Last night was the Downtown Alive!/Folk Alliance Mini-Folk Festival on the National Civil Rights Museum plaza. I expected protester Jackie Smith to show up, and she did.
Jackie has had a booth across the street from the Civil Rights Museum for over 15 years, protesting its existence. She believes that the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King lost his life, is sacred ground, and the Civil Rights Museum is wrong to use the building for commercial purposes. She also opposes the “gentrification” of the surrounding South Main neighborhood, with recent development of condos, art galleries, and boutique businesses, feeling that would not have been part of Dr. King’s vision for the area.
For a long time I thought it was a good thing she was there. I didn’t agree with her, but I didn’t totally disagree either. She had some points worth at least hearing. “It’s good to have alternative voices down here,” I thought.
However, my opinion of Jackie changed last October, at the RiverArtsFest, as FreeWorld played onstage at the NCRM plaza. Jackie was there, booing FreeWorld, and using a very loud, annoying feedback device to disturb other concertgoers’ enjoyment of the music. Booing FreeWorld. For those of you not familiar with the band, let me point out that one of the members is 78-year-old Dr. Herman Green, an African-American musician who was playing Beale Street before Jackie was even born. I can’t speak for FreeWorld, but I feel reasonably sure that if they had thought they were doing anything other than honoring Dr. King by playing the NCRM stage, they would’ve turned down the date. It’s one thing to disagree with the festival’s existence, but booing the performers themselves was simply out of line.
Last night Jackie was back, as I expected she would be. She had a sign protesting the concert, and a microphone rigged up to a boom box to act as a feedback device generating a high-pitched squeal. She wandered through the crowd, screaming at people. “Go away!” she said. “This is sacred ground! You’re all drunk! You only come down here when you want to eat and drink! Go to Beale Street!” She even tried to get onstage a couple of times. The musicians were amazingly tolerant of her, considering what a nuisance she was.
A couple of the CCC people, who don’t get down to South Main as much as I do and therefore weren’t familiar with Jackie, asked me, “Does she think she’s doing any good down here?” Of course she’s not doing any good. That’s the thing. Festivals like the one last night could be tremendous opportunities for her. If she’d lose the feedback device and the sign, and just walk around and talk to people, she could probably win quite a few of them over to her cause. If she’d just go up to people and say, “I see you’re having a good time here, but would you mind if I take a few minutes to explain why this is sacred ground and events like this shouldn’t be held here…”, I bet quite a few people would be willing to give her a listen. Over time she could build up a base of support, and be seen as a notable voice of dissent in the area.
But Jackie doesn’t do that. She’s more interested in making a spectacle of herself, drawing attention to herself. I won’t go so far as to call her a “racist poser” as another Downtown blogger has, but her actions last night do suggest that it’s all about Jackie, rather than all about the cause she claims to stand for.
Eventually things started to turn hostile. As Jackie stood on the sidewalk and ranted and yelled, she held the feedback device uncomfortably close to the ear of a woman sitting nearby… at some point that thing stops being free speech and starts being assault. The woman, out of frustration, grabbed Jackie’s sign, crumpled it, and threw it into the open field as the crowd applauded. Realizing things could get ugly, the police were called, and Jackie was escorted out of the festival area.
It’s too bad she chose such an ineffective way to express herself, and it’s too bad she sees everyone who attends NCRM events as the enemy rather than people to sit down and exchange ideas with. She could’ve been an important community voice, but the loony, offensive, insulting way in which she chooses to express herself makes it hard for anyone to take her seriously.