It was about 1968 I left our Black community and went to Tech High School in Memphis. Tech was integrated and I had never went to school with Whites. At the time there was a change happening in Memphis whereas Bands in Memphis were “Integrated” and White Bands were cool who had “Colored Singers.” I loved James Brown and I could dance.
I auditioned in an all White Band and because I could dance I got the job as a lead singer in an “All White Band.” We were called “Stoney Weed & The Funky Down Home Boys.”
I loved being in a band more than life. Two of the parents objected to their children being in band with a Black man. My best friend turned his back on me whereas I was treated less than human. We integrated our band. While at Tech High School I experienced racism and I was heartbroken and could not understand racism.
I read books about the Black struggle whereas in my senior year I went to all Black Hamilton High School whereas I was lost. I had forgotten how to be Black. I was a Black Hippie type Black Revolutionary. Such things as the “Black Movement” and the Black struggle was not a part of consciousness. I was lost Hamilton High School in Memphis.
Things like having a girlfriend, going to the prom or even attending my graduation I never experienced. I did lead “The 1st 18 Year old Voter Registration.” I was in a play whereas I associated with my African Heritage and it was put in the school newspaper that “I audition for a Tarzan Movie.”
When I graduated high school in 1971 I was a “Black Revolutionary Hippie.” I started taking Karate lessons, got off into Eastern Philosophy. I was into the “Black Movement.”
I remember setting meetings with the pioneers of the civil rights movement. Often I would be in meetings Rev. James Lawson who taught Dr. Martin Luther King the Ghandi Method of passive resistance. The people who marched with Dr. King and those associated with the Black movement I was a part.
Rev. Billy Kyles who was with Dr. King when he was killed whereas Dr. King was going to Rev. Klyles house for dinner. I joined Operation PUSH and was in a group with son Dwane Kyles.
It was in 1971 whereas I met the architect and strategist of the Civil Rights movement Rev. James Bevel who started an organization called M.A. N. Making a Nation.
It was in1972 where I left the Bevel movement and engrossed my life into “Eastern Philosophy of Buddhism and Karate.”
In 1974 a new sport was born in America called “PKA Full Contact Karate” that later became known as Kickboxing. I joined a Buddhist sect called NSA or Nichiren Shohsu of America. Buddhism took me back into “Main Stream America” whereas “I found the American Dream”
I was so American involved in Karate/kickboxing I want my ring name to be “Anthony America.” Graphic artist George Walker convinced me to take the “Amp.” I became “The Electrifying Anthony “Amp” Elmore.”
I promoted Kickboxing whereas I entered a world unknown to most Blacks. I promoted a new sport that called for Blacks and Whites to join together. We brought E.S.P.N. to Memphis. I became a “World Kickboxing Champion.” We did not make money however I had to learn about specifications what E.S.P.N. required to telecast bout. I learns sales, marketing and public relations. Whereas I learned how to be on the World stage.
I was sponsored by the Adolph Coors Company or “Coors Beer” whereas I had opportunity most people never have in a lifetime. “Coors Beer” gave me something that most people will never have in a “Lifetime.” Coors gave me “Time.” I did not have to work. In 1986 I saw the “Spike Lee Movie She’s Gotta Have it.” I was inspired to make a movie. I enrolled in then “Shelby State College” I took a typing and English Course and setout to making a movie.
The most difficult thing I ever did in my life was making a movie. Shooting the fights scenes was just as hard as being in a real fight because we were hitting each other. It was sheer luck that we were able to pull off a movie.
It was only in December of 2023 whereas I learned that our 1988 film production “The Contemporary Gladiator” is the 1st Kickboxing film in World Film History.
It was only in 2019 whereas I learned what happen to me in Memphis regarding my Memphis Film history. May 22, 2019 marked the 200th birthday of the City of Memphis.
It advertised “Bring Your Soul” and contribute to our Bicentennial Birthday. In good faith I decided to make the film “200 Years of Black Memphis History.”
In 2018 I contacted African American Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris whereas I explained about my history.
My honest intentions were to simply tell the story about “Black Memphis History.”
In order to give you an understanding of the Racism, White Supremacy and Black on Black Racism is for you to read our email to Tracy Wolfe who is the administrative assistant to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. Notice I copied this email to Van Turner, Tami Sawyer and the Dr. Karanja Ajanaku.
The story as to why Beale Street was famous has been re-written and manipulated by White Supremacist. Let me share this tidbit. Whites built the “Opryland Theatre “ at the corner of Beale and Main street” now called the “Orpheum Theatre.” Black were not allowed to attend in 1899 Black Millionaire Robert R. Church built the Church Park and Auditorium in Memphis. The park was the largest Black Facility in the world that had a botanical, Garden, Peacocks and better than any place where Blacks were not allowed to go.
Memphis was outright racist and W.C. Handy moved to New York whereas he published his book “Father of the Blues” he departed Memphis some 20 years earlier.
It was White Racist who changed the story of W.C. Handy whereas Black people will not know that Beale Street was Famous because of the Black millionaire Robert R. Church built not only the largest facility for Blacks in the World, Memphis was once upon a time the best place for Black people in the world.
In 1910 when E.H. Crump got elected he “promised to take Memphis back to the days of Glory” and he did.
Black historians and educators work for institutions supported by Whites. Black History is measured. In fact Black leaders in Memphis prefer that the subject of “Black Memphis History” is not mention because such history makes both Blacks and White uncomfortable.
Black elected official prefer as they say “leave well enough along” and not bring such subjects up. There is a saying: “If you want to hide Black history put it in a book.”
Anthony “Amp” Elmore is a filmmaker. The powers to be in Memphis created a culture whereas Elmore’s work is purposefully unacknowledged in Memphis.
Modern technology allowed Elmore to share “Black Memphis History” via the website; blackmemphishistory.com
