View source for History of Memphis, Tennessee

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[[File:Memphis airview 1870.jpg|300px|thumb|Historic aerial view of Memphis (1870)]]
[[File:MemphisCourtSquareca1917.jpg|230px|thumb|right|Court Square in Memphis ({{Circa|1917}})]]

The '''history of Memphis, Tennessee''' and its area began many thousands of years ago with succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. In the first millennium, it was settled by the [[Mississippian culture]]. The [[Chickasaw]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian tribe]] emerged about the 17th century, or migrated into the area.<ref name="GALLOWAY">{{Cite book|last=Galloway|first=Patricia |title=Choctaw Genesis, 1500–1700|series=Indians of the Southeast|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|location=Lincoln, NE|pages=49–54|isbn=9780803270701|oclc=32012964|year=1995|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2HVOImebydMC&q=Plaquemine&pg=PA49|access-date=August 31, 2013}}</ref> The earliest European exploration may have encountered remnants of the Mississippian culture by Spanish explorer [[Hernando de Soto (explorer)|Hernando de Soto]]. Later French explorers led by [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]] likely encountered the Chickasaw.<ref name="TNencyclopedia">{{cite web
  | last = Magness
  | first = Perre
  | title = Fort Prudhomme and La Salle
  | publisher = Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
  | url = http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=495
}}</ref>
The city of [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] was not founded until 1819. The city was named after the [[Memphis, Egypt|ancient capital]] of [[Egypt]] on the [[Nile River]] in North [[Africa]].

It rapidly developed as a major trading center for cotton cultivated at the region's large plantations and dependent on the work of enslaved African Americans. In the 19th century, and especially 1878 and 1879, the city suffered severe [[yellow fever]] epidemics. In 1878 tens of thousands of residents fled and more than 5,000 died, with hundreds more dying in the next year's epidemic, causing the city to go bankrupt and give up its charter until 1893.

By the early 20th century, cotton was still a major commodity crop; Memphis grew into the world's largest spot cotton market and the world's largest hardwood lumber market. During the 1960s the city was at the center of [[civil rights]] actions, with a major strike by city sanitation workers in 1968. Having come to the city to support the workers, Rev. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] was assassinated by a lone sniper on April 4, 1968, at the [[Lorraine Motel]]. Many notable [[blues]] musicians grew up in and around the Memphis and northern [[Mississippi]] area.<ref name=NYTaug11>{{cite news
  | last = Guralnick
  | first = Peter
  | title = How Did Elvis Get Turned Into a Racist?
  | pages = 2
  | work = New York Times
  | date = 2007-08-11
  | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/opinion/11guralnick.html
}}</ref> These included musical artists such as [[Muddy Waters]], [[Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson]], [[B.B. King]], [[Howlin' Wolf]], [[Isaac Hayes]], [[Young Dolph]] and [[Elvis Presley]].

==Early history==
[[File:Chromesun kincaid site 01.jpg|right|265px|thumb|The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in the United States in the first millennium before the arrival of Europeans]]
{{History of Tennessee}}
From about 10,000 [[Common Era|BCE]], [[Paleo-Indians]] and later [[Archaic period in the Americas|Archaic-Indians]] lived as communities of [[hunter-gatherer]]s in the area that covers the modern-day southern United States.<ref>
{{cite web
| url        = https://www.nps.gov/history/seac/SoutheastChronicles/NISI/NISI%20Cultural%20Overview.htm| title = Pushmataha, Choctaw Indian Chief
| access-date = 2008-02-11
| last       = Prentice
| first      = Guy
| year       = 2003
| work       = Southeast Chronicles
| publisher  = National Park Service
}}
</ref><ref name=NuttPREHISTORY>{{cite book|editor=Charles H. McNutt|author= Smith, Gerald P.|title=Prehistory of the Central Mississippi Valley|article=The Mississippi River Drainage of Western Tennessee|year=1996|publisher=[[University of Alabama Press]]|isbn = 978-0-8173-0807-0|pages=97–118}}</ref> Approximately 800 [[Common Era|CE]] to 1600 CE, the [[Mississippi River Delta]] was populated by tribes of the [[Mississippian culture]], a [[Mound builder (people)|mound-building]] Native American people who had developed in the late [[Woodland period|Woodland Indian]] period.<ref name=NuttPREHISTORY/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-707 |title=History & Archaeology: Mississippian Period: Overview |access-date=10 December 2008 |publisher=The New Georgia Encyclopedia |date=2002-10-03 |archive-date=2012-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301201548/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-707 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[Tipton phase]] people were a local expression of the Mississippian culture. They inhabited the region of modern-day [[Tipton County, Tennessee|Tipton]], [[Lauderdale County, Tennessee|Lauderdale]] and [[Shelby County, Tennessee|Shelby]] counties during the time of first contact with Europeans, at the arrival of the de Soto Expedition.

By the end of the Mississippian period, the land was claimed and populated by the [[Chickasaw|Chickasaw tribe]].<ref>{{cite book|editor1=David H. Dye |editor2=Sheryl Ann Cox|author= Smith, Gerald P.|title=Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi|article=The Walls Phase and its Neighbors|year=1990|publisher=[[University of Alabama Press]]|isbn = 978-0-8173-0455-3|pages=135–169}}</ref> The exact origins of the Chickasaw are uncertain.<ref>
{{cite book
| last       = Cushman
| first      = Horatio
| title      = History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians
| year       = 1899
| publisher  = University of Oklahoma Press
| location   = [[Norman, Oklahoma|Norman]], Oklahoma
| pages      = 18–19
| chapter    = Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez
| isbn       = 978-0-8061-3127-6
}}</ref> Noted historian Horatio Cushman indicates that the Chickasaw, along with the Choctaw, may have had origins in present-day Mexico and migrated north.<ref name=cushman>
{{cite book
 | last       = Cushman
 | first      = Horatio
 | title      = History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians
 | year   = 1899
 | publisher  = University of Oklahoma Press
 | pages       = 18–19
 | chapter    = Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez
 | isbn         = 978-0-8061-3127-6
}}
</ref> When Europeans first encountered them, the Chickasaw were living in villages in what is now Mississippi, with a smaller number in the area of [[Savannah Town, South Carolina|Savannah Town]], South Carolina. Twentieth-century scholar Patricia Galloway says that the Chickasaw may have been migrants to the area from the west and may not have been descendants of the pre-historic [[Mississippian culture]].<ref name=GALLOWAY/> Their oral history supports this, indicating they moved along with the Choctaw from west of the Mississippi in pre-history.

{{blockquote|These people (the choctaw) are the only nation from whom I could learn any idea of a traditional account of a first origin; and that is their coming out of a hole in the ground, which they shew between their nation and the Chickasaws; they tell us also that their neighbours were surprised at seeing a people rise at once out of the earth."|[[Bernard Romans]]- ''Natural History of East and West Florida''}}
[[File:DeSoto Map HRoe 2008.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A proposed route for the de Soto Expedition, based on the [[Charles M. Hudson (author)|Charles M. Hudson]] map of 1997]]

===European explorers - 16th/17th centuries===
European exploration came years later, with Spanish explorer [[Hernando de Soto (explorer)|Hernando de Soto]] believed to have visited what is now the Memphis area as early as the 1540s.<ref name=EBdeSoto>{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/555096/Hernando-de-Soto |title=Hernando de Soto - Britannica Online Encyclopedia |access-date=2008-10-23 |publisher= Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

By the 1680s, French explorers led by [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]] built [[Fort Prudhomme]] in the vicinity, the first European settlement in what would become Memphis, predating Anglo-American settlement in [[East Tennessee]] by more than 70 years.<ref name=TNencyclopedia/> [[Fort Assumption]] was a French fortification constructed in 1739 on the fourth [[Chickasaw Bluff]] on the [[Mississippi River]] by [[Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville]]'s French army. The fort was used as a base against the [[Chickasaw]] in the abortive [[Chickasaw Wars|Campaign of 1739]].<ref name=TNencyASSUMPTION>{{cite web |url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=484 | author=Magness, Perre | title=Fort Assumption |access-date=2009-03-01 |publisher=The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture |year=1998 }}</ref><ref name=Pierson>{{cite book | first = Uriah | last = Pierson | title = James' River Guide | year = 1873 | publisher = U. P. James, Cincinnati | pages=33–36 | id = OCLC 05153739}}</ref>

Despite such early outposts, the land comprising present-day Memphis remained in a largely unorganized territory throughout most of the 18th century in terms of European settlement. The boundaries of what would become Tennessee continued to evolve from its parent — the [[Carolina Colony]], later [[North Carolina]] and [[South Carolina]]. In 1796, the site became the westernmost point of the newly admitted "state" of Tennessee in the newly independent United States. However, West Tennessee was at that time occupied and historically controlled by the Chickasaw tribe, owned by possession and tribal rights.

