At CodeCrew, Something Is Clicking

In 1983, inside a small house in South Memphis near the former defense depot, a 10-year-old boy named Nnaemeka Egwuekwe saw a TV commercial for a home computer.

Nnaemeka, or “Meka,” the son of a man from Nigeria and a woman from Memphis, already had a video game, an Atari 2600 that connected to a TV screen. But he had to share it with his younger brother, Chi, and he soon was bored with the game.

The home computer he saw on TV looked more complicated, more interesting. It was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4, the first 16-bit home computer. His mother, the first member of her family to earn a college degree, gave it to him for Christmas.

Something clicked.

Meka and his brother lived with their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother in the house built by his grandfather, an Army veteran.

Meka’s grandmother, a nurse at the Millington Naval Air Station, taught the boy how to fold his clothes and make his bed and treat his elders. “That’s how things are done in the military,” his grandmother would say.

Meka liked order. He also liked to figure out how things work. He built model airplanes and took apart old TVs and radios and cigarettes.

CodeCrew is seeding a growing generation of tech-savvy, computer-literate high school and college graduates of color who are helping to transform Memphis into the capital of the Digital Delta.

He didn’t have to take apart his new computer. He read the instruction manual and figured out how to make his name crawl across the screen. Then he started making his own games.

“They were very unplayable games,” he says, “but I learned a lot from the process, how to get around some of the technical limitations of what was the TI computer back then.”

Meka’s fascination with computers led him to East High School and a new program in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM. “I was that kid walking around the halls with boxes of floppy discs,” he says.

One day at school, Meka attended a presentation about Phillips Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts. Meka and his brother both applied and were accepted, thanks to a strong recommendation from a Phillips alum, the late Peter Formanek, a co-founder of AutoZone. Meka spent three years in Andover, his brother four.

At Phillips, Meka attended a visiting professor’s presentation on the African origins of the mathematical sciences. Africans, the professor explained to the Nigerian’s son, developed the earliest forms of counting, algebra, and geometry.

“I felt emboldened and empowered from that moment on,” Meka says. “If not for that moment, there would be no CodeCrew in Memphis.”

There is a CodeCrew in Memphis. The 10-year-old nonprofit organization has helped more than 15,000 Memphis-area middle and high school students, most of them Black and brown, learn how to program computers and develop apps, games, and other software.

CodeCrew helped lobby Tennessee legislators to require all high school students to take a year of computer science, and all middle school students to receive at least one course in computer science education, beginning with the Class of 2028.

CodeCrew is seeding a growing generation of tech-savvy, computer-literate high school and college graduates of color who are helping to transform Memphis into the capital of the Digital Delta.

“Tech firms go and grow where the talent is, and CodeCrew’s vision and tenacity has made it a critical piece to Memphis continuing to lead the nation in the percentage of people of color working in IT,” says Ted Townsend, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber.

The Digital Delta has become more than a phrase coined a couple of years ago by FedEx Founder Fred Smith. Since 2019, Memphis is first among 10 peer cities in the share of IT jobs held by people of color (43 percent) and tied for second among 10 peer cities in overall growth in IT jobs (16 percent).

That growth has been driven by local tech-hungry corporations such as FedEx, AutoZone, International Paper, First Horizon, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

That growth is generating new investments from multinational tech-heavy companies such as xAI, Google, Ford’s BlueOval City, SuperMicro, Nvidia, and Dell.

That growth will be sustained by local tech entrepreneurs such as Meka Egwuekwe, the emboldened and empowered young man from South Memphis who earned computer science degrees from Morehouse and Duke, won internships with NASA and Hewlett-Packard, and spent 19 years as a software engineer in Atlanta and Memphis.

“I was usually the only woman in the lab, the only woman of color on the factory floor or in the corporate office. It was lonely and difficult. When my daughter became interested in technology, I knew what she would be facing. I wanted her to have an easier path.” — Kimberly Bryant

“Instead of letting emerging technology like AI happen to us, which is what all too often has been the history of places like Memphis,” Egwuekwe says, “how do we make sure we’re in a position to shape and guide emerging technology in responsible ways that benefit all of us? This is how.”

In 2012, Egwuekwe and his wife, Pam, went looking for a way to introduce their two young daughters to computer science.

They found Black Girls Code, a California-based after-school program designed to introduce teenage girls of color to computer programming. Egwuekwe reached out to Kimberly Bryant, a Bay Area tech industry manager who established the program in 2011. They traded tweets.

