Memphis is located in the U.S. southeast in the three-state corner between Tennessee, Mississippi (south of Memphis) and Arkansas at the mouth of the Wolf River in the Mississippi River. Both geography and historical development and culture are dominated by the location on the Mississippi River and the geographical proximity of the Lower Mississippi Delta region. The city was hit by severe floods in 1912 and 1937. Beyond the Mississippi, connected by three bridges, is the small town of West Memphis in Arkansas.

Memphis lies in the subtropical climate zone. The average annual temperature is 18.5 degrees Celsius, the coldest month is January with a temperature of five degrees Celsius, the warmest of July with an average of 28 degrees Celsius, with often high humidity. This is between 80% in the morning and 50% in the afternoon all year round.

Memphis is located in the catchment area of Tornados. Although no major earthquake has yet occurred in the city, Memphis is located in the immediate vicinity of the New Madrid Fault and is therefore at risk of earthquakes.

Indian settlement and first European

The area in which Memphis is located was originally populated by the Chickasaw. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto probably traveled around 1541. First permanent European settlements were initiated by France. Fort Prudhomme was founded in 1682, Fort Assumption in 1739. After the English-French war, England took control of the territory, and de jure it was the Chickasaw in that time. Chickasaw, the French, the English, and the Spaniards lived largely peacefully together until Tennessee became a US territory in 1790, and eventually became a US state in 1796. Although officially still indigenous, white settlers moved to the area, the Chickasaw eventually abandoned their northern territory in 1818, where today's Memphis lies.

early 19th century

The city was founded in 1819, and the founding fathers were General and US President Andrew Jackson, General James Winchester and Justice John Overton. They built the city at 5,000 acres and wanted to build it into a base on the then western border of the United States, which allowed trade to be controlled in the Mississippi Valley. At that time Memphis had about 50 inhabitants. The city was named after the capital of the ancient Egyptian Memphis. Winchester's son became the first mayor.

African-Americans, who later became influential in the history of the city, played only a minor role at that time. The African-American population itself was enslaved on the Mississippi Delta plantations, and the need for unskilled labor was mainly for Ireland. The Catholic St. Mary’s Church, with the oldest altar in the USA, also dates back to this period.

Memphis was the center of the emerging cotton industry. A commercial center developed in a favorable location in the middle of fertile soil. Memphis was the world's largest store of cotton, the world's largest closed cotton market, the world's largest producer of cotton seed products, the most important hardwood market in the United States, and the second largest market for medicines and the third largest in food. Many pioneers and merchants who continued to look to the American West used the city on the Mississippi as a base camp and residence. At the same time as the trade in cotton was established, Memphis also developed into a center of the American slave trade, which was sold here on the large plantations in the Mississippi Delta.

Memphis is the largest city in the United States and the largest city in the United States. It is the largest city in the world and the largest city in the world. Memphis was the sixth largest city in the United States at that time.

War of secession and beyond: prosperity and emancipation

Memphis at the end of a prosperous period, 1870, just before the outbreak of yellow fever epidemics

Unlike many other cities in the southern states, the secessionist war for Memphis was a time of unbroken prosperity. The direct fighting in the city was limited to a one-day battle on the Mississippi, otherwise the city benefited mainly from its convenient location. The economy flourished at that time with traders who simultaneously sold cotton to the northern states and ammunition and steel to the southern states.

In the war itself, because of its location, Memphis became an important resupply point, first as a resupply depot for the southern states. In the battle for Memphis, in which the navy of the northern states defeated the Confederate Navy in 1862, the city's residents, seated on the banks of the Mississippi River, had a good prospect of having to fear no serious dangers. After the victory of the northern states, the city served as the military headquarters of the northern state general Ulysses S. Grant.

Early conquest by the northern states prevented further fighting and destruction during the war. Memphis was also not subject to formal reconstruction. In 1866, when many black soldiers of the northern states were in the city, riots occurred on May 1 and serious persecutions occurred in the following two days. By May 3, 48 people, including 46 black people and two white people (accused of sympathy with the black), were murdered. Many houses and churches of black inhabitants of the city were burned.