On April 3, 1790, promotion of a town at Chickasaw Bluffs was undertaken with leases offered by John Rice, Esq. of Cumberland or purchases to families that arrived at the landing near the mouth of the Big Hatcha-river.<ref>{{cite book | title=Annual report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1945: Spain in the Mississippi Valley, 1765{{endash}}1794| year=1946 | volume=3 | page=317 | place=Washington | publisher=Government Printing Office | editor=Lawrence Kinnaird | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uk8LAAAAYAAJ&dq=Plan+for+American+Settlement+at+Chickasaw+Bluffs&pg=PA317 | access-date=October 8, 2024}} Part 2.</ref>

==19th century==
===Foundation - 1819===
[[File:Memphis Plan 1819.jpg|thumb|upright|The original plan for Memphis, as surveyed in 1819.]]The area of West Tennessee became available for white settlement after the Federal Government purchased it from the Chickasaw Nation in the 1818 [[Jackson Purchase (U.S. historical region)|Jackson Purchase]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=698 | title=Jackson Purchase | series=Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture | date=October 8, 2017 | access-date=October 9, 2024 | last=Semmer | first=Blythe}}</ref> Memphis was founded on May 22, 1819 by a group of investors, [[John Overton (judge)|John Overton]], [[James Winchester (general)|James Winchester]], and [[Andrew Jackson]],<ref name=TNencyOverton>{{cite web |url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1029 |title=TN Encyclopedia: John Overton |access-date=2008-10-24 |publisher=The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture }}.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Roper | first=James | title=The Founding of Memphis, 1818{{endash}}1820 | journal=West Tennessee Historical Society | year=1970}}</ref> and was incorporated as a city in 1826.<ref name=MemLib>{{cite web |url=http://www.memphislibrary.lib.tn.us/history/memphis2.htm |title=Memphis History and Facts |access-date=2008-10-24 |publisher=Memphis Public Library |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927040837/http://www.memphislibrary.lib.tn.us/history/memphis2.htm |archive-date=2007-09-27 }}</ref> The city was named after the [[Memphis, Egypt|ancient capital]] of [[Egypt]] on the [[Nile River]], itself named Memphis in Greek after the Egyptian name ''Mennefer'' for the Pyramid complex of pharaoh [[Pepi I]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Altenmüller|first=Hartwig|author-link=Hartwig Altenmüller|chapter=Old Kingdom: Fifth Dynasty|editor-last=Redford|editor-first=Donald B.|editor-link=Donald B. Redford|year=2001|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Volume 2|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-510234-5|pages=597–601}}</ref> The founders planned for a large city to be built on the site and laid out a plan featuring a regular grid of streets interrupted by four town squares, to be named Exchange, Market, Court, and Auction.<ref name=CityHistory>City of Memphis [http://www.cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=296 History of Memphis] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615184656/http://cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=296 |date=2010-06-15 }}</ref> Of these squares Market, Court, and Auction remain as public parks in downtown Memphis. The Exchange square site was developed in the 20th century as the Cook Convention Center.

Memphis was a departure point on the Mississippi River for Native Americans [[Indian removal|removed]] in the 1830s from their historic lands to [[Indian Territory]] on the [[Trail of Tears]]. In 1831 French writer [[Alexis De Tocqueville]] witnessed "a numerous band of [[Choctaws]]" crossing the River at Memphis.<ref>De Tocqueville Alexis, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/815/815-h/815-h.htm ''Democracy In America''], Henry Reeve, tr. Volume 1, Chapter XVIII.</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2024}} The State of Mississippi insisted the boundary with the State of Tennessee be resurveyed with the object of some advocates being the capture of the young city of Memphis, but the new boundary proved Memphis was well outside the bounds.<ref>Franklin L. Riley. (1905). ''School history of Mississippi for use in public and private schools''. pp. 192f.</ref>

The city grew in the 19th century as a center for transporting, grading and marketing the growing volumes of cotton produced in the nearby [[Mississippi Delta]] (for background, see "[[King Cotton]]"). The cotton economy of the antebellum South depended on the forced labor of hundreds of thousands of [[History of slavery in the United States|African-American slaves]], and Memphis became a major slave market. Prior to the Civil War, one quarter of the city's population were slaves.<ref name=Street>{{cite book |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18304/pg18304-images.html#Page_518 | last=Street | first=Julian | title=American Adventures: A Second Trip "Abroad at Home" | publisher=The Century Co. | place=New York | year=1917 | pages=523{{endash}}525}}</ref> Seeking their freedom, many slaves turned to the [[Underground Railroad]] to escape to the free states of the North, and the Memphis [[Burkle Estate|home of Jacob Burkle]] was a way-station on their route to freedom.

The [[Gayoso Hotel|Gayoso House Hotel]] was built overlooking the Mississippi River in 1842 and became a Memphis landmark; it stood until 1899, where it burned down. The original Gayoso House was a first-class hotel, designed by [[James H. Dakin]], a well-known architect of that era, and was appointed with the latest conveniences, including indoor plumbing with marble tubs, silver faucets and flush toilets.<ref>{{cite web
  | last = Semmer
  | first = Blythe
  | title = Gayoso Hotel
  | publisher = Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
  | url = http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=535
}}</ref> In 1857 the [[Memphis & Charleston Railroad]] was completed, linking an Atlantic Ocean port and one on the Mississippi River. Memphis was one of the two eastern termini of the [[Butterfield Overland Mail]] [[stagecoach]] route to California from 1857 to 1861.<ref>Waterman L. Ormsby, Lyle H. Wright, Josephine M. Bynum, ''The Butterfield Overland Mail: Only Through Passenger on the First Westbound Stage.'' Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 2007. pp. viii, 167, 173.</ref> Through the railroad, Memphis traders could export cotton through [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]], South Carolina, to [[London]] and the European continent.

===Competing towns: Hopefield, AR and Randolph, TN===
Hopefield, Arkansas was founded by the Spanish Governor in 1795, across from Memphis near present-day [[West Memphis, Arkansas|West Memphis]], Arkansas. Hopefield became the eastern terminal for the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad in 1857 and prospered until the Civil War. It was burned by Union forces in retaliation for Confederate Raids. Although Hopefield was rebuilt afterward, it was destroyed in a flood. The area of [[Crittenden County, Arkansas|Crittenden County]], Arkansas has been subject to some of the country's most disastrous floods, due to the Mississippi River backing into the [[St. Francis River]]. These frequent disasters have prevented much population growth on the Arkansas side. Because of its location on a bluff, Memphis was not subject to flooding.

[[Randolph, Tennessee|Randolph]], Tennessee was founded in the 1820s at the second [[Chickasaw Bluff]] upriver of Memphis; for a time it was a major competitor to Memphis for commerce along the Mississippi River. However, Randolph gradually lost commerce and influence to Memphis, particularly after it was bypassed by railroad construction.

===Civil War===
[[File:Gayoso House Hotel.jpg|thumb|Gayoso House Hotel (1887)]]
At the time of the [[American Civil War]], Memphis was already an important regional city because of its river trade and railroad connections, particularly the [[Memphis and Charleston Railroad]], the only east–west rail link across the South. [[Tennessee#History|Tennessee]] seceded from the Union in June 1861 and Memphis briefly became a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] stronghold.

