This biographical and historical study by Miriam DeCosta-Willis
(PhD, Johns Hopkins University and the first African American
faculty member of Memphis State University) traces the evolution of
a major Southern city through the lives of men and women who
overcame social and economic barriers to create artistic works,
found institutions, and obtain leadership positions that enabled
them to shape their community. Documenting the accomplishments of
Memphians who were born between 1795 and 1972, it contains
photographs and biographical sketches of 223 individuals (as well
as brief notes on 122 others), such as musicians Isaac Hayes and
Aretha Franklin, activists Ida B. Wells and Benjamin L. Hooks,
politicians Harold Ford Sr. and Jr., writers Sutton Griggs and
Jerome Eric Dickey, and Bishop Charles Mason and Archbishop James
Lyke--all of whom were born in Memphis or lived in the city for
over a decade. Also included are short biographies of barbers,
sanitation workers, and postal employees such as Alma Morris, T. O.
Jones, and Tom Lee--ordinary citizens who made extraordinary
contributions to their community. The result of ten years of
painstaking research in archives and libraries, this study draws
upon interviews, private papers, newspaper articles, and
photographic collections to illuminate Black achievements in
Memphis, Tennessee. Located in a bend of the Mississippi River, in
the heart of the Bible Belt, and in the center of a tri-state
region that includes Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, Memphis
is the site of a rich African American culture that finds
expression in blues and jazz, in poetry and fiction, and in
painting and sculpture. Less well known, perhaps, are Black
cultural expressions in business, athletics, and medicine: for
example, the founding of hospitals and a medical school; the
building of a public park/auditorium and the first Black-owned
baseball stadium in the country; and the creation of the South's
first integrated law firm and first Black savings and loan
association. Sons and daughters of the city include city and county
mayors, an Olympic medalist, an Oscar-winning actor, and former
member of the Federal Communications Commission, CEO of the
Regional Medical Center, president of Colorado State University,
and professor of orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical School. The
lives of these outstanding Black Memphians provide a context for
understanding and interpreting the social, political, and cultural
history of a city in the Deep South. Notable Black Memphians is a
vital addition to all collections in African American studies and
American history.
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