After Lake Tennessee in July 1866 the 14th In 1968 , the city was the home of the first German army of the United States . The African-American population quadrupled between 1860 and 1870 from 4000 to almost 16,000 inhabitants, the total population increased from 22,000 to 40,000. The emancipation of the black people was relatively largely implemented in the city under the law, the right to read equally freedom of religion. Black churches in particular became an important basis for African-Americans' influence. Prediger Morris Henderson's Beale Street Baptist Church was considered particularly influential. Ed Shaw, the main political leader, was on the county commission's council and climbed to the harbor master.

yellow fever

After the city had survived the war of secession better than almost all other southern cities, several yellow fever epidemics caused devastation in 1870, 1873, and especially in 1878. In 1878, El Niño created a tropical climate in the southern states. Temperatures were significantly higher than usual, the summer season lasted longer and rainfall during this period was more than twice as high as usual. The port cities of the south were filled with land refugees and immigrants from the northern states immediately after the war, regular global shipping resumed pathogens and infected mosquitoes. A yellow fever epidemic spread from New Orleans along the river Mississippi and its tributaries.

But, especially because of its poor sanitation, the yellow fever epidemic of Memphis hit harder than any other city in the US: 25,000 people left the city. Of the 19,000 people who did not flee, 80% were infected with yellow fever in the worst year, and a quarter of the population died. In terms of population, this was the deadliest epidemic that ever hit a U.S. city. At the same time, Memphis became impoverished, as wealthy people, in particular, left the city, leaving almost only Irish-American aid workers and just released slaves in the city who had to contend with enormous problems.

In 1879, the city officially declared bankruptcy, and city rights were revoked. Memphis officially ceased to exist and lived only as the tax district of Shelby County. The state of Tennessee dissolved the city government, which was partly run by the black and Irish, and replaced it with a body that included almost exclusively whites from the wealthy pre-war southern elites.

It was only in the 1880s that a new sewage system (the first of its kind in the world) and the installation of artesian wells were able to halt the epidemic. Memphis is still considered to be one of the cleanest drinking water cities in the United States. But the settlement movements had reversed permanently. After Memphis had twice as many inhabitants as Atlanta and nearly twice as many as Nashville before the yellow fever epidemics broke out, it became a backlog that the city never recovered. Urban population and climate changed after the epidemic. While the fleeing whites from the merchant class and immigrants did not return, white people moved from the surrounding community to the city. A cosmopolitan city in which more than 30% of the population came from abroad and a large part from the rest of the United States had become a place where 80% of the population had been born in rural areas around Memphis.

The Century and the Crump Age

1900 skyline

Riverboat in Memphis around 1900

Schwarze continued to play an influential role. The high African-American population supported a solid class of African-American doctors, lawyers, bankers, and similar professions. The African-American large-scale Robert R. Church was probably the first black millionaire in the United States and founded the first African-American bank. He invested heavily in the reconstruction of the city. The former slave and influential Republican politician also built the civil rights organization NAACP and, in the still-existing political segregation, opened an important cultural site for this part of the population with the Church Park, the first public park for African-Americans and the Church Auditorium.

Around the turn of the century, Beale Street was the most important social and cultural center of the African-American community in the central southern states. She was notorious for alcohol consumption, illegal gambling, and other more dubious pastimes, but she was also crowded with African-American bank branches, department stores, and real-estate agents. Memphis has once again become the world's largest cotton market. Industrialists like Napoleon Hill, James Lee, and Noland Fountaine made millions in the city, but so did the Mafia. In the "reign" of Edward Hull "Boss" Crump from 1909 to 1954, he could reliably promise to raise up to 60,000 voters who offered him the best return. Voters were counted twice, the votes of non-registered but crump-loyal voters were counted, and voters from neighboring Mississippi and Arkansas were sent to the city on short notice.

Crump himself was first elected mayor of the city in 1909. Having made a promise to end corruption in the city, he implemented the promise by eliminating all of his competitors. At a time when the US was engaged in domestic prohibition, Crump accepted bribes from brothels, gaming halls, and illegal saloons. After being forced to resign as mayor by the Tennessee government, he was elected to Congress.

Crump himself was an open racist, and the black did not think they could govern himself. But he needed the votes of black voters. He appointed some African-Americans in government posts, as well as acting with the black community leaders in exchange for votes. The goal of these negotiations between Crump and the African-American elite was to remove widely many electoral restrictions that were supposed to apply in the rest of the South even into the civil-rights era.

The first black policemen, however, did not exist until after 1948, and they, too, did not have the right to arrest whites. After having consolidated his power, Crump felt compelled to make fewer concessions. Strict racial laws kept most African-Americans trapped in low-paid aid workers' jobs. Wages were so low that the Tennessee General Assembly adopted the Emigrant Agent Codes in 1917, which prohibited the recruitment of African-American workers from Tennessee.

Civil Rights Movement and

There have been forms of resistance to the Jim Crow laws since the end of the nineteenth century. Musician Julia Hooks was jailed because in 1881 she vociferously protested against not sitting in the white section of the theater. In 1905, a large demonstration led by Church Park in favor of Mary Robinson, who had entered the white section of the tramway and was due to trial. There have also been repeated violent clashes.