[[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] forces moving down the Mississippi River captured Memphis from the Confederacy in the [[First Battle of Memphis]] on June 6, 1862. The city remained under [[Union army|Union]] control for the duration of the war, except for a dramatic [[Second Battle of Memphis|raid]] conducted by [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]]. During that time the Gayoso House Hotel was a Union headquarters. According to local legend, General Forrest's brother Captain William Forrest, an escort on the raid, rode his horse into the lobby seeking to capture a Union general.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://tnsocr.org/chaptersofthetnsocr/5mariambeckforrest.html |title=Tennessee Society Order of Confederate Rose |access-date=2012-08-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702021919/http://www.tnsocr.org/chaptersofthetnsocr/5mariambeckforrest.html |archive-date=2012-07-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Harkins, John E. ''Metropolis of the American Nile: Memphis and Shelby County'', second edition. Guild Bindery Press, Oxford, MS, 1991, p. 81.</ref>

Memphis became a Union supply base and continued to prosper throughout the war. The city became a focus for illicit trade in raw cotton, which was in great demand by northern [[cotton mill]]s because of the [[Union blockade]] and the [[Cotton diplomacy|Confederate embargo]]. In January 1863 [[Charles Anderson Dana|Charles Dana]], a special investigator for the Federal [[United States Department of War|War Department]], reported from Memphis that a "mania" for illicit cotton had "corrupted and demoralized" Union Army officers.<ref>Leigh, Phil. [http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/trading-with-the-enemy/?ref=opinion "Trading With the Enemy"], ''New York Times'', October 28, 2012.</ref>

Thousands of slaves with families fled from rural plantations to Union lines, and the Army established a contraband camp south of the city lines. By 1865, there were 20,000 blacks in the city, a sevenfold increase from the 3,000 before the war.<ref name="Ryan">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2716953 Ryan, James G. (1977). "The Memphis Riots of 1866: Terror in a black community during Reconstruction"], ''The Journal of Negro History'' 62 (3): 243-257, at JSTOR.</ref> The presence of black Union soldiers was resented by ethnic whites in the city; thousands of Irish had immigrated since the mid-19th century. In 1866 there was a [[Memphis riots of 1866|major massacre]] with whites attacking blacks. Forty-five blacks were reported killed, and nearly twice as many wounded; much of their makeshift housing was destroyed.<ref name="carden">[http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/publication/WP1040_An%20Unrighteous%20Piece%20of%20Business.pdf Art Carden and Christopher J. Coyne, "An Unrighteous Piece of Business: A New Institutional Analysis of the Memphis Riot of 1866"], Mercatus Center, George Mason University, July 2010, accessed 1 February 2014</ref> By 1870, the black population was 15,000 in a city total of 40,226.<ref name="Ryan"/>

===Post Civil War===
Memphis emerged from the Civil War undamaged from the fighting. On July 24, 1866, Tennessee was the first southern state to be re-admitted to the Union.

The [[Memphis Cotton Exchange]] was founded in 1873 by a group of cotton traders led by [[Napoleon Hill (Memphis businessman)|Napoleon Hill]]. Hill became immensely wealthy with interests in wholesale groceries, railroads, steel and banking, as well as cotton, and was known to his contemporaries as "the merchant prince of Memphis".<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/image/171126900 Political Horoscope] Memphis Daily Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) · 19 Mar 1888, Mon · Page 4. Accessed 22 August 2019.</ref> He built an ornate [[Renaissance Revival architecture|French Renaissance style]] mansion in Downtown Memphis.

===Yellow fever epidemics: 1870s===
[[File:Riverboats at Memphis.jpg|thumb|right|Mississippi riverboats (1906)]]
Extensive [[yellow fever]] epidemics in the 1870s (1873, 1878 and 1879) devastated the city. In 1873 some 2,000 people died, the highest fatalities of any inland city.<ref name="fever">[http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1545 Christopher Caplinger, "Yellow Fever Epidemics"], ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2009/2010, accessed 23 February 2015</ref> Because of the severity of the 1873 epidemic, when [[Lower Mississippi Valley yellow fever epidemic of 1878|yellow fever was diagnosed on August 5, 1878]], more than 25,000 people left the city within two weeks.<ref name="fever"/> Many moved permanently to other cities such as St. Louis and Atlanta. It was reported that such terror gripped the town in August 1878 that fleeing families "left their houses with the doors wide open and silver standing on the sideboards".<ref name=Street/> The population had been roughly 50,000 before the start of the epidemic. Of the 19,000 who stayed in Memphis, 17,000 came down with yellow fever, and 5,150 died.<ref name="fever"/>

At that time it was not known that this fatal disease was carried by mosquitoes, so public health measures were unsuccessful. Remaining in the city to care for the sick, a number of Catholic [[Franciscan Sisters of Mary]], Episcopalian nuns of the [[Community of St. Mary|Sisterhood of St. Mary]] and clergymen sacrificed themselves. An epidemic also broke out in 1879, in which several hundred people died. So many people died or fled the epidemics that in 1879 Memphis lost its city charter and went bankrupt. Until 1893 Memphis was governed by the state as a Taxing District.<ref>{{cite web
  | last = Harkins
  | first = John E.
  | title = Memphis
  | publisher = Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
  | url = http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=889
}}</ref>

[[Robert R. Church, Sr.]], a freedman who became known later as the South's first African-American millionaire (although his total wealth is believed to reach "only" $700,000), was the first citizen to buy a $1,000 bond to pay off the debt and help restore the city's charter.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120218104001/http://www.memphishistory.org/People/Families/TheChurchFamily/RobertRChurchSr/tabid/128/Default.aspx Robert R. Church, Sr.]}} MemphisHistory.com</ref> He built much of his wealth by having bought real estate when the city became depopulated after the epidemics. He founded the city's first black-owned bank, Solvent Savings Bank, ensuring that the black community could get loans to establish businesses and buy houses. Because of the drop in city population, blacks gained other opportunities. They were hired to the police force as patrolmen and retained positions in it until 1895, when imposed segregation forced them out.<ref name="fever"/>

[[File:Memphis sewers 1880.jpg|thumb|Plan of the Memphis sewer system in 1880]]
Under a commission form of government, the city made improvements in sanitation, particularly the construction of an innovative sewer system designed by [[George E. Waring Jr.]] Construction of the sewers began in January 1880, and by 1893 had expanded to over 50 miles of sewers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.memphisstormwater.com/history/ |title=History - Memphis Storm Water |author=<!--Not stated--> |website= City of Memphis Storm Water Program |access-date=January 6, 2018}}</ref> This removed the breeding grounds of the mosquito vector. It is likely that survivors' acquired immunity from the 1870s epidemics contributed more to lesser fatalities from the disease in future years.<ref name="fever"/> In 1887, a source of abundant and pure artesian water was found beneath the city,<ref>{{cite news | title = The Water Supply of Memphis | work = New York Times | date = 1890-04-27 | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D01E6D61539E033A25754C2A9629C94619ED7CF }}</ref> which guaranteed its water supply and aided its recovery.

In 1892, the first [[Mississippi River]] bridge at Memphis opened. As a result, the city began to prosper again, and it regained its charter and [[home rule]] in 1893.<ref>Adams, James Truslow and Ketz, Louise Bilebof. ''Dictionary of American History'' Scribner, 1976, p. 302.</ref> African Americans in the city were closed out of many opportunities by the segregated school system, in which their facilities were underfunded, and [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchisement]] by state laws passed in the late 1880s, which resulted in their exclusion from voting and other participation in the political system. State law and local custom imposed a system of [[Jim Crow]] based on [[white supremacy]], and in the late 1890s the police force was closed against blacks.

In 1897, as a conspicuous claim to its revival, Memphis had a [[pyramid]]-shaped pavilion prominently displayed at the [[Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition (1897)|Tennessee Centennial]] exposition.

==20th century==
===Business development===
Memphis developed as the world's largest [[spot market|spot]] cotton market and the world's largest hardwood lumber market, both commodity products of the Mississippi Delta. Into the 1950s, it was the world's largest [[mule]] market.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=296 |title=City of Memphis Website – History of Memphis |publisher=Cityofmemphis.org |date=April 4, 1968 |access-date=July 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615184656/http://cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=296 |archive-date=June 15, 2010 }}</ref> Attracting workers from rural areas as well as new immigrants, from 1900 to 1950 the city increased nearly fourfold in population, from 102,350 to 396,000 residents.<ref name="lollar">[http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/yellow-fever-left-mark-on-memphis Michael Lollar, "Yellow fever left mark on Memphis; historians disagree on impact"], ''The Commercial Appeal,'' September 11, 2011, accessed February 23, 2015</ref>

Memphis developed an extensive network of parks and public works as part of the national [[City Beautiful Movement]].

