Category: Courage

Women of Achievement
2002

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

Tandy Gilliland and Patricia Merrill

Pat Merrill and Tandy Gilliland were already veteran community leaders when they joined energies 12 years ago to fight for a blufftop trail overlooking the Mississippi River. Through 10 years, two lawsuits, broken promises and compromises, their Chickasaw Bluffs Conservancy fought the mayor, a powerful developer and influential blufftop residents.

Their tenacity paid off in August 1999 with the opening of the $2.42 million, 1.1-mile Mississippi Riverbluff Walkway, from Union to Ashburn-Coppock Park. Tandy has been asked if she would have started the fight if she had known it would last for 10 years. “Maybe not,” she says, “but I’m glad that we did it … It proved one thing to me: that grassroots really can win if you just stay with it long enough.”

Pat, a Cincinnati native who moved to Memphis with her five children in 1967, founded the Sea Isle Neighborhood Association and served as chair of Memphis City Beautiful. She was noted for her support of issues from zoning and flood control to tree preservation and interstate sound barriers. Pat was familiar with the bluff trail and was part of a loosely organized group that became concerned when increasing redevelopment downtown began to close parts of the trail. Tandy was an active elder and outreach organizer at Idlewild Presbyterian Church, and working as executive director of the World Lens Project when she read about developer Henry Turley’s plans to build homes atop the bluff.

Tandy’s father, conservationist, environmentalist and Shelby County official Rudolph Jones, had dreamed of a long trail along the Mississippi River that would include the blufftop. Almost without conscious thought, Tandy telephoned Pat, whom she did not know, to become involved in saving the blufftop.

In February 1990, in Tandy’s breakfast room, the Chickasaw Bluffs Conservancy was formed. Tandy was the first president. An alliance of downtown and East Memphis residents, the group was given its name by founding member and 2001 Woman of Achievement Anne Shafer. The conservancy organized hikes and speakers along the blufftop and lobbied for construction of a trail.

Turley, meanwhile, wanted to back out on a promise to pay for construction of a trail if the city allowed him to develop the blufftop land. He decided to sell the lots as homesites and move the trail behind them. Late in 1992, the city council accepted Turley’s idea of “notching” the walkway into the bluff eight feet below the riverfront homes – and Turley was not required to pay for it. The search for state and federal funding took off and designers worked to make the compromise a safe reality. The City Council in February 1995 approved funding – but Mayor Willie Herenton tried to end the project by refusing to sign the construction contract. Then he proposed an alternative route that would wind the walkway BEHIND two riverfront condominium projects and Turley’s South Bluffs.

Pat, conservancy president starting in 1994, reacted: “I think it’s a complete betrayal of the citizens of Memphis. To me, exchanging a magnificent bluffwalk for a peep show and giving command of the Bluff City’s bluff to a few well-placed individuals is akin to selling our birthright for a mess of pottage.” Said Tandy, “We’re not done yet. We’re going to fight as long as we can.”

Then blufftop homeowners sued to stop construction, fearing the walkway would be easy access to their backyards. Some called the conservancy members pushy and old and one threatened to “get out the garden hose and give them a ride down the hill.” Pat responded. “Because this is the Bluff City, the city should have a bluff and the public should be able to enjoy it. We never had anything against those nice people who live in those houses. We just want them to share the view.”

In 1997, Herenton was defeated in state appeals court by the conservancy, joined by the city council. The homeowners’ suit was dismissed in 1998. Now former opponents praise the walkway for making the blufftop into a neighborhood.

Through their courage and persistence, Patricia Merrill and Tandy Gilliland preserved for generations public access to the Bluff City’s grandest view.

Patricia Merrill passed away on September 8, 2019 at the age of 93.

Tandy Gilliland passed away on November 8, 2020.

Women of Achievement
2001

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

Anne Whalen Shafer

A native Memphian, Anne Whalen Shafer has generously given energy and time for more than 50 years to improve the quality of life for all inhabitants of Memphis. She has faced anger and ignorance with grace and determination. Anne believes in and works toward the elimination of racism and sexism in families, religion, and society.

In the mid-1960s, Anne was appointed chair of the Memphis City Beautiful Commission, a post she held for three years. She organized a group of women from different ethnic neighborhoods who cleaned up areas plagued with open sewers, filth, and disease. They stood up to traditionalists who wanted to maintain segregation in Memphis. In 1964, the Memphis City Beautiful Commission was integrated with the addition of three African-American members, in part due to the encouragement Anne gave Public Works Commissioner T.E. “Pete” Sisson.

