discrimination; gender equality; National Organization for Women; nonprofit organizations; politics; women;
The National Organization for Women (NOW), a dedicated women's rights advocacy coalition, was founded in 1966, amid much controversy over the proposed direction of the women's rights movement. In its nascent stages, the national chapter of NOW...
Maxine Atkins was born in 1929, the youngest of the three children of Joseph and Georgia Rounds Atkins. Maxine graduated from Booker T. Washington High School at age 15 in 1945. She went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in biology from Spelman...
activism; African Americans; authors; Beale Street; business; civil rights; desegregation; education; Elks; insurance; military; politics; post office; public service; public speaking; race; Republican Party; writers;
The George W. Lee Collection was given to the library by his daughter Gilda Lee Robinson in 1985. The large collection includes extensive and wide-ranging correspondence, copies of many of Lee’s speeches, hundreds of newspaper and magazine...
The Ernest B. “Tony” Vacarro Collection contains mementos reflecting a career of more than thirty years as a reporter for the Associated Press. Photographs taken from Vaccaro’s scrapbook and from an album given to him when he retired as...
Crump Boulevard; streets; automobiles; billboards; signs; advertising; gas stations; Lion Gas Station; J. R. Watkins Company; National Rose Company; 1960s;
A photo of Crump Boulevard with three businesses in background: J. R. Watkins Company, the National Rose Company, and a Lion gas station. Three billboards display advertisement for Serta mattresses, Home Federal Savings, and the First National Bank.
Baker, Howard H., Jr.; Hooks, Benjamin L.; Hooks, Frances; National Conference of Christians and Jews;
Ben and Frances Hooks were presented the 1977 National Human Relations Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Senator Howard Baker was the keynote speaker.
appropriations; Crump, E. H.; government; immigration; law; legislation; military; pardons; parole; passports; politics; post office; public service; rural routes;
Kenneth McKellar was born in 1869 near Richmond, Alabama. In 1892, after receiving a Bachelor’s, Master’s and law degree from the University of Alabama, he moved to Memphis. He began his extensive political career when he was selected as a...
art education; arts; clubs; historic preservation; museums; neighborhoods; public service; women;
Florence Makin McIntyre is remembered as the First Lady of Memphis Art. She was born in Memphis in 1878 and grew up in her family home, the Pillow-McIntyre House, at 707 Adams Avenue in the historic Victorian Village neighborhood. As a child she...
African Americans; Beale Street; cemeteries; Church family; Church Park; civil rights; Elmwood Cemetery; government; NAACP; parks; politics; public service; Republican Party; women;
Sara Roberta Church, daughter of Sara Parody Johnson and Robert Reed Church, Jr., was born in Memphis into one of the nation’s most prominent African American families. Her grandfather, Robert Reed Church, Sr., was acknowledged as the South’s...
African Americans; Beale Street; civil rights; family life; government; integration; law; National Civil Rights Museum; politics; religion; Willis, A. W., Jr.;
The A.W. Willis, Jr. Collection was donated to the Memphis Public Library and Information Center by Willis’s widow, Dr. Miriam DeCosta Willis, on January 10, 2003. Comprised of ten boxes, this collection contains correspondence, newspaper...
