Crusades for Freedom: Memphis and the Political Transformation of the American South

6. “Please Don’t Do That”

 ®1MFBTF
%PO±U
%P
5IBU¯ A. Maceo Walker was very pleased. In March 1961 he became the first African American in the twentieth century to serve on a permanent city board when he was appointed to the Traffic Advisory Commission. Walker was nominated by Commissioner William Farris, and his appointment was widely applauded by both the black and white communities.1 The son of Dr. J. E. Walker, Antonio Maceo was born in Indianola, Mississippi, in 1909. Maceo and his family moved to Memphis in 1920 in order to expand the family’s life insurance business and to avoid white harassment. We “were a sore spot in the eyes of the whites of that community. They began to pick on us, and there was nothing to do except move,” Walker remembered.2 In 1923 J. E. Walker and his son founded Universal Life Insurance Company, which quickly grew into the largest black-owned business in the Midsouth. Walker earned a baccalaureate degree from Fisk University in Nashville and then went on to receive a master’s degree in business administration from New York University. By 1961 Walker was serving as president of both Universal Life and the Tri-State Bank, making him the leading African American businessman in Memphis.3 Walker’s appointment was accepted without comment from white supremacists, which was in stark contrast to the proposed appointment of his father to the John Gaston Hospital board in 1956. A few months later, however, a second black appointment resulted in a far different reaction. In July former mayor Orgill resigned his seat on the Memphis Transit Authority board, which oversaw the city’s public transportation system, in order to accept a similar position on the light, gas and water division’s governing body. Several prominent African Americans, including Walker, Sugarmon, and Jesse Turner sent letters to the city commission requesting that they nominate A. W. Willis to the MTA board. Armour replied that he would vote for Willis, which no doubt strongly influenced the other commissioners .4 Consequently at the next commission meeting William Farris nominated Willis, while Armour, John Dwyer, and James Moore approved the motion. However, to their surprise, Loeb voted against it.5 Undoubtedly the reason for his nay vote was to bolster his credibility as a segregationist. ˜LHA=OA
@KJ›P
@K
PD=P™

 It worked. Within a few hours of the vote irate white citizens began phoning and writing the mayor’s office complimenting Loeb on his vote and expressing dismay over Willis’s appointment. “We certainly don’t need an NAACP lawyer on any city board,” one caller exclaimed.6 For Richard T. Ely, president of the white Memphis and Shelby County Council of Civic Clubs, Willis ’s selection was an example of unscrupulous politicians “selling out their elective offices to minority groups . . . for a political advantage.”7 Encouraged by this support, Loeb vowed to veto the appointment at the next commission meeting. The city charter did contain a vague provision requiring “the approval of the mayor before it shall take effect,” but it had almost never been used by previous mayors.8 Despite his bluster, Loeb at the same time hinted at a compromise. He was willing, he said, to appoint a “moderate” African American to the MTA board, but not an “extremist” like Willis. At first, the four commissioners stood by their decision, but as they got closer to the next meeting, they began to waver. Meanwhile, African American leaders issued statements of support for Willis in hopes of blocking Loeb’s threatened veto. Leaders of several black organizations, including Walker, Russell Sugarmon, Jesse Turner, Benjamin L. Hooks, and George W. Lee, urged the commission to sustain Willis’s appointment.9 In response to a letter sent by the group, Armour promised that he would support Willis, and over the weekend he and the other three commissioners met privately in the mayor’s office to discuss the situation. Farris and the other commissioners were adamant that an African American be appointed to the board, but their commitment to Willis had weakened considerably in the face of such vocal white opposition. Loeb really didn’t care if an African American was appointed to a city board, but he was determined not to reward an activist like Willis while at the same time bolstering his segregationist credentials. Consequently he suggested that in exchange for removing Willis, he would agree to vote for A. Maceo Walker to...