On her first day as the chair of the commission, Anne integrated the office of inspectors by moving two African-American inspectors from the cloakroom into the main office. The elimination of a separate “Negro Division” fit Anne’s sense of values. As it turns out, this created the first integrated office in City Hall. During her tenure, segregation fell by the wayside on every front. She integrated the annual Clean-Up, Fix-Up, Paint-Up parade and the poster art contest, and she worked for a single Miss City Beautiful contest open to all.

Openly working for integration in the 1960s in Memphis required courage and earned her a few enemies who didn’t share her strong sense of what is right, but Anne sought and won the position of Shelby County delegate to the 1965 Tennessee Constitutional Convention that reapportioned the state legislature.

Over the past 50 years, Anne has been active in the League of Women Voters, Church Women United, UNICEF, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, and the Panel of American Women. She and her compatriots crossed an invisible boundary that imprisoned people who were marginalized by the hue of their skin or their gender or heritage. That boundary was an attitude that kept people in their place. “When the time came for me to step over that line, I had to do it,” she said.

Today, Anne continues to speak up for issues she passionately believes are right. She is one of the founders of the Public Issues Forum, an association whose purpose is to stimulate civil discussion and debate on current issues. They focus on the need for tolerance both locally and internationally.

Always an advocate for the inalienable rights of every human being, Anne Whalen Shafer embodies the essence of courage in a world that does not always accept with grace the diversity of cultures, issues, and beliefs. She stands tall as a role model for courageously and actively living one’s beliefs.

 

Anne Shafer passed away at age 90 on October 2, 2013.

Women of Achievement
2000

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

Helen Adamo

Although some form of mental illness affects one in five families, the condition is often misunderstood, feared, and hidden from public view. It takes a person of courage to accept the unpopular challenge of being a champion for people who suffer with mental illness. Such a courageous person is Helen Adamo.

For 20 years, Helen has worked to dispel erroneous myths, change public policy, and defend the rights of individuals whose lives have been affected by disorders of the brain. Her business card from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Memphis reads, “Helen Adamo, Advocate.” Behind this simple title lies a diverse, complex combination of hard-fought achievements, gratifying victories, frustrating delays, fierce battles, exhausting hours, and eternal faith. Helen’s goals include removing the stigma attached to mental illness and improving the quality of life for those who often are victimized because of their illness.

“Discovering that a family member has a mental illness is like a death, but the person is still living,” Helen said. “You don’t receive flowers. People don’t come to visit and console you. But you still grieve. And you have to go through each step of the grieving process until you reach acceptance. That’s when you become an advocate.”

Helen has far more than a passing acquaintance with those steps to acceptance. She is the mother of a mentally ill adult son. Twenty-eight years ago when she first faced the heartbreak of mental illness, there were few medications and even fewer services available for families with mentally ill members.

Today, she enthusiastically lists the number of medications available, but laments the delivery of services and the ignorance that persists about the disease. She edits the AMI Advisor, a newsletter for the organization she has served since 1983.

By speaking out in defense of the rights of the mentally ill, Helen draws attention to the plight of these intelligent individuals who suffer and may not know that there is help for them. She is one of the cofounders of the Crisis Intervention Team, specially trained police officers equipped to handle people with brain disorders. This special unit has been in existence for 11 years and has become a model for the rest of the country. The officers volunteer for the training and are now found in every precinct in Memphis 24 hours a day.

Jails are another challenge faced by the mentally ill and a major concern for Helen. She firmly believes that if a third of detainees in jails who are suffering with serious brain disorders were expedited through the system so they could get the help they need, overcrowding in jails would be a moot point. This is neither a popular nor easy proposal, but one she pursues nevertheless. After two years of Helen’s advocacy for those mired in the judicial system, a committee has been formed to review solutions to the problems – a glimmer of hope on the horizon for her.

Helen retired from NAMI-Memphis April 1, 2002, at age 74.

Helen Adamo passed away on September 22, 2021.

Women of Achievement
1999

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

Susan Mackenzie

An attorney in private practice for more than 13 years, Susan Mackenzie is an out lesbian who has worked both within the justice system and outside the system as a political activist to change legal and social structures that deny the rights of lesbian and gay citizens.

Susan has merged her legal skills with activism, working for equal rights for women, lesbians, gay men as well as others victimized, deprived and overlooked by society.

Susan is often called on as a spokesperson for a feminist perspective on numerous issues.

She has never shied away from disclosing personal aspects of her life in order to further the political rights of women. She has spoken out as a survivor of child sexual abuse and has never hidden the fact that she is a lesbian.

