When Marsha Sherrod marched in 1968, she was 15 years old.
She joined Memphis' sanitation workers and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as they marched for higher wages and dignity.
That cause, as well as the struggles of people she encountered in her 45 years working at Regional One Medical Center, left Sherrod with a passion for seeking justice.
Now 67, Sherrod was looking forward to marching in another life-changing event — across a stage in front of a live audience to collect her associate degree in criminal justice from Southwest Tennessee Community College.
But because of COVID 19, the virtual ceremony will have to suffice for her and others who are graduating from Memphis colleges.
On Saturday, Sherrod joined 1,544 Southwest graduates honored during the live stream ceremony. Southwest President Tracy Hall was one of the program speakers, as well as Gov. Bill Lee.
Guest speakers included University of Memphis head basketball coach Penny Hardaway, Mayor Jim Strickland and Willie Gregory, director of global community impact for Nike and chairman of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce.
Sherrod's journey highlights her resilience and commitment to get an associate degree despite the challenges that life often presents.
“I lived through the civil rights movement,” said Sherrod, who retired from her job as a surgical sterilization technician in 2014.
“I marched with Dr. King. I was young and it was scary, but at the same time I got a boost from thinking that I could make a difference by being out there walking and letting people know that injustice was real.”
Then years later, after a divorce, a son and a daughter and a successful career at Regional One, Sherrod decided to parlay her desire to fix the injustices that brought people to the hospital.
“I was at the Med [Regional One] in the 1980s, when they de-institutionalized and let a lot of people out of the mental health facilities who really needed help,” she said. “So, it added up to us getting an influx of those patients because they had nowhere to go…
“We became their doctor’s office…”
So, Sherrod went to Southwest, where she became a member of the Phi Theta Kappa and Alpha Sigma Lambda honor societies and was named a 2020 Outstanding Honor Student in the criminal justice program.
“I was appalled at some of the stuff I saw in the criminal justice system, like money being made off of incarceration,” said Sherrod, who also said that through her studies, she got a lesson on how tough it was for many ex-offenders to fulfill probation requirements because many of those requirements cost money that they didn't have.
Ultimately, she hopes to find a job that can put her in a position to help correct those injustices. But right now, Sherrod plans to revel in her graduation – although not in the way that she had originally planned.
“I had family who was coming in to celebrate with me, and I was supposed to go to Hawaii,” Sherrod said. “That’s all off now.
“But at the end of the day, I did get my degree.”
by Tonyaa Weathersbee
0 Comments