What’s Wrong With This Picture?

By John Gibson

There is a board of the foundation that controls the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

There are over 30 people on that board.

The majority of the board members are not Black.

The vast majority of the board members are corporate connected.

There are only 3 of the over 30 board members who might be considered Civil Rights Movement veterans.

There are no Movement people on the board who are from outside of Memphis.

The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the board is J. R. Pitt Hyde.

Pitt Hyde is an extremely wealthy white conservative. He is reported to be a billionaire.

Hyde, the Executive Committee's chair for over a decade, was founder and chairman of the AutoZone Corporation until 1997. That company is now in a multi-year long battle with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In it's original suit against Hyde's Autozone the anti-discrimination agency charged:

From June 1, 1993 to May 31, 1995, [Autozone] had at least 59 vacant positions filled in the official/manager category...none were filled by Blacks; During that same time period, qualified Blacks applied for official/manager positions; that they were qualified for those jobs; that they were not hired; that White males were selected although Black applicants had superior qualifications.

In September 2006, Pitt Hyde hosted a fundraiser in his home for Bob Corker, the opponent of Harold Ford, Jr. in the 2006 U.S. Senate race in Tennessee which was widely regarded as the most racist campaign of the 2006 election.

Pitt Hyde's fundraiser for Harold Ford's opponent was attended by George Bush and raised close to a million dollars.