St. Mary’s Cathedral, Memphis, Tennessee. It has helped the city respond to two major crises in its history; besides the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, it was the scene of a dramatic march after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Clergy from many churches and synagogues gathered there for an emergency meeting after which the Dean, William Dimmick, picked up the processional cross and led the way to City Hall to ask the mayor to settle the sanitation workers’ strike which had brought King to the city. Dimmick’s heroic leadership nevertheless led to a backlash among his white parishioners; half of them left and never went back. (originalmemphis.org)