In the late 1940s, African-Americans first tried to gain influence over the city's government. The NAACP had its own candidates, but they were unable to compete with "Boss" Crump. With the surprising death of Crump in 1954, black politics was also in a vacuum. Until now, she had achieved goals only by cooperating with him, by his death, his political system had disintegrated, leaving him with the only important white interlocutor for the movement. Since 1960, with the rise of the civil rights movement, there have been numerous sit-ins and boycotts on the part of the black and the students. At the same time, a noteworthy African-American trade union movement was formed in the city.

The political climate in the city at that time was extremely conservative and racist. For example, in the 1968 presidential election, the racist and "southern candidate" George Wallace achieved 42% of the city's votes, while the democrat Hubert H. Humphrey 12 %. At the same time, the African-American population impoverished over the decades. African-Americans' share of the city's lowest-income families rose from 59% in 1949 to 71% in 1969. A quarter of city dwellers earned less than $2 an hour, while in comparable cities like Newark, the share was less than 10%.

The murder of Martin Luther Kings

Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum)

In 1968, in the midst of the struggles for the civil rights movement, Baptist pastor Martin Luther King came to the city. King had already partly turned his back on the legal issues of discrimination and had more to do with social problems and widespread black poverty. On February 1, 1968, during a severe storm, two black employees of the garbage collection department died when the press mechanism of a garbage truck started on its own. On the same day, 22 black workers were sent home without payment because of the bad weather, while their white superiors were also given a job-free job, but with compensation. Two weeks later, 1,100 of a total of 1,300 black public-cleaning workers began a strike to improve working conditions. On March 18, while the strike was still going on, King came to town and spoke at several events. On March 28, a big demonstration took place. However, it ended in violence when college students, in particular, used their own signs to hit the windows of shops.

The city imposed a legal ban on King entering Memphis. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference negotiated with the leaders to make a demonstration possible on April 5. King returned to the city. On April 4, the parties agreed to a protest march on April 8. On the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine motel. The exact circumstances of the crime are still unclear. The building now houses a museum of civil rights. A film depiction of the attack took place in the 1993 documentary At The River I Stand.

The consequences and the slow recovery of the city

Memphis Pyramid

Following the assassination of Kings, riots and street battles took place in the next few years. Most of the city center burned down during that time. More and more residents left the actual city area to resettle in the surrounding area. In the 1970s, the city center, like many in the US, was in a state of decline. Even plans to rip off Beale Street were well advanced. It was only the public outcry of monuments that led the city to provide $500 million to rehabilitate the area. In 1974, Harold Ford Sr. was elected to the US Congress as the first directly elected black man from the southern states. It was only after the election seemed almost lost that his supporters found eight unopened ballot boxes that had been "overlooked" by the exclusively white election committee, securing Ford's victory.

In the meantime, the city is also transformed into an African-American mayor, Willie W. Herenton, ruled. Since the 1990s, numerous efforts have been made to increase the attractiveness of the city. Leisure facilities such as the Mud Island amusement park, Memphis Pyramid, the FedEx Forum and a new Baseball Stadium (AutoZone Park) were built. The city center was given a historical-looking tram which runs in normal time. In the late 1990s, the long-running attempts to establish a sports team of the big American professional leagues were also successful. In 2009, Memphis was again second on the Forbes list of the most dangerous cities in the United States.

Although segregation in the US has been officially abolished for several decades, race still plays an important role in local politics. Since African-Americans even rejoined, until the 1990's, African-Americans and whites voted more than 90% for their own color, with most elections having a rate of 97% or higher. Memphis has had a slight majority of black residents and voters since 1991. After an African-American, first since her 1879 collective occupation in 1951, attempted to win an electoral office, a broad white front formed, which for many decades tried relatively successfully to nominate only one white candidate to avoid having to split their votes.

The politics of the black is dominated by the Ford family, which since 1974 has represented members in the local constituency of Congress (larger than Memphis City, but smaller than Memphis plus Shelby County). In the aftermath of the King's assassination, Harold and his brother John acted as a determined representative of African-American rights, not afraid of highly controversial confrontations with the city's white establishment.

Accusations of clientelism, similar to those in Crump's times, are constantly growing, but are only partially substantiated. Since 1974, Emmitt Ford, Harold Ford Sr., Harold Ford Jr., John Ford and Joe Ford have held mandates and positions at national, state and regional levels. In 1974, one day Harold Ford Sr. was elected to the US House of Representatives, his brother John to the Senate of the state of Tennessee, and his other brother Emmitt to the House of Representatives of the same state. When Harold Ford Sr. finally left the US Congress in 1996, his son Harold Ford Jr. took office.

