If you’re ok with how things are today, stay seated and be quiet, if you want to make a change, vote, volunteer, get involved…make a change.

Madelyn Scales Harris is vice-mayor of Murfreesboro, TN and a city council member. She was elected to the Murfreesboro, Tennessee City Council in 2010.

Her mother, Mary Scales was the first black faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University after having been denied admittance as a young woman. Her father Robert W. Scales was the first African-American city councilman and first African-American Vice-Mayor of Murfreesboro. He was known for his fairness and ability to bring folks together.

Her family owns the Scales & Son Funeral Home founded by Preston Scales in 1916 as the first black-owned funeral home in Rutherford County, TN and Murfreesboro.

“I believe now, more than ever that we need creativity to move forward, we have to change with the times and we need creativity to do that.”

Murfreesboro is growing by 300 people a month and we’ve got big plans for the area. Details are still being decided. We’ve got sate of the art hospitals, shopping, restaurants a proactive chamber of commerce. Vanderbilt will be building a pediatric hospital here. We welcome you to Murfreesboro!

Madelyn went on to share a bit of her life with us and the activism of her family.

Read about some of her family’s history here. Starting on page 74.