Don't let wishful thinking fool you. The Ford family has been almost untouchable for many decades. Any hits they take now will be labeled unfair attacks on Harold Jr's senate race.
...prominent black Memphis ministers think Ford's celebrity will have more of an impact than race.
"There's an emotional attachment to the legacy of the Fords," said Rev. L. LaSimba Gray, community activist and pastor of New Sardis Baptist Church.
His cell phone, church office phone and home phone buzzed for days after the indictments of Ford, four current and former legislators, and two alleged bagmen.
Gray's callers had similar reactions: Let's picket. Let's boycott. Let's protest.
"It's like a gut instinct," said Vanderbilt University law and political science professor Carol Swain. "The black community has a history of closing ranks around its own."