Memphis Tennessee
Memphis Tennessee |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
Above is a panoramic view of Memphis looking up river from the east bank in River Front Park. The image is a link; click on it to load a much larger copy that you can scroll through. Just the FactsNOTE: The data that follows is from the U.S. Census Bureau. Comparative data for the U.S. at large and for the St. Louis metro area are presented to establish perspective. St. Louis was chosen because it is the largest city on the river as well as smack dab in the middle.
The Lorraine Motel (pictured right) where Dr. King was shot has been preserved and transformed into The National Civil Rights Museum. The plaque placed before the balcony where Dr. King was standing contains a quote from the Bible. It is from the story of Jacob's son Joseph and his brothers who envied him and ploted to kill him. "They said one to another, behold here cometh the Dreamer. Let us slay him and we shall see what becomes of his dreams." (GENESIS chapter 37 verses 19 and 20) Here is an example of what Dr. King dreamed: "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amidst today's mortar bursts and whinning bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men." (Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1964) I pray he was right. In his book Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain describes Memphis as the Good Samaritan City. His brother died there from wounds he sustained in the explosion of the steamboat Pennsylvania which happened about sixty miles south of Memphis. Twain wrote: "And Memphis knew how to do all these things well; for many a disaster like the Pennsylvania's had happened near her doors, and she was experienced, above all other cities on the river, in the gracious office of the Good Samaritan." It is slight consolation, but as I consider Dr. King's life and think of what he stood for and fought for, I believe he would have approved of the symbolism in this: that he died in the arms of the Good Samaritan.
For Memphis, music is only one cultural claim to fame. The Peabody museum downtown is excellent and only one of many museums around town. I'm especially fond of the Dixon House museum and gardens. Memphis also has a good collection of outdoor sculpture spread around the city. It makes such a huge difference in the character of a city when a little space is set aside for public art work. It's a pleasure to walk through the downtown streets of Memphis where every two or three blocks you can pause to enjoy a statue or fountain. You can also pause nearly every three blocks in Memphis to enjoy some barbeque. Like all big cities Memphis also has its troubles. The slums of north Memphis are ugly, violent, and drug-ridden as are the slums in all of our major cities. They are segregated by race -- predominately Black, and they are an indictment of our nation. They represent our failure to overcome the evil of racism that has rotted so many of our hearts, and they represent our greed. I have always lived in large cities. City slums were a part of my earliest understanding of what constituted a city. It wasn't until I was an adult that I came to realize that a city ghetto is the product of our democratic neglect -- of our tendency as a large group to turn a blind eye toward the suffering of our neighbors and in fact to structure our lives so that the only time we ever need see the poverty in our own homes is when it turns up on the six o'clock news -- usually presented with enough spin to the story so that we are given a comfortable option to blame the victim and then flip the channel. I imagine that the people living in the houses you see in the lower photo above would willing help those living in the houses shown in the top photo if indeed they were neighbors. In fact they live five miles apart from each other. A short distance by some standards, but in this case a world apart. Memphis is at the north end of the Mississippi Delta; the poorest geographical section of our nation. She's the Queen of the Mississippi, but her crown is tarnished.
For river rats like Isaac and I, Memphis is a pilgrimage site because of Mud Island. Mud Island is located in the river right smack in front of the city. The Memphis visitor center and river museum are located on Mud Island. The museum is quite good, however somewhat overdone. But the real attraction on Mud Island is the scale model of the lower river. A half mile long, every turn, every island, every slough in the river is meticulously reproduced from Cape Girardeau MO to the Gulf. It's just the best and biggest toy we boys could ever imagine or hope for. If you ever visit Mud Island, watch the river model for a while and sure enough you'll eventually see some fellow, maybe a man and his son, tending a stick as it makes its way down the river. Well in their minds that stick is a full tow of 30 barges and they're guiding it through the turns on it's way to New Orleans. Stop over and say hi, it might be Isaac and me. In the photo to the left you see Isaac standing at the base of the New Madrid Loop. Seriously, the Mud Island model of the lower river is absolutely splendid. Thank you Memphis! |
Memphis oh Memphis. In an instant fate can turn our lives inside out handing us, without warning or consent, a burden so immense, or a challenge so staggering that we can scarcely speak of it or even realize its magnitude. In downtown Memphis on April 4th 1968 at 6:01 pm our nation's foulest hate struck down our finest fruit and best hope. Memphis must always be remembered as the city where Martin Luther King was assassinated. Isaac and I spend a lot of time in Memphis; Clare (Isaac's mom) was born and raised there and we visit regularly. It pains me to have to report that even after the shameful murder of Dr. King in its downtown streets, Memphis is still very much poisoned by racism. One would hope that at least there, after Dr. King's murder, racism would be shamed to show its ugly face, but it is not.