[[File:Union Avenue.jpg|thumb|Cotton merchants on Union Avenue (1937)]]
The [[Memphis Parkway System|Memphis Park and Parkway System]] (including [[Overton Park]] and the later M.L. King Riverside Park) was designed as a comprehensive plan by landscape architect [[George Kessler]] at the beginning of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite web
  | last = Hopkins
  | first = John Linn
  |author2=Oates, Marsha R.
  | title = Memphis Park and Parkway System
  | publisher = Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
  | url = http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=897
  | access-date = 2007-05-28
}}</ref>

[[Clarence Saunders (grocer)|Clarence Saunders]], a Memphis inventor and entrepreneur, opened a self-service grocery store in 1916 and founded the first supermarket chain, [[Piggly Wiggly]].<ref>Mike Freeman, ''Clarence Saunders and the Founding of Piggly Wiggly:  The Rise & Fall of a Memphis Maverick'' (2011) [https://www.amazon.com/Clarence-Saunders-Founding-Piggly-Wiggly/dp/1609492854/ excerpt]</ref> Saunders, who became very wealthy from these ventures, lost his fortune on Wall Street and was forced to sell his partly completed Memphis mansion, dubbed the [[Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium|Pink Palace]]. The Pink Palace was adapted for use as the City's historical and natural history museum. Other parts of the Saunders estate were developed for upscale residences, known as [[Chickasaw Gardens]].<ref>V. Lauderdale,  ''Ask Vance''. Bluff City Books, Memphis, 2003, p. 16.</ref>

The storied [[Peabody Hotel]] opened in 1923 and became a symbol of upper-class Southern elegance. In 1935, Mississippi author David Cohn wrote,

<blockquote>The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The Peabody is the Paris Ritz, the Cairo Shepheard's, the London Savoy of this section. If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby, where ducks waddle and turtles drowse, ultimately you will see everybody who is anybody in the Delta.<ref>Quoted from ''God Shakes Creation'' by David Cohn (1935) in Schmidt, W.E. "Memphis' Grand Hotel," ''New York Times,'' 5 October 1986.</ref></blockquote>

To the east of the city lay a large railroad yard, with tracks of four railroads of that era. While the railroads were integral to the city's commerce, by the late 1920s the yard had become a barrier to automobile traffic and, hence, to eastward expansion of the city. In 1927 - 1928 the "Poplar Boulevard Viaduct" was constructed to span the railyards and allow eastward expansion. The viaduct was a joint effort between the City of Memphis and the railroads.<ref>Whitehead, Josh [http://cremedememph.blogspot.com/2011/08/poplar-viaduct.html ''Poplar Viaduct''], Creme de Memph blog, 13 August 2011.</ref>

===Crump machine===
[[File:Memphis Map 1911.jpg|thumb|Map of Memphis in 1911]]
From the 1910s to the 1950s, Memphis was a locus of [[machine politics]] under the direction of [[E. H. Crump|E. H. "Boss" Crump]], a Democrat.<ref>Biles (1986).</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2024}} He obtained a state law in 1911 to establish a small commission to manage the city. The city retained a form of commission government until 1967 But Crump was in full control at all times, Using all the familiar techniques of the big city boss, who is willing to engage in ballot manipulation, patronage for friends, and frustrating bureaucratic obstacles for the opposition. Crump build a complex alliance with established power figures at the local state and national levels. He ensured the dissidents had little or no voice. At the center of his network was Cotton Row—The business elite that dominated the cotton industry. Second he included the modernizers, the business-oriented progressives who were most concerned with upgrading the infrastructure in terms of the waterfront, parks, highways and skyscrapers, as well as a moderately good school system. Working-class whites got their share of jobs. AFL labor unions were of marginal influence; CIO unions were not tolerated.<ref>Roger Biles,  "Ed Crump versus the unions: The labor movement in Memphis during the 1930s." ''Labor History'' 25.4 (1984): 533-552.</ref> Roger Biles argues that the political system was virtually unchanged from 1910 into the 1950s and 1960s, thanks to Crump's wire-pulling. Crump Was the leading Tennessee supporter of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. In turn the city received ample relief programs – which provided jobs for the unemployed, as selected by local machine lieutenants. As well the city was provided with major federal building projects, which helped fund the business community.<ref>Biles (1986), pp. 69{{endash}}107.</ref> Crump incorporated the black leadership in his outer circle, dispensing patronage in return for the black vote.<ref>Randolph Meade Walker, "The Role of the Black Clergy in Memphis During the Crump Era." ''West Tennessee Historical Society Papers'' 1979.  33:29-47.
</ref> Memphis was one of the largest southern cities in which blacks could vote, but segregation was as rigid as anywhere. Crump successfully lobbied Washington for large-scale public housing projects.<ref>Biles (1986), pp. 88{{endash}}107.</ref>

The city installed a revolutionary sewer system and upgraded sanitation and drainage to prevent another epidemic. Pure water from an artesian well was discovered in the 1880s, securing the city's water supply. The commissioners developed an extensive network of parks and public works as part of the national [[City Beautiful movement]], but did not encourage heavy industry, which might have provided substantial employment for the white working-class population. The lack of representation in city government resulted in the poor and minorities being underrepresented. The majority controlled the election of all the [[at-large]] positions.<ref>Biles (1986).</ref>{{page needed|date=June 2024}}

===World War II: 1950s===
During the [[Second World War]], the [[United States Department of War|War Department]] constructed large supply depots in Memphis for the [[United States Army|Army]] and the [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Force]]. The Memphis Army Depot also served as a [[prisoner-of-war]] camp, housing 800 [[Axis alliance (World War II)|Axis]] prisoners. By the time it closed in 1997, the Memphis Army Depot had 130 buildings on site with more than {{convert|4000000|sqft|m2}} of enclosed industrial space.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.memphisdepot.net/history.htm|title=History of the Depot|website=memphisdepot.net|access-date=14 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226190714/http://www.memphisdepot.net/history.htm|archive-date=26 February 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20091026194327/http://geocities.com/wmaxwell/depot.html Maxwell, William E. "Beans, Blankets, and Barbed Wire: The Memphis Army Service Forces Depot in World War II," ''West Tennessee Historical Society Papers,'' 49 (1995): 165-178.]</ref>

In 1942, the [[US Navy]] built the Millington Naval Air Station (now the [[Naval Support Activity Mid-South]]) in [[Millington, Tennessee|Millington]], Tennessee, just north of Memphis. This {{convert|3500|acre|km2|adj=on}} facility provided pilot training during World War II, and later became the major naval air technical training center for [[enlisted personnel]] aviation specialty training. It is currently used as a naval personnel center and Headquarters for the [[US Army Corps of Engineers]] Finance Center. Its flight facilities have been transferred to civilian use as the [[Millington Regional Jetport]].

The first national motel chain, [[Holiday Inn]], was founded in Memphis by [[Kemmons Wilson]] in 1952. His first inn was located in [[Berclair, Memphis|Berclair]] near the city limit on Summer Avenue, then the main highway to [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], Tennessee.<ref name=DyeShelby>{{cite book
  | last = Dye
  | first = Robert W.
  | title = Shelby County (Images of America)
  | publisher = Arcadia Publishing
  | year = 2005
  | pages = 128
  | isbn = 978-0-7385-4192-1
}}</ref>

===Population change===
In 1970, the Census Bureau reported Memphis' population as 60.8% white and 38.9% black.<ref name="census1">{{cite web|title=Tennessee - Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |access-date=April 16, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812191959/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |archive-date=August 12, 2012 }}</ref> Suburbanization was attracting wealthier residents to newer housing outside the city. After the riots and court-ordered busing in 1973 to achieve desegregation of public schools, "about 40,000 of the system's 71,000 white students abandon[ed] the system in four years".<ref name="dillon">[https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/merger-of-memphis-and-county-school-districts-revives-challenges.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& "Merger of Memphis and County School Districts Revives Race and Class Challenges"], ''New York Times'', November 5, 2011, accessed February 21, 2015</ref> The city now has a majority-black population; the larger metropolitan area is narrowly majority white.

Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the [[Southern United States|American South]]. Many renowned musicians grew up in and around Memphis and moved to Chicago and other areas from the [[Mississippi Delta]], carrying their music with them to influence other cities and listeners over radio airwaves.<ref>Peter Guralnick. ''New York Times'', August 11, 2007.</ref> These included such musical greats as [[Elvis Presley]], [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], [[Muddy Waters]], [[Carl Perkins]], [[Johnny Cash]], [[Robert Johnson]], [[W. C. Handy]], [[B.B. King]], [[Howlin' Wolf]], [[Isaac Hayes]], [[Booker T. Jones]], [[Eric Gales]], [[Al Green]], [[Alex Chilton]], [[Justin Timberlake]], [[Three 6 Mafia]], [[the Sylvers]], [[Jay Reatard]], [[Zach Myers]], and many others. [[Aretha Franklin]] was born in Memphis.