“She asked me if there was anything going on with technology in Memphis,” Egwuekwe says. “I told her about Emerge Memphis and Memphis Bioworks. She said, ‘Oh, that’s great. I had no idea. By the way, I grew up in Memphis.’ I said, ‘What?’”

Bryant, the founder of the nonprofit that has more than 30,000 school-age girls of color in computer science and technology, was born and raised in Memphis. She lived with her divorced mother, older brother, and younger sister in several parts of North Memphis.

Her mother, who worked at Regional One Health, enrolled her kids in the optional programs at Snowden School and Central High School. “I was not interested in computers or video games,” Bryant says. “If I had anything in my hand then, it was a book.”

Bryant thought she would become an attorney, but her guidance counselor noticed how well she was doing in math and science and encouraged her to consider a career in engineering.

She did. “Girls didn’t become engineers back then,” Bryant says. “But I thought, why not?”

Junior Achievement gave Bryant a full academic scholarship to Vanderbilt University, where she majored in electrical engineering and minored in math and computer science. Bryant worked for companies in Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and New Jersey before moving to California to work for Genentech.

“I was usually the only woman in the lab, the only woman of color on the factory floor or in the corporate office,” she says. “It was lonely and difficult. When my daughter became interested in technology, I knew what she would be facing. I wanted her to have an easier path.”

Since 2011, Black Girls Code has introduced Bryant’s daughter, Egwuekwe’s daughters, and tens of thousands of girls of color to computer programming in workshops, summer camps, after-school programs and other events in dozens of cities including Memphis. The organization has attracted major donors such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Bryant’s tenure with Black Girls Code ended badly. In 2021, the nonprofit’s board of directors removed Bryant as CEO. Bryant sued the board for wrongful termination. The two sides reached a confidential settlement in 2023.

That year, Bryant founded Ascend Venture Tech, an investment firm that supports “high-impact startups led by underrepresented founders.” The venture has led her to a new tech adventure back in Memphis.

“We helped create a pipeline of women of color with tech skills,” Bryant says. “Now we want to help them find ways to own the pipeline.”

In 2022, Bryant read something on social media about the Griggs Legacy Project in Memphis. She learned that three women in Memphis were working to renovate and repurpose the downtown home of the former Griggs Business and Practical Arts College.

The school was chartered in 1944 by Emma Griggs, an educator who moved to Memphis with her Baptist preacher husband in 1913. More than 1,000 Black men and women received their education at Griggs, including the late state Senator Kathryn Bowers.

The white, square, two-story Italianate structure at the northeast corner of Vance and Danny Thomas, has been empty since the school was closed in 1971. Stephanie Wade, a Memphis developer, bought the property in 2020 just before it was scheduled to be demolished. Wade worked with Carrie Tippet-Herron, a Griggs alumna, and Sheryl Wallace, president of Property, Power, and Preservation (P3). They got the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I just felt a responsibility to pay homage to Emma Griggs and find a way to continue her legacy of educating the next generation of leaders,” Wade says. “I was not sure how that was going to happen.”

Bryant contacted her.

“The first time I walked into that building, I felt this sense of being drawn back in time and coming back home full circle after all these years,” Bryant says. “I knew this was what was next for me.”

What’s next is this: Bryant and Wade are working to raise funds to turn the old Griggs College building into the headquarters of a national network of Black Innovation Labs. Bryant is launching a pilot lab this fall in Oakland, California, where she lives. If all goes well, she plans to open a Memphis lab in 2026. She’s also creating a special venture capital fund that would provide seed funding for startups developed in the lab.

“All those things hit home with me, but AI is not going away. We have to make sure we’re in a position to help shape and guide AI to be what it ought to be for our people and our community.” — Mega Egwuekwe

Her long-term goal is to turn the historic Vance Avenue neighborhood — once the home of Robert Church, the South’s first Black millionaire, as well as such iconic Black-owned businesses as Tri-State Bank and Universal Life Insurance — into a Black Innovation District.

“A new Black Wall Street,” says Bryant.

In 2015, at a board meeting for the National Civil Rights Museum, Egwuekwe’s friend and fellow board member, Elliot Perry, pulled him aside.

Perry, the Memphis basketball legend, also was board chairman for the Memphis Grizzlies Foundation, which had funded a new computer lab at the Lester Community Center in Binghampton. He knew Egwuekwe was working as a volunteer instructor with Black Girls Code.

“Elliot said, ‘It’s great what you’re doing for the girls with coding, but what about something for boys and girls?’”Egwuekwe recalls.

Something clicked, and CodeCrew was born.

On May 4, 2015, with funding from the Grizzlies Foundation, Egwuekwe and two other Black Girls Code instructors, Audrey Willis and Petya Grady, attended a meeting at Startco, a Memphis accelerator for tech startups.

