Recap: Ujima Takes Memphis

Last month, the Boston Ujima Project team traveled to Memphis, Tennessee for our 2026 Staff Retreat. We strengthened relationships across our team, planned for the year ahead, and learned with Memphis organizers about Black history, culture, and community power.

We began our week at The Four Way, getting to know one of our Memphis-based translocal members, the Center for Transforming Communities (CTC). The Four Ways has served as a historic gathering place for Civil Rights leaders, Stax musicians, international visitors, and neighborhood locals. Sharing our first meal together in a space filled with rich Black history grounded us for the week ahead.

The following day, Justin Merrick, Executive Director of CTC, introduced us to Memphis through the lenses of extraction, organizing, and culture. We learned more about the famed 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike, economic power, and the relationship that music and cultural organizing have played in the city.

In a Community Control Tour, we visited Binghamton and Klondike, two community land trusts in the area, to learn more about  environmental justice, organizing, and community-centered neighborhoods. Corey Davis, Executive Director at Klondike Community Land Trust, and Isaac James centered our conversation with the following question: Can you revitalize a neighborhood without displacing current residents? We finished our conversation over  delicious food from the Cozy Corner, a beloved Black-owned North Memphis restaurant.

Ujima’s Solidarity Economy Law Fellow, Renee Hatcher led us in a study session, exploring  Black radical democracy through mutual aid, independent party formation, the sanitation workers’ strike, and Black political conventions, allowing us to reflect on how this tradition continues to inform Ujima's collective work.

Later in the week, we visited Clayborn Temple with another Ujima Translocal Member, The BigWe. Founder and Executive Director Anasa Troutman shared The BIG We's vision of building economic, political, and narrative power through culture, along with plans to invest in historically and culturally significant buildings that serve as community hubs. We learned about the temple's role in the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike as an organizing headquarters, and its continued significance as a site for congregation. We also learned about the 2025 arson that severely damaged the historic temple, and the ongoing effort to restore it as a site for future generations to organize within.

In addition to retreat sessions, the Ujima team spent time exploring Memphis on their own, learning more local history through visiting  the Kukutana African Museum, the National Civil Rights Museum, Stax Museum, and the Underground Railroad Slave Haven Museum. Whether walking along the Mississippi River, strolling down Beale street, or experiencing the city's many cultural landmarks, Memphis offered a powerful reminder of both how far we've come and how far we still have to go.

We closed the week with a farewell dinner at Mahogany River Terrace, celebrating one another's contributions and the week of learning we shared together.

The Ujima team returned to Boston with new ideas, deeper relationships, and a renewed commitment to building democratic economies rooted in community ownership, culture, and collective care.

A heartfelt thank you to the Center for Transforming Communities, The BIG We, Klondike Community Land Trust, and everyone who shared their time, knowledge, and stories with us throughout the week. Thank you as well to The Four Way, Cozy Corner Restaurant, Mahogany River Terrace, and Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis for your warm hospitality and for helping create spaces where our team.

And yes, Lebron is still crazy for saying he doesn’t like Memphis!

As a tribute to Memphis and the legacy of photographer Ernest C. Withers, select images were inspired by his documentary photography!