====Geographical expansion====
At the start of the 1950s, Memphis was a compact city with limited boundaries, compared to the [[urban sprawl|sprawl]] seen today. The southern boundary of the city was an irregular line starting on the Mississippi opposite [[President's Island]], about two miles (3&nbsp;km) north of Nonconnah Creek. The northern boundary was close to Chelsea Avenue, not much south of the [[Wolf River (Tennessee)|Wolf River]] but with an unpopulated wetland area beyond the city before reaching the Wolf River. The Eastern Boundary of the city was near Highland Street.<ref>''Hammond's Complete World Atlas'', 1952 edition, p. 230.</ref>

By the mid-1950s, Memphis stretched southward to the Mississippi State Line, but only directly south of President's Island. Such communities as [[West Junction, Tennessee|West Junction]], [[Nonconnah, Tennessee|Nonconnah]], [[Raines, Tennessee|Raines]] and [[Oakville, Tennessee|Oakville]] still remained beyond the city boundaries, with the southern city line running on the north side of [[Nonconnah Creek]]. On the east, most of [[White Station, Tennessee|White Station]], Tennessee had been annexed. The Northern boundary of Memphis was the Wolf River.<ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica Atlas'', 1958 Edition, Plate 111</ref>

By the mid-1960s, Memphis had annexed [[Frayser, Tennessee|Frayser]], Tennessee on the north side of the Wolf River. It had also annexed [[Berclair, Tennessee|Berclair]], Tennessee and all of White Station on its eastern border, extending south-westward along Poplar Avenue, past the recently built freeway that is today designated I-240, and bordering on [[Germantown, Tennessee|Germantown]], Tennessee, Memphis' current eastern limit.<ref>''World Book'', 1967 Edition, T (map of Tennessee in article on Tennessee), p. 113</ref>

===Civil Rights Movement===
[[File:Lorraine Motel 04 15 Mar 2012.jpg|thumb|[[Lorraine Motel]], site of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis (2012)]]
During the 1960s, the city was a center of activity during the [[Civil Rights Movement]], as its large African-American population had been affected by state segregation practices and [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchisement]] in the early 20th century. African-American residents drew from the civil rights movement to improve their lives. In 1968, the [[Memphis sanitation strike]] began for [[living wage]]s and better working conditions; the workers were overwhelmingly African American. They marched to gain public awareness and support for their plight: the danger of their work, and the struggles to support families with their low pay. Their drive for better pay had been met with resistance by the city government. Rev. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]], known for his leadership in the non-violent movement, came to lend his support to the workers' cause. He stayed at the [[Lorraine Motel]] in the city, where he was [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|assassinated]] by a sniper on April 4, 1968, the day after giving his prophetic "[[I've Been to the Mountaintop]]" speech at the [[Mason Temple]].

Grief-stricken and enraged after learning of King's murder, some in the city rioted, looting and destroying businesses and other facilities, some by arson. The governor ordered Tennessee National Guardsmen into the city within hours, where small, roving bands of rioters continued to be active.<ref name="lentz">[http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/1968/apr/06/dr-king-slain-sniper-looting-arson-touched-death/ Richard Lentz, "Dr. King Is Slain By Sniper: Looting, Arson Touched Off By Death"], ''Commercial Appeal'', April 6, 1968, accessed February 1, 2014</ref> Fearing the violence, more of the middle-class began to leave the city for the suburbs.

===Recent history===
The entertainer and philanthropist [[Danny Thomas]] helped open [[St. Jude Children's Research Hospital]] in downtown Memphis in 1962. St. Jude specializes in the study and treatment of catastrophic diseases affecting children, especially [[leukemia]] and other childhood cancers, AIDS, [[sickle cell disease]], and inherited [[immune disorder]]s. Its success rates and free treatment for its patients have made it one of the most reputable children's hospitals in the world.

[[FedEx Corporation]] (originally, ''Federal Express'') was founded in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]], Arkansas in 1971, but moved its operations to Memphis in 1973 to take advantage of its more extensive airport facilities. As Memphis developed as the major hub of operations for FedEx, the [[Memphis International Airport]] became the largest airfreight terminal in the world.

In 1974 [[Harold Ford Sr.]] of Memphis was elected to Congress, becoming the first black elected national official from Tennessee; he was re-elected for several terms. He was one of several Ford brothers who became active in politics in Memphis, Shelby County and the state; his son [[Harold Ford Jr.]] also became a Congressman. In 1991 the city of Memphis elected its first African-American mayor, Dr. [[W.W. Herenton]].

On December 23, 1988, a [[tank truck|tanker truck]] hauling liquefied [[propane]] [[Memphis tanker truck disaster|crashed at the I-40/I-240 interchange in Midtown and exploded]], starting multiple vehicle and structural fires. The tank was the propelled {{convert|125|yd|m}} from the crash site into a nearby duplex apartment. Nine people were killed and ten were injured. It was one of the deadliest motor vehicle accidents in state history and eventually led to the reconstruction of the interchange where it occurred.<ref>{{cite news |date = December 25, 1988 |title = Death Toll at 9 in Memphis Tanker Explosion |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/25/us/death-toll-at-9-in-memphis-tanker-explosion.html |work = The New York Times |agency = Associated Press |access-date = January 12, 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite report |author = Michael S. Isner |author-link =  |date = February 6, 1990 |title = Fire Investigation Report: Propane Tank Truck Incident, Eight People Killed, Memphis, Tennessee, December 23, 1988 |url = https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Resources/Fire-Investigations/fimemphis.ashx |publisher = National Fire Protection Association |page =  |access-date = January 18, 2021 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20210128223921/https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Resources/Fire-Investigations/fimemphis.ashx |archivedate = January 28, 2021}}</ref>

==Cultural history==
[[File:Jazz drummer.jpg|right|thumb|Jazz musician, Memphis (1939)]]
Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the [[Southern United States|American south]].

Col. Henry Van Pelt began publishing ''The Appeal'' newspaper, ancestor of today's ''[[Commercial Appeal]],'' in a wooden shack along the Wolf River in 1841. A pro-Confederacy newspaper, ''The Appeal'' moved frequently during the Civil War to avoid capture by Union forces. ''The Commercial Appeal'' was awarded a [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1923 for its coverage of, and editorial opposition to, the activities of the [[Ku Klux Klan]], which was at a peak in urban areas following the Klan's revival in 1915.<ref>[http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2003/Oct/17/the-commercial-appeal-a-history/ "'The Commercial Appeal:' A history"], ''Commercial Appeal,'' 17 October 2003</ref>

===Riverboats===
From the earliest days of the [[steamboat]], through the present day, Memphis has been a major center of river transportation. Passenger steamers linked Memphis with river ports up and down the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]], [[Ohio River|Ohio]] and [[Missouri River|Missouri]] Rivers as late as the 1920s. [[Tom Lee Park]] on the Memphis riverfront is named for an African-American riverworker who became a civic hero. Tom Lee could not swim. But, he single-handedly rescued thirty-two people from drowning when the steamer ''[[M.E. Norman]]'' sank in 1925.

===African-American music===
Beginning in the early 20th century, Memphis became famous for its innovative strains of African-American music, including [[gospel music|gospel]], [[blues music|blues]], [[jazz]], [[soul music|soul]], and [[Rhythm and Blues]] genres, a tradition that continues to this day. Many notable blues musicians grew up in and around the Memphis and northern Mississippi, and performed there regularly. These included such musical greats as [[Muddy Waters]], [[Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson]], [[B.B. King]], and [[Howlin' Wolf]].

[[Stax Records]], which opened in Memphis in 1957, produced almost exclusively African-American music. Stax was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and blues recordings. Stax recordings and artists included [[Rufus Thomas|Rufus]] and [[Carla Thomas]], [[Sam and Dave]], [[Otis Redding]], [[William Bell (singer)|William Bell]], [[The Bar-Kays]] and their house band, [[Booker T. & the MG's]]. Several Stax hits were written and produced by the team of [[Isaac Hayes]] and [[David Porter (musician)|David Porter]].

===Rock and Roll===
In 1950, [[Sam Phillips]] opened the "Memphis Recording Service", where he recorded for his [[Sun Records]] label. [[B.B. King]], [[Howlin' Wolf]], [[Elvis Presley]], [[Johnny Cash]], [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], [[Carl Perkins]], and [[Roy Orbison]] were all recorded there in its early years. The young Elvis Presley frequently listened to gospel and soul music, and many of his early recordings were inspired or written by African-American composers and recording artists in the [[Memphis metropolitan area|Mid-South]] area.<ref name=NYTaug11/>

===Firsts in radio===
The first African American-formatted radio station, [[WDIA]], was founded in the city in 1947 by [[Bert Ferguson]] and John Pepper. A young B. B. King worked there as a disc jockey. B. B. King's moniker was derived from his WDIA nickname, "Beale Street Blues Boy", a reference to Memphis' [[Beale Street]] on which many nightclubs and blues venues were located. [[WHER (defunct)|WHER]], the first all-female station ("All-Girl Radio"), was founded in 1955 by the recording studio owner [[Sam Phillips]] and [[Holiday Inn]] founder [[Kemmons Wilson]].

