PARADOX

Since my arrival to Memphis last week I have been able to see some of this beautiful city which has created quite an impression on me. One of my goals was to find a place that would substitute Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. Found it!

Tom Lee Park is one of those treasures every city should have. Located down on the shores of the Mississippi. this park contains all that I was looking for. The history and man who the park is named after is very intriguing.

In the throes of segregation, Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan in the early 20th century, one man, Tom Lee, pushed all of that to the side to save fellow human beings that were not his color.

On 8 May 1925, Lee saved the lives of 32 Civil Engineers whose steamship, M.E Norman , exploded on the Mississippi river 15 miles south of the city.

Lee, who could not swim, disregarded his own life to save human beings bent on keeping their boots on his neck. It mattered none that these same people saw him as inferior for on this day he held their lives in his hands, he was God's instrument of life or death.

On that fateful day he saved as many as he could, 32 in all and in the end 23 did perish, but for that one day, whites in one of the most segregated cities in the south were grateful that a black man cast away his prejudices and saved lives.

Two years after Lee's death in 1952 the city erected an obelisk and dedicated a park in his memory. A storm destroyed the original statue in 2003 so three years later a new obelisk was erected along with a bronze statue.

So many things have happened here, from the assassination of Dr. King to the death of Elvis Presley. No one should ever forget Tom Lee because he to this day means so much to so many.

Including me.