Dr. Gray encourages the Holly Springs community

Holly Springs has hosted many different events to encourage connection and growth within our community during the month of July. There have been several kinds of music festivals, birthday celebrations, parades, fireworks and more. I attended one of the events at the Marshall County library during Ida B. Wells birthday celebration week. The Brown Bag Lunch series had Dr. L. LaSimba Gray as its special speaker. It was one of the most intriguing and influential events I have attended in a while.

Dr. Gray is a pastor, an activist, and a leader. He chaired the Ida B. Wells Memphis Memorial Committee and was invited to come speak during the birthday celebration of Ida B. Wells.

When Dr. Gray started taking action on his vision of erecting a statue of Ida B. Wells there was no real support. However, Gray pulled together several Memphis residents to join the effort to raise money for this incredible project. Not even the prohibitive $150,000 price tag deterred him.

Before he embarked on the project in Memphis he spoke to Rust College and Holly Springs several years earlier. “Everything she became started here in Holly Springs,” Gray said when speaking about Wells. “She had commitment as a young woman, at the age of 16.”

Further, Gray said Holly Springs should be a Mecca for history, “Without our history there is not American history.” He also spoke adamantly and encouragingly to the community saying, “Whenever we make up our minds of what we want to do, we can do it,” he said. “Have the community start something.”

Gray took on the major responsibility of organizing those who were interested in joining the committee to have a statue in Memphis. He made many points but one he urged was not to get behind the eight ball.

“Don’t get behind the eightball. Where there is no vision, people will perish,” he said.

Gray also spoke very passionately about educating and bringing people together in the community.

Gray spoke of how the committee raised funds to honor Ida B. Wells, a woman who wasn’t afraid to stand up to injustice and inequality. The unveiling of her statue was held July 16, 2021, in the Plaza at Beale Street and Fourth Street, in Memphis, Tenn.

Mayor Sharon Gipson also attended the luncheon and spoke about supporting the history in Holly Springs saying, “I will protect history. I will protect the legacy.”

An organizer of the Juneteenth celebration also confirmed his support and showed that he was glad to be there at the meeting.

“This is Ida B. Wells home. Move this ship and beautify it,” he said.

Dr. Gray has dedicated his life to empower people to become all that God wants them to be, and move forward the call to liberate the world of sin, poverty and enslavement

After the meeting there was energy in the air to move forward with a vision to have a statue in Holly Springs to honor Ida B. Wells and more