===Culinary history===
In addition to a rich musical heritage, Memphis also boasts a long [[culinary]] legacy dominated by regional [[barbecue]]. [[Regional variations of barbecue#Memphis|Memphis barbecue]] is rendered distinct by its sole usage of pork (as opposed to beef), focus on rib and shoulder cuts of meat, and multiple locally owned barbecue restaurants.

===Historically significant districts===
{{Historical populations|type=USA
|1850 |8841
|1860 |22623
|1870 |40226
|1880 |33592
|1890 |64495
|1900 |102320
|1910 |131105
|1920 |162351
|1930 |253143
|1940 |292942
|1950 |396000
|1960 |497524
|1970 |623530
|1980 |646356
|1990 |610337
|2000 |650100
|2010 |646889
|footnote=Source: {{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|title=U.S. Census website|access-date=2020-03-29}}
}}
''[[Downtown Memphis]]'' is the oldest section of the city, built on a bluff overlooking the [[Mississippi River]]. Downtown includes the old central business and government districts. [[Beale Street]] and the Lorraine Motel (now preserved and operating as the [[National Civil Rights Museum]], where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968) are located in the Downtown area.

The ''Pinch District'' or just ''The Pinch'' is an area of [[Uptown, Memphis]] that played an important role in local immigration patterns beginning in the early 19th century. Memphis' first business district, the Pinch encompassed all of Memphis north of Adams Street, from the River to Third Street. The name was originally a term of derision, referring to emaciated Irish immigrants who fled the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]]. Later, Italian, Russian, Greek and, especially, Jewish immigrants also called it home before migrating to more affluent sections of the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1646|title=Pinch District - Tennessee Encyclopedia|website=tennesseeencyclopedia.net|access-date=14 April 2018}}</ref><ref>Lewis, Selma S. ''A biblical people in the Bible belt: the Jewish community of Memphis, Tennessee, 1840s-1960s.'' Mercer University Press, 2nd ed., 1998.</ref>

''[[Victorian Village, Memphis|Victorian Village]]'' is a series of grand Victorian-era mansions built just east of Downtown Memphis in what was then the outskirts of the city. Several of these homes have been opened to the public for tours.

''[[Orange Mound]]'' was the first [[African-American neighborhood]] in the United States to be built by and for African Americans. Orange Mound was developed on the grounds of a former plantation beginning in the 1890s; it provided affordable land and residences for the less affluent. The neighborhood provided a refuge for blacks moving to the city for the first time from the rural South. Orange Mound residents largely owned their own homes and enjoyed a strong sense of community and identity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1638|title=Orange Mound - Tennessee Encyclopedia|website=tennesseeencyclopedia.net|access-date=14 April 2018}}</ref>

''[[Midtown, Memphis]]'', a very diverse area in the center of the city, has buildings largely dating from the first half of the 20th century. Midtown is Memphis' most ethnically and culturally diverse area. Many educational and cultural institutions are located in Midtown, including the [[University of Tennessee Health Science Center]], [[Rhodes College]], the [[Memphis Brooks Museum of Art]], the [[Memphis Zoo]], and the [[Memphis College of Art]]. ''[[Evergreen, Memphis|Evergreen Historic District]]'', one of Memphis' oldest residential districts, is located in Midtown. [[Tennessee Williams]] wrote his first produced play, ''Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay!'' at the Midtown home of his grandparents in 1935. It was performed by a Midtown Memphis amateur theater group that year.

==Education==
The first Memphis schools were chartered in 1826, but until 1848 all Memphis schools were private. During this time the Memphis City Schools was formed in the early 1830s.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}} The first "free" public schools opened in 1848, but at first nominally charged a $2 tuition. By 1852, there were 13 public schools supported by taxpayers.

The first city school for black students opened in 1868 during Reconstruction, when the biracial state legislature founded public education. For a century the city maintained separate, racially segregated school facilities. [[Memphis City Schools]] began desegregation in the late 1950s, but progress was slow.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}} A federal court order in 1973 required the city to provide busing to fully integrate the schools. This order was so unpopular with white families that within four years, 40,000 white students were pulled out of the public system, which effect many white families to move out of the city. Within a short time other white families enrolled their children in private schools, some founded at this time as "[[segregation academies]]".<ref>[http://www.mcsk12.net/history.asp A Brief History of Memphis City Schools] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091011114002/http://www.mcsk12.net/history.asp |date=2009-10-11 }}</ref>

The [[University of Tennessee College of Dentistry]] was founded in 1878, making it the oldest dental college in the South, and the third-oldest public college of dentistry in the United States.<ref>[http://www.utmem.edu/dentistry/ University of Tennessee-Memphis Dentistry Website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000823172400/http://www.utmem.edu/dentistry/ |date=2000-08-23 }}</ref> The [[University of Tennessee College of Medicine]] in Memphis was created in 1911 through the merger of five independent Tennessee medical schools following the influential [[Flexner Report]].

The [[University of Memphis]] first opened as the ''West Tennessee State Normal School'' in 1912. [[Christian Brothers University]] was founded in 1871, first on Adams Street downtown before moving to its current location on East Parkway. [[Rhodes College]], then known as ''Southwestern at Memphis'', moved to Memphis from [[Clarksville, Tennessee|Clarksville]], Tennessee in 1925. [[LeMoyne-Owen College]] a private, historically black, church-affiliated college traces its history to 1862 when the [[American Missionary Association]] (AMA) opened an elementary school for freedmen and escaped slaves.<ref>[http://www.loc.edu/about/history.htm LeMoyne-Owen College Welcome, History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090623064031/http://www.loc.edu/about/history.htm |date=2009-06-23 }}</ref>

==Historical and genealogical resources==
The ''Memphis and Shelby County Room'' in the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library provides facilities for researchers to view items from the library's archives and its manuscript collections. These include historical records of people and families, maps, photographs, newspaper vertical files, books, city directories, and music and video recordings. These materials document the development of the community, government, economy, culture, and heritage of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.memphislibrary.org/history/memshe1.htm|title=Memphis and Shelby County Room; History and Travel Department MSCPLIC|website=memphislibrary.org|access-date=14 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100113140657/http://www.memphislibrary.org/history/memshe1.htm|archive-date=13 January 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Genealogy Collection includes microfilmed and indexed Memphis and Shelby County records.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.memphislibrary.org/history/guigen.htm|title=Guide to the Genealogy Collection.|website=memphislibrary.org|access-date=14 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100814132432/http://www.memphislibrary.org/history/guigen.htm|archive-date=14 August 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Tennessee Genealogical Society maintains a ''Regional History and Genealogy Center Library'' in suburban [[Germantown, TN]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tngs.org/|title=Tennessee Genealogical Society - Home|website=www.tngs.org|access-date=14 April 2018}}</ref> The ''Shelby County Register of Deeds'' website has many important records available on-line, including real estate transactions, court cases and vital records.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://register.shelby.tn.us/index.php|title=Tom Leatherwood, Shelby County Register of Deeds|website=register.shelby.tn.us|access-date=14 April 2018}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Memphis Tennessee 1850s.jpg|Memphis, Tennessee, between 1854 and 1857, The New York Public Library, Digital Collection.
File:Napoleon Hill mansion, Memphis, Tennessee.png|Former [[Napoleon Hill (Memphis businessman)|Napoleon Hill]] mansion (1881-1930).
File:Scimitar building memphis 1909 postcard.jpg|Scimitar Building, commissioned by Napoleon Hill in 1902.
File:Cossitt Library and Custom House (NBY 6202).jpg|Cossitt Library and US Customs House (NBY 6202) c. 1910/1919.
File:Nurses.gif|Memphis Training School for Nurses was chartered September 28, 1887.
File:Cotton Exchange Board Nov 1939.jpg|Cotton broker's office, November, 1939.
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Timeline of Memphis, Tennessee]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book | last=Biles | first=Roger | title=Memphis: In the Great Depression | year=1986 | publisher=University of Tennessee Press | place=Knoxville, TN | isbn=978-0870494970}} scholarly study
* {{cite journal | last=Biles | first=Roger | title=Ed Crump Versus the Unions: The Labor Movement in Memphis during the 1930s | journal=Labor History | volume=25 | issue=4 | year=1984 | pages=533–552| doi=10.1080/00236568408584775 }}

