Local & National News | August 9, 2025 | 4:20 p.m. CDT

Edited: October 27, 2025 | 3:30 p.m. CDT

Written by: Gilbert Barnes Carter III

The official legal review of the current draft of my Citizens' Integrity Act Ordinance has not begun due to the recent decision to replace the capable Attorney Marcy Ingram. Attorney Ingram previously provided legal counsel for the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. I have the professional pleasure of working closely with Shelby County Commissioner (District 12) Erika Sugarmon. She has been diligent in providing support and technical assistance for local environmental justice advocates and groups. She provided a detailed public response to the decision back on Tuesday, July 8.

"I sincerely thank each of you for your time, collaboration, and patience over the past several weeks. As you are aware, crafting thoughtful and practical ordinances is a complex and time-intensive process, often taking close to a year. This work has involved in-depth research, consultations with experts, and countless meetings with impacted individuals, professionals, and community stakeholders."

"This decision does not come lightly. There has been considerable public attention and concern surrounding the Commission's legal representation. As many of you are aware, Attorney Marcy Ingram, who has served as the Commission's legal counsel, will no longer be with us effective June 30th, 2025. Despite the majority of Commissioners expressing their support for retaining her, given her deep knowledge of local, state, and federal laws, institutional experience, and her reliability in thoroughly and promptly reviewing legislation, she is being replaced."

"To date, I have not received any updates on these items. I continue to receive emails, phone calls, and text messages asking what is causing the delay in review. At this point, unless the Commission is provided legal counsel of the same caliber and independence as Attorney Ingram—and except for the three ordinances already submitted—I will shift my focus entirely to constituency services and advocacy."

Commissioner Sugarmon has submitted drafts for the following ordinances to officials in the Shelby County Attorney’s Office for review:

• Environmental Zoning Ordinance for Memphis and Shelby County to Protect Aquifers, Land, and Air from High-Impact Commercial Operations, Including Data Centers (Joint Ordinance)
• Citizens' Environmental Integrity Act
• Ordinance to Create a Framework for Environmental Oversight

The operative word in the title of my ordinance is integrity. More Memphians must lead with it as we face two distinct environmental justice challenges in the meantime.

1. Memphians have two distinct environmental justice challenges as new local legislation drafts for environmental justice - including the Citizens' Environmental Integrity Act - have not been reviewed.

It is shameful to see how pervasive blight is across our city today. The Memphis City Beautiful Commission, the first and oldest municipal beautification commission in the nation, was established on July 1, 1930. The editorial staff of Time Magazine ranked our city as the cleanest city in the nation for 17 consecutive years. I cannot even begin to theorize how many of our curbs, road shoulders, storm drains, street corners, vacant lots, and waterways are so utterly horrendous in just over a mere 95 years.

I am currently building capacity in the Riverview community in South Memphis for sustainable gardening and micro farming. It is counterintuitive for fruit trees, lush perennials, and vegetable plants to grow against disgusting and unsightly backdrops of trash piles such as the two that are shown below. They were finally collected by solid waste employees on Tuesday, July 29 after being left derelict for many months prior.

I met with Ms. Melaine Neal, Director of the Division of Community Enhancement, and Mr. Marticus Muhammad the following day to share my concerns about the proposed blight ordinance. It is currently being held for a third and final reading. We are in agreement that the current draft of the ordinance is not ready. It will not be an effective piece of legislation if sensible amendments are not made prior to it being passed—such as, but not limited to, those that are centered around increased accountability for local licensed contractors.

I proposed the following ideas to Director Neal and Memphis City Council (District 4) Vice-Chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington on Thursday, July 31:

1. Licensed contractors must be completely prohibited from leaving construction and inorganic waste for collection in all residential neighborhoods in Memphis.
2. Licensed contractors must be required to provide, via purchase or rental, their own "roll out dumpsters" to properly dispose of all construction and inorganic waste on rehab / renovation job sites in all residential neighborhoods in Memphis. The minimum dimensions for the roll out dumpsters should be 4 feet high x 8 feet wide x 16 feet long, or 512 cubic feet.

An Additional Challenge: Gaps in Local Advocacy. . .

Director Neal and Mr. Muhammad also pointed out that there are currently too few advocates in the Riverside and Riverview communities devoted to blight elimination. This raises a critical dilemma: How can we inspire more Memphians to recommit to maintaining clean communities?

I believe part of the answer lies in reclaiming and revitalizing our historic public spaces—such as B. F. Booth Park and Robert R. Church Sr. Park—so that they reflect the legacies they honor:

• *B. F. Booth Park, in the heart of South Memphis, pays tribute to Benjamin Franklin Booth (1858–1941), a distinguished attorney.
• *Robert R. Church Sr. Park honors Robert Reed Church Sr. (1839–1912), famed for his remarkable business skill. He founded the Solvent Savings Bank and Trust Company, the first Black-owned bank in Memphis, and became the first Black self-made millionaire in the southeastern United States.

The current aesthetics of these parks are far from being worthy symbols of such towering legacies.

2. Memphians must not politicize environmental justice efforts.

The high-profile fallout between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump—while headline-grabbing—should not distract or discourage Memphians from continuing organized opposition to CTC Property, LLC and xAI operations that may threaten our air, soil, water, and wildlife.

My overarching concern is that too many will allow partisanship or political branding to dilute real environmental justice work. In Memphis, political movements have too often run on name recognition and party affiliation. The future must instead be driven by competency and self-determination.

We must also continue supporting groups and individuals such as Mr. Richard Massey, Ms. Orion Overstreet, and Tigers Against Pollution, who are ramping up local environmental outreach. They recently hosted their latest “What The Hell Is Going On?” People’s College educational conversation on Thursday, August 7.

Ms. Overstreet describes People’s College as:

“A once-a-week gathering at T. O. Fuller State Park with free drinks and grill outs where we bring in local experts on policy, organizing, and science to break down different aspects of the xAI fight.”

The Path Forward. . .

I remain grateful for high levels of assistance from Memphis City and Shelby County staff and elected officials. But I also understand—more than ever—that the most sustainable environmental justice outcomes require tenacious, in-the-field effort with neighbors.

Blight elimination is environmental justice. And just as importantly—integrity and community pride can never be legislated. They must be lived out by each of us, every day, in every neighborhood, for the sake of our city’s future.

I continue to reserve patience as I wait for my Citizens' Integrity Act to be placed under an official legal review. I also continue to reserve hope for more Memphians to be dutiful in embracing those environmental justice challenges. Integrity has been defined as "doing what is right when no one is looking." I can only imagine how Memphis will be revamped when enough of us commit all manner of righteous actions for our children to proudly bear witness to.

Photo Credits:

Body Photo (1) by: Mr. Otha Farris, Jr.

Body Photo (2) by: Mr. Otha Farris, Jr.

Body Photo (3) by: Mr. Gilbert Barnes Carter III

*Source – Nineteenth Century Memphis Families of Color – 1850–1900

Gilbert Barnes Carter III is a Memphis-based author, child welfare advocate, community organizer, emerging farmer, gardener, journalist, and social justice advocate. He began his social justice advocacy and work by serving as a Shelby County Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) Board volunteer in 2005. He has worked since then to effectuate change for low-wage, immigrant, and migrant workers as a Temporary Workers Campaign Manager with Workers Interfaith Network; an advocate for Teamsters Local 667 sanitation workers; and a community / field organizer to uphold blight reduction, efficient public mass transit, environmental justice, food access, food justice, food security, narrative change, and public safety.