The World According to Oatney

Shelby County Civil War

Naysayers are already up to their usual tricks of accusing non-Memphis residents of being racist because the formation of separate chartered districts will have the unfortunate side-effect of separating predominately white suburban areas from the rest of Shelby County. In plain English, that is likely to keep students from the City of Memphis-many of whom are African-American-out of schools outside the city. Memphis City officials such as Mayor Willie Herenton has said that consolidation is an issue for Memphis City voters alone, that county voters outside of Memphis should have no say, even though their schools and their children would be affected by any merger.

Labels: Conservatism, Local politics, Tennessee politics

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 2:23 AM