==Further reading==
{{see also|Timeline of Memphis, Tennessee#Bibliography}}
* {{cite journal | last=Baker | first=Thomas H. | title=Refugee Newspaper: The Memphis Daily Appeal, 1862{{endash}}1865 |  journal=Journal of Southern History | year=1963 | volume=29 | issue=3 | pages=326–344 | doi=10.2307/2204235 | jstor=2204235 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2204235 | access-date=June 7, 2024| url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal | last=Baker | first=Thomas Harrison | title=Yellowjack. The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 in Memphis, Tennessee | journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine | volume=42 | issue=3 | year=1967 | pages=241–264 | jstor=44450733 | pmid=4874077 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44450733 | access-date=June 7, 2024}}
* {{cite book | last=Baker | first=Thomas Harrison | title=The Memphis Commercial Appeal: The History of a Southern Newspaper | publisher=Louisiana State University Press | year=1971 | isbn=978-0807109441 | place=Baton Rouge}}
* {{cite journal | last=Beaupre | first=Lauren Elizabeth | title=Saints and the "Long Civil Rights Movement": Claiming Space in Memphis | journal=Journal of Urban History | year=2012 |volume=38 | issue=6 | pages=971{{endash}}1002 | doi=10.1177/0096144211435122 | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0096144211435122 | access-date=June 7, 2024| url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal | last=Biles | first=Roger | title=A Bittersweet Victory: Public School Desegregation in Memphis | journal=Journal of Negro Education | year=1986 | pages=470–483 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2294831 | access-date=June 7, 2024 | volume=55 | issue=4 | doi=10.2307/2294831 | jstor=2294831 | url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal | last=Biles | first=Roger | title=Cotton Fields or Skyscrapers?: The Case of Memphis, Tennessee | journal=Historian | volume=50 | issue=2  | year=1988 | pages=210–233 | doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1988.tb00743.x | jstor=24447046 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24447046 | access-date=June 7, 2024| url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal | last=Biles | first=Roger | title=Robert R. Church Jr. of Memphis: Black Republican Leader in the Age of Democratic Ascendancy, 1928{{endash}}1940  | journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly | year=1983 | pages=362–382 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42626402 | access-date=June 7, 2024 | volume=42 | issue=2| jstor=42626402 }}
* {{cite book | last=Bloom | first=Khaled J | title=The Mississippi Valley's Great Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 | year=1993 | place=Baton Rouge | publisher=Louisiana State University Press | isbn=978-0807118245}}
* {{cite book | last1=Bond | first1=Beverly G. | first2=Janann | last2=Sherman | title=Memphis: In Black and White | publisher=Arcadia Publishing | year=2003 | place=Charleston, SC | isbn=978-0738524412}}
* {{cite journal | last=Bond | first=Beverly G. | title="Every Duty Incumbent Upon Them": African-American Women in Nineteenth Century Memphis | journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly | volume=59 | issue=4 | year=2000 | pages=254{{endash}}273 | jstor=42627586 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42627586 | access-date=June 8, 2024}}
* {{cite book | last=Cantor | first=Louis | title=Wheelin' on Beale: How WDIA-Memphis Became the Nation's First All-Black Radio Station and Created the Sound That Changed America | year=1992 | publisher=Pharos Books | place= New York | url=https://archive.org/details/wheelinonbealeho0000cant_h9i4/page/n3/mode/2up | access-date=June 8, 2024 | isbn=0-88687-633-8}}
* {{cite book | last=Capers | first=Gerald M., Jr. | title=The Biography of a River Town: Memphis, Its Heroic Age | publisher=University of North Carolina Press | year=1939 | place=Chapel Hill, NC}} A standard scholarly history.
* {{cite book | last=Cobb | first=James C. | title=The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1992 | edition=Reprint | isbn=978-0195089134 | place=New York}}
* {{cite book | last=Dowdy | first=G. Wayne | title=Crusades for Freedom: Memphis and the Political Transformation of the American South | publisher=University Press of Mississippi | year=2010 |isbn=978-1617037092 | place=Jackson, MS}}
* {{cite journal | last=Dowdy | first=G. Wayne | title=The White Rose Mammy: Racial Culture and Politics in World War II Memphis | journal=Journal of Negro History | year=2000 | pages=308–314 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2668549 | access-date=June 8, 2024 | volume=85 | issue=4| doi=10.2307/2668549 | jstor=2668549 | url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book | last=Dowdy | first=G. Wayne | title=Mayor Crump Don't Like It: Machine Politics in Memphis | publisher=University Press of Mississippi | year=2006 | isbn=978-1604731132 | place=Jackson, MS}}
*  {{Citation |location = New York |publisher=Viking |title = Tennessee: a Guide to the State |author = Federal Writers' Project |date = 1939 |chapter=Memphis |hdl=2027/mdp.39015066068928 |author-link=Federal Writers' Project }}
* {{cite journal | last=Gilmore | first=Stephanie | title=The Dynamics of Second-Wave Feminist Activism in Memphis, 1971−1982: Rethinking the Liberal/Radical Divide | journal=NWSA Journal | volume=15 | issue=1 | year=2003 | pages=94–117 | url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ff/summary/v015/15.1gilmore.html | access-date=June 8, 2024}}
* {{cite book | editor1-last=Goudsouzian | editor1-first=Aram | editor2-first=Charles W. | editor2-last=McKinney, Jr | title=An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee | publisher=University Press of Kentucky | year=2018 | place=Lexington, KY}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=zZ1NDwAAQBAJ&dq=+Aram+Goudsouzian,+C&pg=PP1 online].
* {{cite journal | last=Green | first=Laurie B. | title=Race, Gender, and Labor in 1960s Memphis: I am a Man and the Meaning of Freedom | journal=Journal of Urban History | volume=30 |issue=3 | year=2004 | pages=465–489| doi=10.1177/0096144203262791 }}
* {{cite book | last=Green | first=Laurie B | title=Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle | year=2007 | place=Chapel Hill, NC | publisher=University of North Carolina Press | isbn=978-0807858028}}
* {{cite journal | last=Greene | first=Alison Collis | title=The End of 'The Protestant Era'?  | journal=Church History | volume=80 | issue=3 | year=2011 | pages=600–610| doi=10.1017/S0009640711000667 }} Religion in Memphis and the Delta in 1930s
* {{cite book | last=Greene | first=Alison Collis | title=No Depression in Heaven: The Great Depression, the New Deal, and the Transformation of Religion in the Delta, 1933−1966 | year=2017 | isbn=978-0199371877 | publisher=Oxford University Press | place=Oxford}}
* {{cite book | last=Gritter | first=Elizabeth | title=River of Hope: Black Politics and the Memphis Freedom Movement, 1865−1954 | publisher=University Press of Kentucky | year=2014 | place=Lexington, KY | isbn=978-0813144504}} focus on Robert R. Church Jr. and Boss Crump.
* {{cite book | last=Haynes | first=Stephen R. | title=The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-Ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2012 | isbn=978-0195395051 | place=Oxford}}
* {{cite thesis | last=Hilliard | first=David M | title=The Development of Public Education in Memphis, Tennessee, 1848−1945 | degree=PhD | publisher=University of Chicago | year=1948}} ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 3579774.
* {{cite journal | last=Hutchins | first=Fred L. | title=Beale Street As It Was | journal=West Tennessee Historical Society Papers | year=1974 | volume=28 | pages=56−73}}
* {{cite journal | last=Kiel | first=Daniel | title=Exploded Dream: Desegregation in the Memphis City Schools | journal=Law and Inequality | volume=26 | date=Summer 2008 | pages=261–303 | url=https://ssrn.com/abstract=1317854 | access-date=June 10, 2024}}
* {{cite journal | last=Kitchens | first=Allen H. | title=Political Upheaval in Tennessee: Boss Crump and the Senatorial Election of 1948 | journal=West Tennessee Historical Society Papers | year=1962 | volume=16 | pages=104−126}}
* {{cite journal | last=Kitchens | first=Allen H. | title=Ouster of Mayor Edward H. Crump, 1915−1916 | journal=West Tennessee Historical Society Papers | year=1965 | volume=19 | pages=105−120}}
* {{cite book | last=Lauterbach | first=Preston | title=Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis | publisher=WW Norton & Company | place=New York | year=2015 | edition=Reprint | asin=B00L3KQ33E}}
* {{cite book | last=Lee | first=George Washington | title=Beale Street: Where the Blues Began | year=1969}}
* {{cite book | last=Longwith | first=John | title=Since before the Yellow Fever: A History of Union Planters Bank, Memphis, Tennessee | place=Memphis | publisher=Union Planters Corporation | year=1994 | isbn=978-0944897027}}
* {{cite book | last=Magness | first=Perre | title=Past times: Stories of Early Memphis | year=1994 | isbn=0-9642929-0-4 | place=Memphis | publisher=Parkway Press | url=https://archive.org/details/pasttimesstories0000magn/page/n7/mode/2up | access-date=June 11, 2024}}
* {{cite book | last1=McPherson | first1=Larry E. |  last2=Wilson | first2=Charles Reagan | title=Memphis | year=2002 | publisher=University Press of Mississippi | isbn=978-1930066038}} 148pp; photographic history of city
* {{cite book | last=Miller | first=William D. | title=Memphis during the Progressive Era, 1900−1917 | year=1957| publisher=Memphis State University Press | place=Memphis | isbn=978-0870570438}}
* {{cite book | last=Miller | first=William D. | title=Mr. Crump of Memphis | year=1976 | publisher=Louisiana State University Press | place=Baton Rouge | isbn=978-0807106204}} scholarly biography
* {{cite book | last=Otis | first=Sanford | title=From Boss Crump to King Willie: How Race Changed Memphis Politics | publisher=University of Tennessee Press | year=2017 | place=Knoxville, TN | isbn=978-1621903222}} 276 pp.
* {{cite book | last=Plunkett | first=Kitty | title=Memphis: A Pictorial History | year=1976 | isbn=978-0915442249 | publisher=Donning}}
* {{cite thesis | last=Robinson | first=James H. | title=A Social History of the Negro in Memphis and in Shelby County | degree=PhD | publisher=Yale University | year=1934}} ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 6708476.
* {{cite journal | last=Rousey | first=Dennis C. | title=Yellow Fever and Black Policemen in Memphis: A Post-Reconstruction Anomaly | journal=Journal of Southern History | volume=51 | year=1985 | pages=357−374| doi=10.2307/2209249 | jstor=2209249 | pmid=11617504 }}
* {{cite web | last=Rushing | first=Wanda | title=Memphis: Cotton Fields, Cargo Planes, & Biotechnology | website=Southern Spaces | date=August 28, 2009 | access-date=June 13, 2024 | url=https://southernspaces.org/2009/memphis-cotton-fields-cargo-planes-and-biotechnology/}}
* {{cite book | last=Rushing | first=Wanda | title=Memphis and the Paradox of Place: Globalization in the American South | publisher=University of North Carolina Press | year=2009 | place=Chapel Hill, NC | isbn=978-0807859520}} on economic development
* {{cite journal | last=Ryan | first=James Gilbert | title=The Memphis Riots of 1866: Terror in a Black Community During Reconstruction | journal=Journal of Negro History | year=1977 | pages=243–257 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2716953 | access-date=June 13, 2024 | volume=62 | issue=3| doi=10.2307/2716953 | jstor=2716953 | url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal | last1=Shelden | first1=Randall G. | first2=Lynn T. | last2=Osborne | title="For Their Own Good": Class Interests And The Child Saving Movement In Memphis, Tennessee, 1900–1917 |  journal=Criminology | volume=27 | issue=4 | year=1989 | pages=747−767| doi=10.1111/j.1745-9125.1989.tb01053.x }}
* {{cite journal | last1=Siegel-Hawley | first1=Genevieve |  first2=Sarah | last2=Diem | first3=Erica | last3=Frankenberg | title=The Disintegration of Memphis-Shelby County, Tennessee: School District Secession and Local Control in the 21st Century | journal=American Educational Research Journal | volume=55 | issue=4 | year=2018 | pages=651−692 | doi=10.3102/0002831217748880 | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0002831217748880 | access-date=June 13, 2024| url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal | last=Strub | first=Whitney | title=Black and White and Banned All Over: Race, Censorship and Obscenity in Postwar Memphis | journal=Journal of Social History | volume=40 | issue=3 | year=2007 | pages=685–715 | doi=10.1353/jsh.2007.0072 | url=http://www.unm.edu/~unmvclib/handouts/blackrace.pdf | access-date=June 13, 2024}}
* {{cite journal | last=Tucker | first=David M. | title=Black Politics in Memphis, 1865−1875 | journal=West Tennessee Historical Society Papers | year=1972 | volume=28 | pages=13−19}}
* {{cite book | last=Tucker | first=David M. | title=Memphis Since Crump: Bossism, Blacks and Civic Reformers, 1948−1968 | publisher=University of Tennessee Press | year=1980 | place=Knoxville, TN | isbn=978-0870492822}}
* {{cite journal | last=Walker | first=Randolph Meade | title=The Role of the Black Clergy in Memphis During the Crump Era | journal=West Tennessee Historical Society Papers | year=1979 | volume=33 | pages=29−47}}
* {{cite book | last=Weeks | first=Linton | title=Memphis: A Folk History | year=1982 | publisher=Parkhurst | isbn=978-0941780087}}
* {{cite book | last=Williams | first=Charles | title=African American Life and Culture in Orange Mound: Case Study of a Black Community in Memphis, Tennessee, 1890−1980 | publisher=Lexington Books | year=2013 | place=Lanham, MD | isbn=978-0739175859}}
* {{cite journal | last=Wrenn | first=Lynette Boney | title=The Impact of Yellow Fever on Memphis: A Reappraisal | journal=West Tennessee Historical Society Papers | volume=41 | year=1987 | pages=4−18| pmid=12862099 }}
* {{cite thesis | last=Wrenn | first=Lynette Boney | title=The Taxing District of Shelby County, a Political and Administrative History of Memphis, Tennessee, 1879−1893 | degree=PhD | publisher=Memphis State University | year=1983}} ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 8316356.
* {{cite book | last=Wright | first=Sharon D. | title=Race, Power, and Political Emergence in Memphis | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-03-216598-1 | place=New York | publisher=Routledge}}
* {{cite book | last=Wright | first=William E | title=Memphis Politics: A Study in Racial Bloc Voting | publisher=McGraw-Hill | year=1962 | place=New York}}