But, unlike in Crump's times, the Ford Ford Ford has no firm control over the entire city. Unlike Crumb, there are several elections in which candidates have lost the Ford despite massive support. Black politicians in the city are either pro-Ford or anti-Ford. If they are anti-Ford, they usually need white support to win elections. The Ford Fords have developed a system of "voting certificates", which is regularly distributed in the city's black neighborhoods in the evening before voting and elections - all the markings are displayed on a model of the valid ticket as recommended by the family. The exact details are only available at the last minute. Although the Fords are nominally members of the Democratic Party, they are principally engaged in family politics, and so they may well support Republican candidates or proposals. For white politicians, in particular, the help of the decks can be invaluable; They have the opportunity to introduce white politicians to the African-American community and present them in black churches, which are also very influential.

Memphis is governed by a "weak mayor," meaning that the municipal council has both the main legislative and executive powers. The municipal representation is made up of 13 representatives. Seven of them are elected in a district with one representative each, and six are from the two constituencies, each of which has three representatives. In 2004, of the Council's 13 members, six were African-Americans. Willie W. Herenton was Mayor of Memphis from 1992 to 2009. By the early 1990's, he supported the Ford strategy of a single black candidate to avoid fragmenting the African-American vote, and had since become a political opponent of the Fords. In 1991, he became the first African-American to win a city-wide election in the twentieth century, benefiting from the fact that this was the first time that more African-Americans than white people were eligible. At the same time, he was unusually able to win just over 10% of the white vote. A rate that he could extend to 40% in 1995, but without serious opponents.

In 1999, he was able to win directly against former Senator Harold Ford Sr. Herenton benefits from the fact that, for the first time in the history of the city, the boundaries between the population groups have dissolved far enough to allow a black candidate to make serious votes among whites. Among other things, he managed to recruit 400 new policemen during his term, while increasing the school budget by $100 million. Memphis invested $1.3 billion in urban regeneration, creating thousands of new jobs; in particular, a business boom has emerged among ethnic minorities. Nevertheless, during his tenure, the city's financial budget was restored.

The night skyline

In 2016, Memphis had about 650,000 inhabitants, while the Memphis metropolitan area had about 1.3 million. Memphis is the 25th largest city in the United States and the 41st largest metropolitan area in the country. rank. Of the city's inhabitants, 61% were black and around 34% were white, while almost 5% were classified as other skin colors. The city had the eighth highest share of black among the major US cities. The proportion of whites in the city itself declined sharply (1980: 52 %; 1990: 44 %) while growing in the surrounding counties.

The Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 1.2 million, making it the second largest in Tennessee. On current demographic trends, it will be the first metropolitan area in which the majority of inhabitants are black. Memphis has the lowest cost of living in a US city. In a representative survey in 1997, a third of the inhabitants considered their residential areas to be perfect in terms of quality of life.

development

Population numbers according to the area. The figures are rounded from the ten-year American census.

religion

Religion has always played a major role in the history of the city. It is home to various Protestant denominations, for example the Bellevue Baptist Church is a center of American Baptists and a starting point for various religious movements. Memphis is also often referred to as the Buckle of the Bible Belt (Belt of the Bible Belt).

Memphis houses the headquarters and publishing house of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The Church of God in Christ dates back to 1907 from Memphis and holds a "holy gathering" there every spring. The Church Uniting in Christ was born on 20 January 2002 in the city.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church has had its headquarters in the city since 1978 and is home to one of its two training centers, the Memphis Theological Seminare of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Memphis is also the seat of Memphis.

In the 1830s, German immigrants founded the Jewish community and built the first Jewish temple in the city in 1853. After 1905, immigrants from Eastern Europe founded an Orthodox Jewish community alongside the previously exclusively liberal ones. Although often starting as a small merchant, the Jewish population in the city is comparatively prosperous and well integrated. Today, around 8,500 Jews live in the metropolitan area of Memphis, with a rising trend.

Memphis Central Station - two tracks, one platform

Two Airbus A300 from FedEx at Memphis airport

Tramcars of local public transport company MATA

Memphis was the first railway bridge over the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, built in 1892, and the first road link across the river, including the neighboring Harahan Bridge, was built in 1917. Since 2016, it has also been part of a 15-kilometer cycle path to West Memphis.

Traditionally, Memphis was a city of cotton. Hardly a city was so dependent on trading in the "White Gold". Cotton traders determined the city's fortunes. In 1950, about 40% of the total U.S. cotton transactions took place in the city. The undisputed trade center in Memphis itself was Front Street, the Cotton Exchange was on Front Street/Union Street since 1924.

