By Yvonne D. Nelson Several dozen contestants appeared in the Memphis Citywide Talent Show Reloaded held Saturday, January 19, 2019, at the auditorium located inside of Fairley High School in southwest Memphis. Sponsored by BCF, cdefilms, YRN Casino and @YourPiercingPlug, the event featured local artists wanting to chase their dreams and win some cash while doing so. Radio and TV personality, Hot Jam 98.9 FM, and AM 730 host Kenny Lee of the Kenny Lee Show, and Street Mogul/A&R Industry Executive Paul “Paul Bunyun” Tutt, joined Hot 107.1 FM radio show hosts REKO on your Radio and Shon Tezzy as judges for the night’s presentations. Participants were judged on their crowd appeal, sound clarity, overall appearance, and stage presence. Performers included Kidd Looni, A Unit, Smiley, Riko the Great, Legendary Baby, NJ3, Glorilla, Young Scooter, Cyran Lee, O-Money, Franky Arenas, Raw Gloss, Yung Boi Star, and Janele & Superstar Jaja Yates, and Yung Hunnid, who won the first place trophy in the show. “All the performers were good, said Lee, “but I can’t express the need for some of them to clean up their acts if they ever hope to get their songs on the radio. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) rules will not allow all of that cussing and profanity on the air. Other than that, they all did perform really well.” Sitting prominently on the northeast corner of Danny Thomas Boulevard and Dr. MLK Jr. (Linden) Avenue in Memphis, TN, is a historic limestone exterior building, styled in an “Egyptian Revival” architectural design featuring a repetitive look of ancient Egypt on all sides. This massive and never truly abandoned building, was built in 1949, by the renowned black architectural and engineering firm of McKissack & McKissack. Founded in 1905, the McKissack firm is the first and the oldest black-owned architectural and engineering firm in the United States. The building was built to be the new home of the Universal Life Insurance Company (ULICO), a firm founded in 1923 by Dr. Joseph Edison Walker, the father of A. Maceo Walker, and grandfather of Patricia Walker Shaw. Born in the cotton fields near Tillman, MS, in 1880, Dr. Walker became a well-known “physician, banker, businessman, civic, and religious leader in Memphis.” He was highly revered and considered to be one of the most successful black men of his time. Walker defeated the life he seemed destined to live by overcoming the poverty he was born into and working his way through college and medical school. He graduated from Alcorn College in 1903 and attended Meharry Medical College. Dr. Walker “practiced medicine from 1906 to 1919 in Indianola, MS.” He was elected “president of the Delta Penny Savings Bank in 1912” before serving in the same position for the Mississippi Life Insurance Company in 1917. To get out of Mississippi, the Mississippi Life Insurance Company moved to the Fraternal Bank building in Memphis in 1920. With 11 founding members,, Dr. Walker formed the first African-American church in Memphis, the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in 1921 and in 1923, Walker, and five different charter members, “J. T. Wilson, M.W. Bonner, Dr. R. S. Fields, A. W. Willis, and B. F. Booth,” started the Universal Life Insurance Company, which grew to be the second black company in the United States to “attain a million-dollar-capital status (1947).” The company’s founding goal, “to build a service institution that would give jobs and financial assistance to our people, is still being achieved through its use of assets for civic improvements, educational scholarships, and mortgage funds.” By 1926, ULICO’s capital stock had doubled and was worth $200,000. This same year, the company moved into its “first home-office at 234 Hernando Street” and Walker “organized the Memphis Negro Chamber of Commerce which published directories of black businesses. He was also elected president of the National Negro Insurance Association.” In 1939, Walker was elected president of the National Negro Business League and “during WWII, 1939-1945, Dr. Walker served as the “national chairman of the War Bond Saving Club and spearheaded the purchase of $2 million in war bonds.” There were a total of nine states that hosted ULICO offices by 1946, the same year Dr. Walker and his son A. Maceo Walker “founded the Tri-State Bank of Memphis” where he served as the bank’s “first president.” Dr. Walker “groomed his son to succeed him in the organizations he established.” A very active person in politics, Mr. Walker was a Democratic Party leader, a well-known philanthropist and civic leader who “helped finance the South Memphis Walker Homes subdivision which bears his name.” In 1956, Dr. Walker was the first black person “appointed to President Eisenhower’s Person to Person Committee.” Dr. Walker was succeeded by his son, A. Maceo, at ULICO in 1952 when the younger Walker was elected president and chairman of ULICO. Dr. Walker died in 1958. A. Maceo Walker served as president and chairman of ULICO “until 1983 when his daughter, Patricia Walker Shaw, became president.” Mrs. Shaw served as president until her death in 1985. She was also very successful and she was “the first black and the first woman to become president of the National Insurance Association in 1983. Her only child, Harold Shaw Jr., currently works for the Tri-State Bank. Previously, he worked at ULICO making him the fourth generation of his family to work in that organization.” The Universal Life Insurance Company building was purchased by Self Tucker Architects in 2006. The lobby, in the front of the building located at 480 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, has a free historical presentation of the building on display during working hours. 16 21
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