===Older sources===
* {{Citation |publisher = Printed by Kendall & Barnard |date = 1844 |location = Cincinnati |title = Kimball & James' Business Directory for the Mississippi Valley |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/kimballjamesbusi00kimb#page/400/mode/2up |chapter=Memphis |ol = 24198070M}}
* {{cite book |title=Commercial Directory of the Western States |publisher=Richard Edwards |year= 1867 |location=St. Louis |chapter=Memphis |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xFs2AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA769 }}
* {{cite book |title=Directory of the Taxing District of Memphis |publisher=C.F. Weatherbe |location=Memphis, Tenn. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6OgCAAAAYAAJ |year=1883 }}

==External links==
{{commons category|History of Memphis, Tennessee}}
* [https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95504268/ The levee at Memphis, Tenn.-Hauling sugar and cotton from their hiding-places for shipment north, 1862] (Library of Congress)
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3964m.pm009010 Bird's eye view of the city of Memphis, Tennessee, 1870.] (Library of Congress)
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3964m.pm009020 Perspective map of the city of Memphis, Tenn., 1887.] (Library of Congress)
* [http://register.shelby.tn.us/ Historical records], Shelby County Register of Deeds.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080721030042/http://www.memphismagazine.com/askvanceblog/ ''Ask Vance''], ''Memphis Magazine.''
* [http://www.memphisflyer.com/backissues/issue459/cvr459.htm "Big Empties: Memphis landmarks that have stood vacant for years, waiting for someone to bring them back to life."], ''Memphis Flyer,'' December 1997.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927040837/http://www.memphislibrary.lib.tn.us/history/memphis2.htm ''History and Facts about Memphis & Shelby County''], Memphis Public Library.
* [http://www.fransiolihotel.com/ The Fransioli Hotel and Restaurant, 1883-1925.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208134545/http://fransiolihotel.com/ |date=2011-02-08 }}, official website
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120218104001/http://www.memphishistory.org/People/Families/TheChurchFamily/RobertRChurchSr/tabid/128/Default.aspx Robert R. Church, Sr. one of America's most profound "rags to riches" stories]}}, Memphis History website
* [http://www.historic-memphis.com/  "Historic Memphis Website"], "You won't find more vintage-Historic-Memphis photos, in one place, anywhere else on the Internet."

{{Memphis, Tennessee}}
{{Auth}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Memphis, Tennessee}}
[[Category:History of Memphis, Tennessee| ]]
[[Category:History of voting rights in the United States]]
[[Category:Memphis, Tennessee]]