Interview with Paul Garner from Mid-South Peace and Justice Center

Paul Garner, Organizing Director at the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, has been a longtime advocate for social justice and those affected by homelessness.                                                

“I remember being a little boy and my mama pulling out an old church fan with a portrait of Dr. King on it, before I was even old enough to understand the significance or just that this was a really good man,” said Garner. “I think one of the reasons [why] I was drawn to Memphis in addition to the music history is the civil rights history.”                                                                                 

Garner first got involved with the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center in 2011. He later got involved with the Occupy Memphis Encampment that helps the homeless.                                               

“When the encampment first started, we had more tents than we had people which was silly,” said Garner. “So, I was one of the people going around to some of the buildings in the area because we were right on the Civic Center plaza and on the cold nights.”                                            

    “We got all of these tents and people were donating food all the time, so we had more than enough to share. There were several people who thought what we were doing was interesting and they wanted to be involved. There was kind of a rift between folks who had a choice of whether or not they slept outside and folks who didn’t really have a choice and without the camp, they wouldn’t have nowhere to go. We felt like to really address that, we needed a space where we could talk about the issues that were affecting folks. So we formed this homeless caucus.”                                                                                                                                                        

Brad Watkins, who is currently the Executive Director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice center was helped as well. “[Watkins] had been tasked with organizing these meetings with [those] experiencing homelessness and was doing that more so in the Midtown area. And what ended up being really helpful was we kind of combined those groups and that sort of became the core membership of what is now the Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality group."                                                                                                                                                           

In addition to being the Organizing Director, Garner is also a graphic designer for the organization.                                                                                                                                     

“I do the posters, designs for the ads, and all that stuff,” said Garner. “All of our staff wear a lot of hats, so we have shared responsibilities and roles.”

“I usually do like a square graphic for Twitter and Instagram. Then I’ll do like a banner for Facebook. Also, on our website, we would use that for the header of a newsletter article that we will put out. We’ll create a Facebook event and then I’ll create some kind of hand bill graphic that has all of the details that we can print, cut, and distribute. Get them out to schools and community centers. We try to throw it up on all the platforms but we definitely are most reliant on Facebook.”                                                                                                                                   

The Mid-South peace and Justice Center consists of several different organizations. All of which use social media to connect with people and create awareness.                                            “We’ve got a Twitter account [and] an Instagram,” said Garner. “I’ve been trying to update those a little bit more. We also have a newsletter that goes out to about 17,000 people once a week. The bulk of those are in the Mid-South but we have people all over the country that keep up with what we’re doing.”                                                                                                          

   “I think it’s a tool that definitely made it easier for people to connect, especially folks with common interest that otherwise might not encounter one another in IRL space. It’s been a great way to see what’s going on. When the bridge protest was going on, I think social media had a lot to do with people getting out that day. That was kind of a call to action that went viral in Memphis, so I think it’s definitely played an important role in a lot of recent organizing efforts. It will be interesting to see like looking back [on] how effective it is.”