Memphis is hands down my favorite of the five big cities on the Mississippi. The single drawback to living there is the weather. Their summers can be unbearably hot with the relative humidity hovering around 90 percent for weeks on end, and although they get little or no snow in the winters, they often get ice storms that coat the entire city. The weight of the ice brings down trees and power lines. The ice coated streets are impossible to drive on and the ice coated sidewalks are utterly treacherous. Fifteen inches of snow would be a blessing in comparrison to a good Memphis ice storm.
Memphis is a green city. Every time I visit I am impressed anew with the number of trees -- beautiful big old trees. Every street is lined with them and every yard and park are full of them. With the exception of the downtown area, I rather expect Memphis isn't all that visible from the air. Memphis is a city in a forest. Every city planner and architect in the country should be required to walk ten miles through Memphis as part of their education. I've seen some newer planned communities like Seaside on the Florida Panhandle -- ugly as sin compared with Memphis. The trees in Memphis invite you to walk the streets. They shade you from the sun and seem to soften even the sidewalk under your feet. Memphis is a southern city where time and resources devoted to living well are a high priority. In Spring Memphis is a garden. She's the Queen of the Mississippi.
Memphis is "music city USA." At the apex of the Mississippi Delta, Memphis is singin' The Blues on Saturday night. Then on Sunday morning all heaven's angels must listen in amazement to hear their best efforts shamed by scores of church choirs and congregations throughout the city who truly understand the Psalmist's prescription: "Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises." The most important musical development in the history of North America -- "The Blues" -- was born in the Mississippi Delta. There's a statue of W.C. Handy in a small park on Beale street. BB King has a club on Beale street where he plays and sings when he gets home to Memphis. Beale street in downtown Memphis is the starting point for a tour of the Delta Blues. And Memphis is also home to The Blues better half; Gospel music. In 1948, WDIA radio (the country's first all Black format radio) began broadcasting in Memphis, their programming continues today to feature Gospel Music. Some of the countries best Gospel performers came or come from Memphis. The Memphis Gospel Quartet is still singing and praising the Lord since their formation in 1930.
In addition to being a prime location for Gospel Music and The Blues, Memphis is home to another important development in American music. In 1954 Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service -- later to become Sun Recording Studios. Two years later Memphis's own famous son walked into Sam's place guitar in hand and, as Paul Harvey would say, "you know the rest of the story." Sun Studios is still in Memphis at 706 Union Ave. and open daily for tours. Graceland too is open for tours. In south Memphis on Elvis Presely Blvd., Graceland is Memphis's best known and best loved attraction. A visit to Graceland's wall where fan's have expressed their sentiments in everything from marker to lipstick can be a moving experience even for those of us who aren't huge fans. Graceland is a cultural phenomenon without parallel in this country; he was, excuse me, IS the King -- there's no disputing that.
Memphis is the barbeque capitol of the country and host every year to the world's championship barbeque cook-off. I haven't tried every barbeque shop in Memphis, yet, and although I have had some very good barbeque there, at this writing I have to say that the best barbeque on the Mississippi is at Nick's in Greenville MS.
The river in Memphis is magnificent. It is wide and blue in the afternoon sun. Memphis is located on the last small bluff along the river before it pours out onto the Mississippi Delta. With the exception of Helena at the end of Crowley's Ridge, Memphis is the last place along the river to build a city that is naturally protected from flooding until the river returns to the bluffs at Vicksburg. This is the distinction that gives the Mississippi Delta it's name and character. If you truly live in the Delta then you have no protection against the river's onslaught when it floods. People who live in the Delta have a different relationship with the Old Man than those who live on the bluffs.