MLK50

10/31/2025

Memphis school leaders are planning to expand student bus services to combat attendance drops caused by the recent surge of law and immigration enforcement in the city.

The deployment of the Tennessee National Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement this month has “created a climate of heightened fear and anxiety for many students and their families leading to significant increases in absences from school.”

MSCS board members passed a resolution Tuesday to expand bus services in response to rising student absences. Local educators say parents are keeping students home out of fear of encountering ICE agents during pickup and dropoff.

10/30/2025

"It feels like a quiet, surprise occupation. There aren’t National Guard members on every block, but when they show up, it impacts you." Fae X, an abolitionist community organizer in D.C. since 2018, talks about what having a military presence in their city feels like.

Scenes from Washington D.C. since the National Guard deployment. Photos by Sara Duran for MLK50 The National Guard and 13 federal agencies have arrived in Memphis, as part of President Donald Trump…

10/30/2025

Here's what you missed this morning on MLK50: The Constitution isn’t wrong 👌 - https://mailchi.mp/mlk50/mlk50newsletter-18255606

10/29/2025

Faced with unclear guidance, the state Department of Human Services is urging people to get their proof in by Oct. 31.

People scan the offerings at the First Congo Food Justice Ministry in April. Photo by Andrea Morales / MLK50 The federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act added veterans, homeless people and others to the…

10/29/2025

Here's what you missed last week on MLK50: All eyes on you -

10/28/2025

Which skills matter most in an economy where machines can learn?

Two surveys of hundreds of companies shed new light on what employers want.

10/28/2025

Fewer Black women died of breast cancer in Memphis, but the gap between Black and white deaths widened. Hopeful health advocates outline steps toward turning things around.

Memphis saw fewer breast cancer deaths for Black women from 2013 to 2023, according to a new Susan G. Komen Foundation analysis.  The decline was 2.3% in Memphis and nearby parts of Arkansas a…

10/28/2025

Thousands of preschoolers could lose access to Head Start due to shutdown

https://mlk50.co/48S55ob

Funding for scores of Head Start programs hung in the balance as the government shutdown continued Monday without an end in sight.

10/28/2025

The Trump administration’s anti-immigrant housing policy reflects a long history of xenophobia in public housing.

Anti-immigrant housing policies have been cast as a way for citizens to access more housing, but they fail to prevent the shortages driving the crises.

10/28/2025

Library workers’ civil service push adds to Memphis labor tensions amid city’s union disputes

Voters could decide next year whether hundreds of Memphis Public Library employees should be reclassified as civil service workers, a move that comes as the city faces growing tension with several employee unions and ongoing disputes over collective bargaining. During the Memphis City Council meetin...

10/27/2025

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch led a 15 Republican state coalition challenging the rule to protect patients from gender-identity discrimination in programs such as Medicaid, Medicare. the Affordable Care Act plans and other programs receiving federal funding.

https://mlk50.co/3X4mpit

A federal judge has vacated a Biden era rule that extended anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ patients in federal healthcare programs.

10/27/2025

First, their friend was shot in front of them. Next, their home was destroyed. We got a look inside a Memphis homeless encampment sweep. https://mlk50.co/48LemhL