In the decades after 1945, when the importance of cotton in other cities declined, it continued to drive economic development in Memphis. In 1959, the city was trading about 4.5 million bales of cotton, three times as many as the second largest American trading venue, Fresno, California. Other agricultural products also flourish in their shadow. Before World War II, Memphis was also the most important US trading venue for donkeys. After World War II, large tractors and fertilizer dealers settled there.

Memphis has always been a city of trade and services, where industry has never played a dominant role. Originally dominated by the location on the lower bank of the Mississippi River and its proximity to the products of the large plantations of the southern states, the airport of cargo has become an important economic factor. The city is still the economic center of the agricultural prospering southern Mississippi region and an important trading center not only for cotton, but also for soya.

Memphis's metropolitan region achieved a GDP of $71.5 billion in 2016, ranking 48 in the United States. The unemployment rate in the metropolitan area was 3.8%, which is the same as the national average. (status: 23 March 2018). Personal income per capita in 2016 is $43,498, bringing Memphis to an underaverage level of income.

The city itself is a distribution center for North America. The city has 90,000 jobs in the logistics industry alone. FedEx, whose head office is Memphis, is by far the largest employer in the city and employs 30,000 people. It is also FedEx's aeronautical hub for the United States and the largest and most important hub it operates. In the vicinity of FedEx, numerous other logistics companies have settled in the city. In particular, due to FedEx's presence, Memphis International Airport, completed in 1975, is the world's second largest cargo airport in 2010, with about 3.9 million tons of cargo, compared to 33rd in the US after passenger traffic. Memphis even ranked first in 2009, but in 2010 it was displaced by Hong Kong (4.17 million tons of cargo).

The civil service has always played an important role in the city. By the late 1990s, for example, ten of the city's 15 most important employers were public institutions. The largest were the U.S. government and the Memphis School Board, each employing around 14,000 people. 54% of the population is employed in trade and services, and even 85% in services as a whole, compared to 16% in industry and construction. The unemployment rate in 1998 was just as below the US average (3.7% versus 4.5%) as the average income/population ($22,700 versus $24,400). Likewise, the city is the headquarters of International Paper and the US market leader in auto accessories, AutoZone.

The city is located on the two interstate highways I-40 (Hernando de Soto Bridge) and I-55 (Memphis-Arkansas Bridge). The main railway station was completed in 1914. It is only served by a daily pair of trains, the legendary City of New Orleans in the Chicago-New Orleans relationship. Local public transport is carried out by the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA), which operates a diesel bus network and three tram lines.

The city houses nine universities and colleges:

• The University of Memphis (founded in 1912; former: Memphis State University) is a state-run university and the largest in the city with about 20,000 students.
• Medical facilities of the University of Tennessee (founded in 1911). The state university has a total of about 42,000 students, most of whom are studying on campus in Knoxville.
• Rhodes College (founded in 1848), a private liberal-arts college with 1,500 students. It is trying to compete with the big universities in the United States.
• Christian Brothers University (founded in 1871), a small private Roman Catholic university with currently 1,900 students.
• Le Moyne-Owen College (founded in 1871). Historically "black" college.
• The Southern College of Optometry (founded in 1932).
• The Southwest Tennessee Community College.
• Memphis College of Art (founded in 1871).
• Visible School (founded in 2000) is a Christian Music & Worship Arts College.

The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded in 1962 with endowments, is considered to be one of the best research-oriented pediatric cancer hospitals in the world.

According to Arbitron, the Memphis TV market comprises an area of 31 counties in the West Tennessee, North West Mississippi, East Arkansas and Southeast Missouri.

• The most important daily newspaper is the Commercial Appeal. His political direction is seemingly variable, but in the long run he is regarded as toward the liberal wing of the Democrats. Its territory covers the entire Mississippi Delta and comprises a total of 49 counties.
• The Memphis Flyer is published weekly and offers news from culture and music as well as critical coverage of urban policy.

radio

Memphis wrote radio history with the station WDIA. WDIA was the first channel to be planned and designed by African-Americans. Here, for example Rufus Thomas and B started. B. King's career, Elvis Presley, who heard the station as a teenager, was heavily influenced by him, according to his own account. While the diverse radio scene played a major role in shaping the music city of Memphis, today almost all of the city's 30 remaining radio stations are owned by national chains and run format radio.

The only exceptions are the connected stations of the National Public Radios (NPR Talk and NPR Classic) and WEVL, which plays a varied program of cajun music, rockabilly, blues and more. WEVL is closely connected to the music scene of the city and is considered by individual authors as one of the best radio stations.

