A History Lover's Guide to Memphis & Shelby County

by Bill Patton

Overview

This tour of Memphis goes well beyond the traditional guidebook to offer a historical journey through the Home of the Blues. Explore the city's African American heritage from Church Park to beautiful Mason Temple, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final, prophetic speech. Visit Court Square, where a young Thomas Edison delighted children and adults with his popular invention: the cockroach shocker. Discover hidden gems like the nineteenth-century dueling grounds on the banks of the Mississippi and a charming Depression-era country store. From Beale Street to the bluffs, author Bill Patton traces the incomparable history of Memphis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467142373
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	03/23/2020
Series:	History & Guide
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Midtown resident Bill Patton is the founder of Memphis-based tour company Backbeat Tours (www.backbeattours.com). He is the author of A Guide to Historic Downtown Memphis, published by The History Press in 2010.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 7

Introduction 9

1 The River 15

2 Memphis before Memphis 25

3 The Rise of Memphis, 1819-1860 31

4 The Civil War, 1861-1865 41

5 Death and Rebirth, 1865-1908 54

6 Beale Street 75

7 Prohibition and a New Deal: The Crump Era, 1909-1954 88

8 The Mid-Century Moment, 1954-1976 111

9 Civil Rights and the African American Experience 126

10 Collierville and Germantown 143

11 Bartlett 152

12 Arlington 158

13 North Shelby County 162

Selected Bibliography 167

Index 169

About the Author 175