She is a survivor in all its senses.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while her dad was in graduate school, she grew up in Huntsville, Alabama. She graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1983 with a double major in psychology and criminal justice administration. She earned her law degree from Memphis State University Law School in 1986.

Susan has successfully represented lesbian and gay parents being denied their parental rights because of anti-gay stereotypes. In another focus of her practice, Susan assists gay and lesbian couples in protecting their relationships through wills, powers of attorney and co-parenting agreements – legal documents that are unnecessary for those allowed to marry.

She was a member of the team of attorneys that represented the plaintiffs in the successful challenges to the constitutionality of the Tennessee sodomy statue which criminalized private homosexual activity between consenting adults. This law was declared unconstitutional in 1996.

Susan brings her feminist philosophy to litigation as a Rule 31 certified mediator. She is a former national board member for both the National Organization for Women and the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association.

Susan’s courage is reflected in her daily struggles for equality whether in the courtroom or on the streets. In the face of opposing forces, even those whose anger is disruptive and violent, she is able to maintain her voice of reason.

 

Susan Mackenzie continues to work as a litigator in Memphis.

Women of Achievement
1998

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

Doris Bradshaw

Doris Bradshaw stood up against powerful forces to protect her community.

Doris serves as the executive director of the Defense Depot of Memphis, Tennessee – Concerned Citizens’ Committee which was formed during a PTA meeting in October 1995, to address the pollution the Defense Depot was causing in the black residential community surrounding it. She became known as “troublemaker” when she began researching the issues connecting pollution and cancer which contributed to her grandmother’s death. She discovered scores of chemicals flowed throughout the Depot’s 18 drainage ditches into the surrounding community, which included eight schools.

Doris’ efforts have resulted in many achievements for the community. When health department statistics showed the cancer rate in her community was twice as high as the country as a whole, she challenged plans to “pump and treat” contaminated water beneath the depot because it was insufficient and not scientifically well-founded. She demanded that the Agency for Toxic Substance & Disease Registry perform another health assessment on the community surrounding the Defense Depot. The assessment proved that the one done in 1995 was unscientific. Later, she created and chaired the community board of the Agency for Toxic Substance & Disease Registry. She searched for an outside lab to test samples of the water in Memphis and identify contaminants.

Doris is also a community representative for the Community Tribal Subcommittee of the Board of Scientific Counselors, one of the nine people chosen from a field of 75 applicants.

In order to keep people informed about environmental racism, Doris travels extensively and has become a familiar figure in this movement. She has been appointed to and chairs the Tennessee African-American Environmental Justice Action Network and she is a member of the Tennessee Minority Health Coalition.

A member of the National Organization for Women, she conducted a workshop at their 1997 annual conference titled, “A River of Pollution Runs Through It: Women Fighting Environmental Racism in the South.”

 

Doris Bradshaw continues to combat environmental justice in her own backyard (literally). Her daughter has also joined the fight.

Women of Achievement
1997

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

Novella Smith-Arnold

For more than 18 years, Novella Smith-Arnold has been dedicated to a single mission: chaplain for the men and women in the Shelby County jail. In her own words, Novella works with those whom no one else wants: the criminals, crooks and creeps – the disenfranchised and throwaways. But she believes that everyone deserves the love of another, and it is her calling to provide that love.

As director of the Calvary Episcopal Church Criminal Justice Ministry, called “We Care, Inc./Kids Care,” Novella ministers to the forgotten of society.

Many were outraged when in 1989, then-Sheriff Jack Owens declared Novella and her work with Shelby County inmates to be “a security risk,” and she was banned from ministering in the jail. But Novella stood her ground and, backed by a petition from the prisoners and the public support of many, she was able to return to her ministry.

And then a new affliction began sweeping the jail. The outbreak of AIDS was no less tragic among those in jail, and many times much worse. Novella found that prisoners with AIDS were often isolated, harassed and abused. Just as AIDS began to turn into epidemic proportions, Novella was again banned from her work in the jails. Today, she continues to minister to inmates even though she is not allowed in the jail.

Novella now has an even more personal reason to continue her work: Her daughter, adopted at age 13, is now fighting full-blown AIDS at age 32.

God said “feed my sheep” and Novella continues to follow His direction no matter what the odds. Since she began her career in broadcasting, Novella never dreamed she would end up ministering to criminals. But she believes that wherever God calls, we must go.

Novella’s work takes courage, with a generous helping of caring to go among the prisoners, and an ample amount of bravery to face up to the uncaring who would like to send her away.

Novella is outreach ministry chaplain at Calvary Episcopal Church.

