine to her family, to the Memphis community, and to breast-cancer patients and survivors everywhere for turning her personal tragedy into hope for hundreds of other women.

Molly Meisenheimer won the Memphis Chapter of the Public Relations Society of Americas (PRSA) Communicator of the Year award. She has relocated to Oxford, Mississippi.

Women of Achievement
2004

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Rev. Cheryl Cornish

Rev. Cheryl Cornish serves God by serving the community at large. Her sensitivity to those shunned by some religious groups has made her a very special leader. She has ministered beyond the boundaries of the traditional church and instituted innovative programs that give Christian compassion a broader scope.

A native of Nebraska, Cheryl came to Memphis in 1988 to serve as first female pastor of the First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ. A graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, she received her master of divinity degree from Yale University in 1983.

Under her leadership, the church affectionately known as First Congo has taken stands on a number of issues that rub against the grain of many in the “Bible Belt.” As one of the first churches nationally to become an “open and affirming” congregation, First Congo has been on the forefront of affirming equal participation of gay and lesbian people in the church. She has officiated at same-sex weddings since 1991. As a “Just Peace” congregation, the church has engaged in significant ministries of justice and non-violent social change, including serving as homebase for the local “Women in Black,” an international group that stands silent every week witnessing on behalf of world peace.

Cheryl has boldly advocated for women’s issues and AIDS awareness despite condemnation from more conservative churches. She created a forum for international social justice activists, such as Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba and Far East Buddhist monks. The church’s Global Goods program encourages the fair marketing of products from third-world countries. Deeply involved in the community, Cheryl leads by example. She has served as a trustee of LeMoyne-Owen College, director of MIFA, chair of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, and president of the Memphis Ministers Association. She is the founding chair of RAIN (Regional Interfaith AIDS Network) and an officer of the Midsouth Interfaith Network for Economic Justice.

The church grew from about 60 to about 300 members and moved to a larger space in the Cooper-Young neighborhood in 2001. It has become a vital part of the community by taking on many projects not usually associated with a church, including the Bicycle Co-Op, which repairs and provides bikes for impoverished young people and the Media Digital Arts program, which provides equipment and encourages filmmaking for aspiring artists. First Congregational Church has become home to more than 20 different organizations working in partnership for positive change.

Cheryl has said, “There has always been a very strong notion in the Congregational Church that we each embody the face of God. And if you exclude any piece of the human family, you’re excluding one face of God … I think that’s part of the reason we have this image of being wild liberals. It’s not that we’re terribly liberal, it’s just that we won’t lock the door on anybody.”

 

In 2008, Yale Divinity School awarded Rev. Cheryl Cornish the alumni award for “Distinction in Congregational Ministry”. Rev. Cornish continues to preach at First Congregational Church.

Women of Achievement
2003

COURAGE
for a woman who, facing active opposition,
backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed:

Laurel Reisman

The year was 1990. Laurel Reisman, a nurse with a thriving business in home health care and medical facility management, with her husband Ben, a builder and developer, accepted a foster child into their care, a 4-day-old infant named Cady. They had been foster parents previously and were in constant touch with social services as placement options were explored. Soon it became apparent that only African-American couples were being considered as prospective parents.

Politely the Reismans asked why this was protocol. Their inquiries were dismissed with “this is the way things were done.’’ Cady had a Caucasian mother and an African-American father so she was categorically labeled by the Department of Children Services as black. Only black couples would be considered.

The Reismans’ reaction was immediate. Why did the 50/50 ratio denote the child as black and why did that matter? Why did any racial mix that included African-American in any degree designate the child as black? Wouldn’t broadening the pool of prospective parents to the largest possible number be in the best interests of the child? Yet the Reismans met a solid brick wall of opposition from state officials who were ironically designated as protector of the children.

Frustrated and dismayed, they resorted to legal action. On Oct. 3, 1990, they filed suit in federal court to change the state’s policy on behalf of mixed-race children.

At the same time, something quite personal had happened – the Reismans were often quoted as saying they had simply fallen in love with Cady, now 2 months old. They were ready to pursue adoption for themselves – but they were categorically rejected by DCS because they were white.

In October 1993 U.S. Dist. Judge Robert McRae ordered the state to change its procedures to equally consider black and white families for adoption.

On Dec. 12, 1993, the Reismans filed a second federal lawsuit – this one on behalf of all children to eliminate any policy in which children would be classified. This would result in a favorable binding agreement about state policy five years later, in 1998.

With a national movement on the issue, with which the Reismans were aligned, a federal mandate was issued making the Tennessee policy national policy – states cannot use race as a factor with regard to a child or potential parents.

Cady Laurel Reisman vs. the State of Tennessee, as the case resides now in law books, made a difference. With the courage, and the physical and financial stamina to wage all-out war with the state, Laurel Reisman won new rights for prospective adoptive parents who might have been denied on the grounds of race and for babies of varying ethnic backgrounds.

 

Laurel Reisman continues to work at Healthcare Concepts.