The culture of the city is determined by its proximity to the Mississippi Delta, the center of the cotton and plantation culture of the southern states. Cultural influences of European-born growers and traders as well as African-American field workers met in the city. A direct railway connection to the heart of the Delta made Memphis the most important city for the Delta in the 19th century and the first point of contact for all who wanted to leave the Delta.

music

The bustling Beale Street

Sun Studio (2002)

The city had a great attraction for local blues musicians, similar to New Orleans. A club culture developed early on, which continues to this day. In 1909 W wrote. C. Mobile the Memphis Blues, considered one of the world's first recorded blues pieces. Blues was so popular in the city at the time that the mayor's candidate Crump had hired cell phones as the leader of his campaign.

One of the icons of classical blues, B. B. King had a club on Beale Street where he performed regularly. Memphis Blues has played the band's first division of two guitarists, a rhythm guitar and a lead guitar, which is still the most popular in rock and guitar-like pop music. The classic Memphis Blues is based on the strong Christian traditions that prevailed in most of the former slaves. In rhetoric, he expresses both the suffering of the blues and spiritual moments. The close connection of blues, gospel and Christian faith is also evident in Al Greens Full Gospel Tabernacle - a Sunday service where Al Green sings and preaches, accompanied by a Gospel choir.

In addition to New Orleans and Louisville, Kentucky, Memphis was also one of the first cities in which the skiffle developed into a musical form in its own right. The city is also considered the origin of rock 'n' roll with Sun Records studio. Elvis Presley, who was on contract with Johnny Cash or Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun, gave his first concert in the city in 1954. In later years, Stax Music established a stylish soul label in Memphis, which dominated the soul scene of the sixties alongside Motown and Atlantic. The typical Memphis Soul was harder and heavier than the more northern version.

While hip-hop developed in New York City, rapper from Memphis was involved when the southern-state rap, called Dirty South, became known. Three 6 Mafia launched the first Crunk title with Tear Da Club Up ’97, the first African-American rapper to win an Oscar for the best song in 2006.

In Memphis lived and worked:

Two famous musicians named themselves after the city: Memphis Minnie and Memphis Slim. A much-covered piece of Chuck Berry music is like the city of Memphis, Tennessee. Music is ubiquitous in the city. In addition to numerous street musicians and references to Elvis Presley, there is also Ascent of the Blues, a 12 meter high double spiral of pianos, guitars and banjos by the French artist Arman in the city center. The city was sung by Bob Dylan in his song Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again or by Marc Cohn in Walking in Memphis.

museums

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Stax Museum in the old recording studios Soulsville USA

• The National Civil Rights Museum - the only museum dedicated solely to the American civil rights movement.
• The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art - the largest art museum in the American southeast.
• The Dixon Gallery and Gardens - an art museum with English landscaped gardens with works by impressionists (including Monet, Degas and Renoir), with valuable collections of 18th century porcelain from Germany (Berlin porcelain, Frankenthaler porcelain, Fürstenberger porcelain, Höchster porcelain, Ludwigsburg porcelain, Meißener porcelain, Nymphenburger porcelain) and Austria (Viennese porcelain manufactory) and collections of 18th and 19th century porcelain from England and with a tin collection.
• The Rock ’n’ Soul Museum - opens on April 29, 2000.
• The Stax Museum, which recalls the music label and soul scene of the 1960s and 1970s.
• The Center for Study of Southern Folklore - in addition to art and music exhibitions, live performances are regularly organized here.
• Chucalissa Archaeological Site and Museum - a reconstructed 15th century Indian village depicting the developed culture on the Mississippi River.

sights

The Delta Queen is located in front of Mud Island.

The Hernando de Soto Bridge over the Mississippi River

• Mud Island amusement park, located in the Mississippi and accessible by a lift. Among other things, he hosts an exhibition about the Mississippi River and a three-quarters-kilometer miniature model of the River Cairo, Illinois to the mouth of New Orleans. He also has an open-air stage where concerts are held regularly.
• The widely visible Memphis Pyramid was an event center that was designed to remind of the similarity of names with the Egyptian city. On 3 February 2007 a concert by Bob Seger ended the short career of the pyramid as a venue for major events.
• Since September 2004, the FedEx Forum has been the venue for major sporting and musical events in Memphis. He features Memphis Grizzlies and the college basketball team of the University of Memphis, the Tigers. It has 19,000 spectators and is located near Beale Street.
• The Delta Queen is a classic paddle steamer still on the Mississippi River.
• The Peabody Hotel, located on Union Avenue in the city center, still symbolizes the splendor of the "old south", with its style, even though it was built in 1925. It is famous for its "duck parade", which takes place twice a day.
• Graceland, the villa of Elvis Presley, is also located in Memphis and is a "place of pilgrimage" for fans of the musician. Here, among other things, most of his golden and plateau records are exhibited.
• Sun Records studio where artists like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis were discovered.
• The MATA Trolley tramway is operated mainly by historical vehicles from Porto and Melbourne, with cars of the former type also operating in Memphis before 1947. The Riverfront Line is a 13-minute-walk from the city center and along the Mississippi River.

