mlk50

An unfinished mandate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy

An FBI agent poses for a photograph in front of the wreath marking the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis. Photography by Dylan Yarbrough for MLK50 This image depicts a ...
MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

A peaceful anti-ICE march turned ugly when the Tennessee Highway Patrol drove into the crowd, hitting at least three people

Tennessee State Troopers yell at demonstrators after detaining Rebecca Leathers during the "ICE Out for Good" demonstration along Summer Avenue on Jan. 11 ...
mlk50

‘We deserve to breathe clean air’: Southwest Memphians take on Elon Musk’s xAI

Easter Knox (center) stands for a portrait at her home. Knox is a longtime Boxtown resident. Photos by Lucy Garrett for MLK50 Easter Knox’s brick home in Boxtown has a garden, space for her dog to run ...
mlk50

Inside the Memphis Chamber of Commerce’s push for Elon Musk’s xAI data center

Photo illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: Andrea Morales/MLK50, screenshot by MLK50, U.S. Air Force photo by Trevor Cokley via Wikimedia Commons Marilyn Gooch was already ...
mlk50

April 2025 was one of the deadliest months on record for Memphis children

Students at Crosstown High School walked out of school in March 2023 and held a rally to protest lax gun laws in the wake of the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville. Photo by Andrea Morales ...
mlk50

No school, no fresh air and isolated

David spent eight months incarcerated at the Youth Justice and Education Center. Center portrait by Kevin Wurm / MLK50 / CatchLight Local / Report for America; Image of the Shelby County Youth and ...
mlk50

Some Baptist-Desoto patients go to jail to await mental health treatment

(Vanessa Saba, special to ProPublica. Source images: Photographs by Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, documents obtained by ProPublica and Mississippi Today.) When Sandy Jones’ 26-year-old daughter ...
mlk50

FedEx says it’s a safe workplace. So why is Jessica James dead?

Jessica James had to get up and down that ramp. Her job at FedEx’s World Hub was to help ensure the trucks in her area were loaded and unloaded on time. That meant navigating forklifts on sloped ramps ...
mlk50

Strickland did not enforce Memphis police reform ordinances. Young says he will.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland speaks at graduation of union pre-apprenticeship class at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Hall on Madison Avenue. Photo by Ariel Cobbert for ...
mlk50

2025 Creator-In-Residence: Amber Sherman

Inspired by a similar program launched by the national news outlet Mother Jones, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism has launched a creator-in-residence program for Memphis creatives. The program seeks ...
mlk50

Memphis needs more apartments, but neighbors are getting in the way

Susie Mitchell stands for a portrait in the room she’s renting at a home in Frayser. Mitchell has been here since she and her mother were evicted from their Whitehaven apartment in August. They ...
mlk50

South Memphis residents frustrated even as company leaking toxins says it’s leaving

Vera Holmes (right) flips through a copy of the George Washington Carver High School class of 1982 yearbook with a classmate at the All Classes Annual Red & White Picnic at MLK Riverside Park in ...