That summer, they conducted a six-week Grizzlies Code Camp at Lester Community Center. The camp ended with the first of what would become an annual CodeCrew Hackathon, a three-day challenge that helps young coders develop their own apps.

“That was one wild summer, but we came out of it with a mission,” says Willis, now chief innovation and programming officer with CodeCrew and host of the new radio show and podcast called AI (Actual Intelligence).

Willis grew up in South Memphis playing video games and creating and selling MySpace layouts. Over the years, she has worked in IT for FedEx, AutoZone, St. Jude, and Shelby County government.

“I wish there had been a CodeCrew when I was growing up,” Willis says. “This work is vital. We’re not just teaching coding. We’re building a resilient, homegrown tech workforce.”

A few years ago, Kennedi Stewart told her mother she wanted to create a video game. She was in middle school.

“It was an odd obsession,” says Stewart. “I just liked the feeling of being on a computer.”

Stewart’s mother signed her daughter up for a Cloud901 computer class at the Memphis Public Library. CodeCrew partners with Cloud901 to teach computer coding.

Something clicked.

The next summer, Stewart participated in her first CodeCrew Hackathon. The next summer, she and three other CodeCrew students won the 2023 Congressional App Challenge for EcoTrace, an AI-powered app that helps users find recycling locations for various consumer products.

Now, Stewart, a graduate of the online Tennessee Connections Academy, is majoring in computer science and engineering at the University of Memphis. She’s focusing on cybersecurity.

“I love my city. I want AI for my city, but I also want to protect the under-represented community from AI,” Stewart says. “Technology should be for all and protect all.”

A few years ago, Joshua Moore told his grandmother he wanted to make a video game. He was in middle school. His grandmother signed him up for a CodeCrew summer camp.

Something clicked.

“At the time I was getting bullied in school. I was treated like a nerd. I did not have many friends,” Moore says. “At CodeCrew I found some of my best friends. It gave me a whole new lease on life.”

Moore is now working as a teaching assistant for CodeCrew. He plans to return soon to the University of Memphis and major in English. He wants to write science fiction and fantasy stories. “As much as I love computers, I love creative writing even more,” says Moore, who graduated from Soulsville Charter School. “CodeCrew gave me the idea that I could make something of my life.”

Like the universe and digital technology, CodeCrew is expanding.

In addition to summer coding camps for students, the nonprofit offers after-school programs and weekend workshops, and trains K-12 teachers to provide computer science in classrooms.

In 2021, CodeCrew was awarded a $1 million, three-year National Science Foundation grant to help Tennessee school districts add a computer science curriculum. The nonprofit also runs Code School for adults seeking software and AI careers. Last year, CodeCrew received a $1 million state grant to provide subsidized internships with partner employers.

CodeCrew has outgrown its space at the University of Memphis Research Foundation (UMRF) Research Park at the old Highland branch public library. Earlier this year, the nonprofit launched a $7 million capital campaign to help it move to larger space at Northside Square, a new multi-use community hub rising in the renovated old Northside High School.

Meanwhile, CodeCrew is working to adapt and adjust to the rise of artificial intelligence, or AI. The nonprofit has incorporated AI into its curriculum for students and adults. It has refocused its annual summer Hackathons on ways to use AI to improve the community.

In recent months, it led workshops for the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis and the Junior League of Memphis on the practical and ethical uses of AI.

“We didn’t have to jump into AI, we had to triple-jump,” says Willis. “We’re building AI engineers. If we don’t stay on top of it, the digital divide will become a digital canyon.”

CodeCrew also is working to address concerns about AI, and in particular xAI, Elon Musk’s controversial multi-billion-dollar supercomputer south of downtown.

“AI is a huge opportunity but it’s also a little scary, right?” says Egwuekwe. “There are major issues with respect to ethics, bias, privacy, security, the use of resources. We are concerned about water use and power use and air quality. We want to start offering the entire community more guidance on AI.”

Egwuekwe’s mother, Helen, still lives in the house her father built in the Castalia Heights neighborhood just north of the old defense depot, a contaminated Superfund site.

The neighborhood also is just a few miles east of Sterilization Services of Tennessee, which was forced to close in 2024 for emitting ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing gas.

“All those things hit home with me,” Egwuekwe says, “but AI is not going away. We have to make sure we’re in a position to help shape and guide AI to be what it ought to be for our people and our community.”

David Waters, a longtime Memphis journalist, is the former associate director of the Institute for Public  Service Reporting at the University of Memphis.