Evelyn G. Lowery was a civil rights activist and leader. In the 1950s, with her husband activist Rev. Joseph Lowery, she demonstrated against segregation in Mobile and Birmingham, Alabama. She participated in the Selma to Montgomery March for black voting rights in 1965 and almost 20 years later, she marched from Alabama to Washington, D.C to ...

Robert Reed Church, Jr. was a prominent businessman and one of the most influential black leaders in Southern politics during the 1920s. Church was born on October 26, 1885, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was the youngest son of a wealthy businessman. Church was educated at Morgan Park Military Academy in Illinois. After high school, he earned a ...

In the late afternoon of May 1, 1866, long broiling tensions between the residents of southern Memphis, Tennessee erupted into a three day riot known as the Memphis Riot of 1866. The riot began when a white police officer attempted to arrest a black ex-soldier and an estimated fifty blacks showed up to stop the police from jailing him. Accounts ...

The neighborhood of #Orange Mound in Southeast #Memphis, Tennessee has a rich history that largely goes ignored due to high crime in the region in the ’80’s and ’90’s. What some might not know is that Orange Mound was one of the first communities established for African-Americans in the country and was once a thriving hub of commerce and ...

The afternoon of May 1, 1866, was already tense with news of Black soldiers and Irish police fighting the night before. A street party held by Black civilians and soldiers was interrupted by four police officers sent by the city clerk in an attempt to break it up. As it often happens, things escalated into arguing between the groups thus prompting ...

The Memphis Massacre is a dark event in Memphis and Reconstruction history. Following the Civil War, Blacks settled in many cities throughout the South. Settlement and law keeping was handled by the Freedmen's Bureau which took steps to protect and address issues among Black citizens. In Memphis, the Bureau often took a hard-edged approach to ...

Alberta Hunter was one of the best blues and cabaret singers of her time. She was best-known for her song "Downhearted Blues," in 1922 which she wrote. Hunter was born on April 1, 1895 in Memphis, TN. At the age of eleven, she ran away from Memphis to Chicago, in hopes of working as a singer. She wanted to be able to send money back home to her ...