Regular events

• Memphis in May - a folk festival that consists of several music festivals, an international week and the biggest championships in pork barbecue.

Food and drink

The historian Marcie Cohen Ferris wrote: "No one talks about food in Memphis without thinking of barbecue."

sport

In Memphis, since 2001, a team of the big American professional leagues, the Memphis Grizzlies, has been playing at the National Basketball Association. Attempts to locate a National Football League team in the city have already failed several times. The main Minor League teams are the Memphis Redbirds in the baseball and the Memphis RiverKings in ice hockey. During the segregation of US sports, the Memphis Red Sox played one of the two southern state teams of the Negro Leagues and one of the few teams with its own stadium with the Martin Stadium. Tigers are called the college teams of the University of Memphis.

Memphis is a traditional wrestling place. The most famous wrestler in Memphis was Jerry "The King" Lawler, and many other famous wrestlers began their career in the city. These include Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, Big Daddy V, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Ric Flair. The city currently hosts two professional events: Power-Pro Wrestling organizes its events at the Cook Convention Center, Memphis Wrestling performs at the Desoto Civic Center in the suburb of Southaven.

The ATP Memphis and WTA Memphis Tennis Tournaments are held annually. In addition, Memphis Blues is one of the most successful American rugby teams in the city.

Sons and daughters of the city

• John Sharp Williams (1854-1932), politician
• Mary Carr Moore (1873-1957), composer
• McClure Morris (1912-1993), jazz musician
• Angelo Thomas Acerra (1925-1990), Roman Catholic bishop in the military ordinary
• Othella Dallas (* 1925), jazz singer and dancer
• Mae Wheeler (1934-2011), singer and music organizer
• Morgan Freeman (* 1937), actor
• George Hamilton (* 1939), film and television actor
• Maury Klein (* 1939), historian
• Willie W. Herenton (* 1940), politician and mayor of Memphis from 1992 to 2009
• Olivia Cole (1942-2018), actress and Emmy winner
• Rodney J. Bartlett (* 1944), chemist
• Kathy Bates (* 1948), actress, director and Oscar winner
• Jerry Lawler (* 1949), Wrestler
• Cybill Shepherd (* 1950), actress and singer
• Charly McClain (* 1956), country singer
• Ben Browder (* 1962), actor
• Shannen Doherty (* 1971), actress
• Penny Hardaway (* 1971), basketball player
• Clare Grant (* 1979), actress, singer and model
• Justin Timberlake (* 1981), singer and actor
• Lucy Hale (* 1989), actress

personalities who worked on the spot

• Jesse Johnson Finley (1812-1904), politician, lawyer and Brigadier General of the Confederate States of America during the secession war
• John W. Leftwich (1826-1870), politician
• Edward Crump (1874-1954), entrepreneur and politician
• Walter Chandler (1887-1967), politician
• Richard Halliburton (1900-1939), adventurer and travel writer; grew up in Memphis
• Shelby Foote (1916-2005), a novelist and historian; taught at Memphis State University
• Estelle Axton (1918-2004), entrepreneur
• Bobby Bland (1930-2013), blues and rock singers
• Elvis Presley (1935-1977), singer, musician and actor
• Marion Barry (1936-2014), politician; grew up in Memphis
• Dixie Carter (1939-2010), actress; grew up in Memphis
• Peter Doherty (* 1940), an Australian veterinarian and immunologist; one of the head of the Immunology Department at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis
• Steve Cropper (* 1941), guitarist, music producer and songwriter
• Charles J. Sherr (* 1944), cancer researcher
• Al Green (* 1946), singer and preacher; founded the Church of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis and became a preacher
• Michael Jeter (1952-2003), actor; studied at Memphis State University
• Kristin Armstrong (* 1973), cyclist
• Ben Spies (* 1984), motorcycle driver
• Young Dolph (* 1985), Rapper and MusikverEdition; grew up in Memphis

music

• The Mar-Keys (1958-1971), Soulband
• The Memphis Horns
• The Gentrys (1963-1971), Beatband
• The Bar-Kays (founded in 1966), radio band
• Big Star (founded 1971), Rockband
• 8Ball & MJG (founded 1991), hip-hop duo
• Three 6 Mafia (founded in 1991), Rap Group
• Saliva (founded in 1996), heavy metal band

