Fifth event in BLDG Memphis series invites public to ‘Reimagine Black Wall Street‘ this Saturday, September 23 The Greater Whitehaven Economic Redevelopment Corporation will co-host…
Read More MEMFix brings its tactical urbanism to Southland Mall Site this Saturday
Robert S. Keebler, The Quiet Crusader Who Defended Academic Freedom & 24-Year-Old Public School Teacher John Scopes By Robert A. Lanier What sayest thou of…
Read More Vox Clamantis in Deserto. Behind the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial
Nothing says ‘Memphis’ like the old Fairgrounds Amusement Park of Memphis memories, beautifully captured here by fan-favorite Charlie Lambert. Originally published June 2019 for both…
Read More Before Libertyland: Memories of the Old Fairgrounds Amusement Park
Tom Lee Park, a newly transformed, 31-acre riverfront park running alongside the Mississippi River in downtown Memphis, reopened Saturday, September 2, 2023, in time for…
Read More The New Tom Lee: America’s Newest Riverfront Destination Opens Along the Mighty Mississippi River
By Robert A. Lanier Riot: Public violence, tumult, or disorder; a violent public disorder. (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1977 edition); A disturbance of the peace…
Read More ‘Riot’ or ‘Massacre’ – Revisiting the reporting of the Memphis Riot and Massacre of 1866
Following in the footsteps of her family and a well-known chronicler of old Whitehaven, the writer traces her roots in Memphis’s city to the south.…
Read More Tracing My Black Roots in Old Whitehaven
“Don’t Tear Down the Malco!” Urban renewal threats spark looks back at a rich history Urban renewal had crept its way to Beale Street. At…
Read More Hidden History of the Orpheum, Part I: Origins
By Robert A. Lanier The street in Memphis where I did most of my growing up in the 1940s, from age 5 to 21 or…
Read More My Street: The home where I grew up is now somewhere under Memphis State
A half-mile away, a two-alarm blaze was consuming the library on Vance. Once known as the “colored branch,” the Vance Library was the prime repository…
Read More ‘ANARCHY IN MEMPHIS’ Looking Back At The Infamous 1978 Fire (and Police) Department Strikes
For this writer, when the day comes and if I have a choice of a last meal, I want it to be in a diner…
Read More Lament for a lost diner