MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A key civil rights landmark in Memphis, Tennessee, was destroyed in a fire overnight. The historic Clayborn Temple was the staging ground for striking sanitation workers during their iconic I Am A Man campaign. That's the campaign that drew Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: The stone bell tower of Clayborn Temple has been a stately fixture in downtown Memphis for more than 130 years. But residents awoke this morning to a devastating fire in the historic AME Church.
PAUL YOUNG: It's heartbreaking to see one of the nation's greatest treasures lost to this fire.
ELLIOTT: Memphis Mayor Paul Young.
YOUNG: It has been a really, really important part of the story of our city and the story of our nation.
ELLIOTT: In 1968, Memphis sanitation workers walked off the job to protest dangerous and deadly working conditions after two trash collectors were killed on duty. The Clayborn Temple offered a place for civil rights and labor activists to meet and plan. It was close to city hall, and the pastor had a printing press. Mayor Young says preserving the legacy of what happened there matters.
YOUNG: History was made in this building. It has been the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement. The I Am A Man signs that became so prominent during the Civil Rights Movement, they were made in the basement of that facility. The strategy that was put in place for the marches, they took place right there in that facility.
ELLIOTT: The late Rev. James Lawson helped map strategy for the strike, and what became their I Am A Man campaign from the Clayborn Temple. Here he is speaking back then.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JAMES LAWSON: So at the heart of racism is the idea that a man is not a man.
ELLIOTT: Lawson recruited the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to come help lead marches. And it was during that campaign that he was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
ELLIOTT: Fifty years later, it was the bell from Clayborn Temple that rang out 39 times, once for each year of King's life, as the city marked the anniversary of his death.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
ELLIOTT: Clayborn Temple closed in 1999, and the building deteriorated for years. But over the last 10, there's been new investment to restore the historic sanctuary, led by the nonprofit that now owns it. The group's founder, Anasa Troutman, says it's significant because King saw the movement there as part of his larger campaign to organize across race and class to fight poverty.
ANASA TROUTMAN: When he looked at Memphis and the strike and the work that was happening in Clayborn Temple, he saw the future of America.
ELLIOTT: Clayborn Temple's bell tower was smoldering but standing by mid-afternoon, as state and federal investigators were on site to look for clues as to what happened. Clayborn is in the heart of the Memphis Heritage Trail, and people have been drawn there today to what many consider sacred ground. Troutman is moved by the outpouring.
TROUTMAN: People whose grandparents were sanitation workers, people who worshipped in the church, people who were christened in the church, people whose family members were eulogizing the church - it's just been a steady flow of people all day. And that is the hardest part is seeing people come and grieve their spiritual home (crying). It's just a lot.
ELLIOTT: She says work will continue to make sure Clayborn Temple remains an international beacon of resilience, faith and the beloved community. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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