Former President Clinton and local NAACP leader Maxine Smith, winners of the Freedom Award from The National Civil Rights Museum, will speak at a public forum at the Temple of Deliverance Church. 5,000 are expected to attend the event.
The awards banquet will be held later in the evening where the awards will be presented at 7 p.m. at the Peabody Hotel.
Security is expected to be tight for the event. [Why do they keep harping on this?]
Museum Executive Director Beverly Robertson says the Memphis police TACT Unit will provide surveillance, working with the Secret Service and Clinton's security team. [Is it just me, or should the USSS tell "Clinton's security team," he's all yours, we're outta here?]
Smith is the former executive director of the local NAACP. Her involvement in civil rights began in the 1950's when she was denied admission to Memphis State University because she is black. Museum board member Greg Duckett says Smith and Clinton are people who didn't latch onto "the fad of the day" in serving the cause of civil rights.
Duckett says both honorees identified issues of principal and held fast to promoting them. [The only thing to which x42 held fast was ... well, never mind]