 

Novella Smith-Arnold is currently the prison chaplain at the Shelby County Jail.

Women of Achievement
1996

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

Frances Goodman McMahon

A nurse at Arlington Developmental Center, Frances McMahon saw mentally disabled people being abused and neglected. Told to ignore abuses, she got angry, got involved and got things changed. It started with her deep concern over a 4-year-old boy named Seth. For two years he was kept locked in a room by himself with no mat and no toys. This was how development technicians were handling the problems of the self-abusive child at Arlington.

Nurses at Arlington were told not to report abuses. Abuses noted on medical reports were either erased or changed. During Frances’ efforts to help Seth, other nurses started talking about patient abuses, inept medical care and poor management at the facility. When supervisors refused to address the problems, Frances and the nurses went outside the facility for help – first to State Representative David Shirley. He took them to then-Commissioner of Mental Health and Retardation, Eric Taylor, who warned them not to get involved. Next they went to Governor Ned McWherter, who also told them not to pursue the issue.

Finally, they went to then-U.S. Attorney for West Tennessee, Hickman Ewing. He turned the matter over to the FBI and the Justice Department and finally an investigation was launched. Frances made daily reports from Arlington. Suspicious that she was helping the investigation, her supervisors constantly scrutinized her work and made her time on duty as difficult as possible.

The investigation led to the Justice Department filing suit and in 1993 U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla found that the state had violated the constitutional rights of the Arlington patients. The state, the Justice Department and McCalla eventually agreed on a plan to improve care at Arlington.

Later, McWherter said that the investigation was his first knowledge of abuse at Arlington. He remembered that he had spoken with some “disgruntled employees” who complained about working conditions, but said that he was never told by an employee about any clients being abused. Likewise, former Commissioner Taylor claimed that there were no reports of falsified medical charts and no outcry from staff that people were being mistreated, and that furthermore, if there was any wrong doing reported, it was immediately investigated and resolved.

Today Frances McMahon is retired and Arlington Developmental Center is under new management. The center remains under constant scrutiny by a court-appointed monitor to show that patients are receiving the care they deserve. “Don’t underestimate the role she played,” say Justice Department officials of Frances.

Frances McMahon ignored repeated warnings not to get involved in the problem. She faced active opposition from her supervisors, the Commissioner of Mental Health and the governor. Despite efforts to stop her, our 1996 Woman of Courage continued until the rights of patients were finally recognized and steps were underway to improve the lives of the mentally disabled residents.

Women of Achievement
1994

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

Georgia King

Georgia Anna King has walked through hurricanes, disregarded barricades on the steps of our nation’s capital, and captured microphones from guards to give voice to the homeless.

In 1989, she was one of the leaders of the Southern contingency of the New Exodus Walkers. Her group walked more than 250 miles from Roanoke, Virginia to the steps of the capital to make the plight of the homeless a priority in Congress. Queen Akua (her African name means Sweet Messenger) led the group in greeting disapproving observers with “Praise the Lord.” Before reaching their destination, skies turned black, winds arose and rain pored down. But the spirit of God told Georgia to put on her sanctified sneakers and to continue. Putting her fear behind her, she led her group forward through what was Hurricane Hugo.

Ahead on the march she saw a man who in her words looked like “one of her children.” She shouted, “Are you homeless?” “Yes,” he replied. “Then come with us to Washington. We’re going to shake the Bust to get money restored to help you.” And one more joined the group.

That year $250 billion designated for programs to help the homeless had been cut from the national budget. Upon reaching D.C., marchers from the South met marchers from the North and busloads of activists from all over. The group now was over 200,000 strong when it reached the Capitol steps. Their efforts paid off and funds were restored.

This struggle is nothing new. Georgia Anna has been fighting on behalf of the homeless since 1960. That summer she went to New York and saw for the first time people trapped by homelessness. The daughter of a Union City, Tennessee entrepreneur, she had never seen people sleeping on the streets before. Driving through the Bowery with an old family friend, she kept questioning what she saw. And she didn’t like the answers she got.

So, at the age of 20, rescuing the homeless became one of her personal missions. Queen Akua’s efforts don’t end with the homeless. She’s a grassroots activist who work directly with the mentally ill and the chemically dependent. Her interests include the arts and work on the board of Africa in April as well as with Project 30,000 Homes. She’s been honored for more than 53,000 hours of community service. Currently she’s working to open the Miracles Mission for the Homeless on South Main Street. Her goal is to look for long-term solutions for problems.

“I plant seeds,” she says of her many interests and accomplishments. “And find my courage and direction from the Lord.”