1. ↑ Havid́́ án Rodríguez and Others a: Handbook of Disaster Research Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-0-387-73952-6.
2. ↑ a b c d e f^gh Wanda Rushing Memphis and the Paradox of Place: Globalization in the American South UNC Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8078-5952-0, pp. 12-15.
3. ↑ a ^{b c} d ^{e f} g ^{h i} j ^kl Marcus D. Pohlmann: African Americans in Tennessee: The Case of Memphis. In: John R. Vile, Mark E. Byrnes (eds.): Tennessee government and politics democracy in the volunteer state Vanderbilt University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8265-1318-2, pp. 115-118.
4. ↑ Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States. Harper Perennial, New York 2005, ISBN 0-06-083865-5, p. 203rd
5. ↑ ^{a b c de f} Marcus D. Pohlmann: African Americans in Tennessee: The Case of Memphis. In: John R. Vile, Mark E. Byrnes (eds.): Tennessee government and politics democracy in the volunteer state. Vanderbilt University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8265-1318-2, pp. 120-124.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Marcie Cohen Ferris, Mark I. Greenberg: Jewish roots in Southern soil: a new history UPNE, 2006, ISBN 1-58465-589-5, p. 17.
7. ↑ Forbes list: Most Dangerous Cities in the United States
8. ↑ ^{a b cd} Sharon Wright: Race, power, and political emergence in Memphis. Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN 0-8153-3083-9.
9. ↑ Sarah McCally Morehouse: The governor as party leader: campaign and governing University of Michigan Press, 1998, ISBN 0-472-10848-4, p. 10.
10. ↑ https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/memphiscitytennessee,US/PST045216
11. ↑ ^{a b cd} Wanda Rushing Memphis and the Paradox of Place: Globalization in the American South UNC Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8078-5952-0, pp. 5-8.
12. ↑ Miranda Joseph: Against the romance of community. University of Minnesota Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8166-3796-2, p. 138.
13. ↑ William B. Gravely Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. In: Samuel S. Hill and Others (ref.): Encyclopedia of religion in the South. Mercer University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-86554-758-0, p. 189.
14. ↑ Douglas J. Nelson: Church of God in Christ, Inc. In: Samuel S. Hill and Others (ref.): Encyclopedia of religion in the South Mercer University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-86554-758-0, p. 204.
15. ↑ Peggy L. river: Ecumenism. In: Samuel S. Hill and Others (ref.): Encyclopedia of religion in the South Mercer University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-86554-758-0, p. 274.
16. ↑ Joe Ben Irby: Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In: Samuel S. Hill and Others (ref.): Encyclopedia of religion in the South. Mercer University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-86554-758-0, p. 215.
17. ↑ Marcie Cohen Ferris, Mark I. Greenberg: Jewish roots in Southern soil: a new history. UPNE, 2006, ISBN 1-58465-589-5, pp. 7-12.
18. ↑ ^{a b} D. Clayton Brown: King Cotton in Modern America: A Cultural, Political, and Economic History Since 1945. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2010, ISBN 978-1-60473-798-1, p. 190.
19. ↑ D. Clayton Brown: King Cotton in Modern America: A Cultural, Political, and Economic History Since 1945. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2010, ISBN 978-1-60473-798-1, p. 196.
20. ↑ US Department of Commerce, BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis: Bureau of Economic Analysis. Referred on 4. July 2018 (American English). 
21. ↑ Memphis, TN-MS-AR Economy at a Glance. Called 5 July 2018. 
22. ↑ US Department of Commerce, BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis: Bureau of Economic Analysis. Called 5 July 2018 (American English). 
23. ↑ James L. Peacock u. a: The American South in a global world. UNC Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8078-5589-8, pp. 24-28.
24. ↑ No supporting documents
25. ↑ John Vorwald and Others a: MTV Road Trips U.S.A. Frommer’s, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7645-8776-4, p. 350.
26. ↑ Richie Unterberger and a: Music USA: rough guide. Rough Guides, 1999, ISBN 1-85828-421-X, p. 238.
27. ↑ Marcie Cohen Ferris, Mark I. Greenberg: Jewish roots in Southern soil: a new history. UPNE, 2006, ISBN 1-58465-589-5, p. 246.
28. ↑ Neil Lanctot: Negro league baseball: The rise and ruin of a Black institution. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8122-3807-9, p. 150.