Hooks job center holding inaugural memorial walk | Events

Around the country everyone knows Job Corps as the program that helps young people ages 16 through 24 improve the quality of their lives through career technical and academic training. Job Corps entered the City of Memphis in 1998 as the Memphis Job Corps Center. A year later, a 16-year-old troubled student named Devin James, who scored near perfectly on exams but displayed horrible conduct entered the program.

James, like many students who enter the program had a rough start coming from an impoverished background, at the time a gang member and socially irresponsible. Yet after only a few weeks into the program James successfully aced his GED exam, completed his trade and began his journey into college. Today, James is the founder and CEO of the Devin James Group, a brand marketing and communications agency that develops social leadership and creates powerful brand messages that engage communities. As well as an advocate for the benefits of Job Corps and a spokesperson in terms of how it played a pivotal part in the professional development in his life.

“It was important for us to involve one of our own. We’re proud of Devin and believe in his ability to make this event a huge success”, said Dr. Benjamin Hooks Job Corp Center Executive Director James Harris.

Who was Dr. Benjamin Hooks?

In 2006, the center name was changed to honor Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks, a native leader in the civil rights movement who also sat on the Job Corps board working alongside the executive director and administration to improve the quality of the programs. He was the first African-American to be appointed to the criminal court bench in his native Tennessee, and he was the first African-American to be named to the five-member Federal Communications Commission. He also came to symbolize an older generation of leaders who had marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and who had fought for the passage of landmark civil rights legislation

The Inaugural Memorial 5K Run/Walk is not about walking or racing to the finish, it is about life, honoring the legacy of Dr. Benjamin Hooks, celebrating the gift he gave to our world, and extending his efforts to the masses and future generations.

This is not just another 5k event. This tribute to Dr. Benjamin Hooks is a non-competitive 5K (3.1 mile) fun run/walk for students, families with young children, the casual walker, the corporate professional, athlete and others who want to be involved with the new era of social leadership. It is a walk of legacy, and a gathering to show that we can each make a difference and change the world.

Event Details:

• What: Dr. Benjamin Hooks Inaugural Memorial 5K Run/Walk
• Who: Presented by the Dr. Benjamin Hooks Job Corp Center / National Civil Rights Museum and is open to the public
• When: Saturday April 30, Race Starts at 9:30 a.m.
• Where: National Civil Rights Museum

Sadly on April 15, 2010 we lost a great man, a pioneer, an icon.

"Our national life is richer for the time Dr. Hooks spent on this earth," President Obama said. "And our union is more perfect for the way he spent it: Giving a voice to the voiceless."

Information provided by the Dr. Benjamin Hooks Job Corp Center.