 

Georgia is now known as “Mother King” and is one of Memphis’s biggest activists. She founded the Memphis Bus Riders Union in 2012 in order to monitor the MATA. In 2018 she was honored with the MLK 50 Award for Leadership and Activism in the Memphis community.

Georgia Anna King passed away on February 7, 2023.

Women of Achievement
1993

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

Eunice Wilson

Eunice Wilson has worked tirelessly for reproductive rights. From 1988 to 1992 she served as executive director of the Memphis Center for Reproductive Health (MCRH).

She has displayed compassion towards women and girls who chose to terminate their pregnancies, as well as unimpeachable tact in dealing with anti-choice picketers and the local news media. She has met with anti-choice leaders to share her convictions and to try to understand theirs. She has spent many hours meeting with pro-choice groups to plan strategies for public relations, political actions and building a safe environment for Mid-South clinics. Eunice cares about the staff, volunteers and, most of all, clients at MCRH and is always encouraging and optimistic.

Eunice Wilson has a long history of caring for others. She married Willard Wilson in 1947 and over the next 13 years gave birth to six children. While the children were young the Wilsons began foster-parenting children handicapped as a result of abuse at home.

In 1960, the family moved to Humboldt, Tennessee. While continuing to care for foster children, Eunice began working nights as a nurse’s aide at a local hospital. In 1967, the family moved to Memphis where Eunice began to study nursing and was soon working at Baptist Hospital. She earned her RN at Memphis State University in 1969. Two years later, she began correspondence courses and subsequently received her Bachelor’s degree in psychology and counseling.

During this time she became charge nurse in the Baptist Hospital Emergency Room. It was work there that led Eunice to her current convictions concerning a woman’s right to a legal abortion. She saw women arriving for emergency treatment following complications from abortions done outside the state, and she questioned why women in Tennessee were unable to have safe, legal abortions. Without this experience, Eunice would have remained on the other side of the issue, instead of being the pro-choice activist that she is today.

Taking an early retirement in 1984, Eunice began part-time work with St. Peter Nursing Home. At the age of 60, she became clinic coordinator for MCRH. In 1988, she became director.

During her tenure as director she worked actively to preserve the rights of women to informed health care and a safe and legal abortion. All the while staff, clients and the clinic itself were subject to threats and abuse by anti-choice activists. Throughout it all this woman of courage remained a calm source of strength and resolve.

 

Eunice Wilson passed away after a battle with the results of a stroke.

Women of Achievement
1992

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

Teresa Rae Dowdy

Teresa Raelene Dowdy went to work for Criminal Court Clerk J.A. “Bubba” Blackwell in 1974. The Equal Rights Amendment was being debated for ratification among the states and women were entering the workforce in record numbers. But Rae found that time had stood still in Bubba’s office.

Blackwell’s female clerks were not allowed in the courtroom because he said women should not hear language used in some trials. Men could leave early for sporting events or they could study on the job for courses they enrolled in. Men got pay raises if they married or became fathers. Yet a female clerk who wanted more time at home with her new twins was placed on part-time status with reduced pay while a male clerk who was sick for more than a year received several raises while he was off!

Although all 54 employees were technically deputy clerks, a five-level hierarchy from chief clerk to deputy clerk had been devised, with 49 different salaries. Guess who fell into the lowest-paying levels? Guess who was passed over for promotions and pay raises for years, simply because she was female? Guess who finally got mad and got a lawyer?

In November 1985, Rae and 13 other female clerks filed suit in federal court against Blackwell, Shelby County government and the County Commission. Represented by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, they charged sex discrimination. During the two-year wait for trial Rae’s employer saw to it that each day was as difficult as possible. Rae was verbally abused, constantly watched, denied her vacation time, questioned about her sick leave. They even tried to take away her parking space. Many fellow employees turned against her and tried to convince others to do the same.

In court before U.S. District Judge Julia S. Gibbons in February 1988, Blackwell testified that he paid men more because of their physical abilities and because they have families to support. Judge Gibbons found that lowest paid males earned more than the highest paid females. Such facts brought her to the conclusion this was “convincing evidence of unequal pay.” In September 1988, Gibbons ruled there was “willful” discrimination. She ordered the county to pay $445,000 to the women, including double back pay for three years. The judge also ordered raises for the women equal that of men performing the same duties — up to $400 a month in some cases. The county did not appeal, and Blackwell chose not to seek re-election in 1990.

Rae Dowdy stood up for herself, her female co-workers and every wage-earning American woman. She fought for equal rights and proved that that fight can be won, with courage.