African Americans; community planning; Douglass; environment; Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development; neighborhoods; oral history;
The Douglass community in North Memphis was founded 1907 by a former slave known as "Father" Plummer. Initially conceived of as an all-black community, it has remained so ever since. Community spirit, pride and dedication are the the...
annexation; Bartlett, Tennessee; busing; community centers; desegregation; education; government; historic preservation; hospitals; land use; neighborhoods; public service; parks; playgrounds; Raleigh; roads; schools; streets; traffic; zoning;
The Raleigh Community Council (RCC) was formed in 1971 under the leadership of Donald “Don” R. Anderson to unite community organizations and focus their activities to better serve the Raleigh area. The Raleigh chapters of the Jaycees and the...
conservation; environment; Ghost River; Howard, Babe; nonprofit organizations; rivers; wildlife; Wolf River; Wolf River Conservancy;
The Wolf River Conservancy was founded in 1985 as a primarily grassroots organization to "conserve and enhance the Wolf River corridor and watershed as a sustainable natural resource." Since then, the non-profit land trust has gained...
clubs; education; entertainment; Farrow family; neighborhoods; philanthropy; public service; recreation; social life; social organizations; study clubs; volunteerism; Whitehaven; women;
Whitehaven in the early 1900s was a small community with two churches, a school with some forty pupils, two stores and about twenty homes. Each afternoon a group of young ladies who called themselves the Whitehaven Walking Club took a walk...
community planning; corrections; government; land use; parks; prisons; public service; traffic; volunteerism; women;
Ruth Friedman Loewenberg grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended George Washington University. While in Memphis visiting her sister, she met William A. Loewenberg, and she described their meeting as “love at first sight.” They later married...
Allen family; Anderson family; Arlington, Tennessee; Bartlett, Tennessee; Bartlett family; Black family; Bledsoe family; Bolton family; Bond family; Buckley family; burials; Caldwell family; Canada family; cemeteries; census; churches; Civil War;...
Ida Cooper, daughter of Mary Magdalene Black and John Henry Pitts, was born in 1895. She married Howard Wilbur Cooper in 1920, and had two children, Virginia Joyce Cooper Appling and Howard Wilbur Cooper, Jr. -- Mrs. Cooper lived in Shelby County...
Future Memphis, Inc., was founded and incorporated in February 1961, when a group of business leaders meeting over lunch decided that the city needed an organization to determine what efforts could be made in business, education, the arts, or in...
African Americans; agriculture; clubs; cotton; dentists; entertainment; mayors; police; public service; race; recreation; social life; women;
Dr. Ransom Q. Venson was a native of Rapides Parish, Louisiana. In 1912 he graduated from Meharry Medical School in Nashville and then moved to Memphis to establish a dental practice in this city. In 1934, he married Ethyl B. Horton, a native...
African Americans; civic clubs; social life; women;
The 100 Black Women’s Club began in New York City as a grassroots effort to address social issues and affect change within the community. Over time, the club reached out to other black women in order to mobilize themselves into a visible and...
The Selma S. Lewis Collection was given to the Memphis and Shelby County Room by her daughter, Jane Lewis Ross in April 2000. The collection, which includes a wide range of newspaper clippings, correspondence, photographs and publications,...
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...
Henry A. Montgomery was born in Fermanagh County, Ireland in 1829. At fifteen he began an apprenticeship with Thos. Karnahan & Sons, a timber, slate and iron dealership. He immigrated to Canada in the spring of 1848 and moved later that year...
activism; Burson, Josephine Wainman; Democratic Party; employment; family; government; Hadassah; Jews; labor; minorities; public relations; public service; social justice; social life; state government; volunteerism; women
Josephine Wainman Burson, community leader and social activist, was dedicated to significantly improving the quality of life for women, underserved individuals and minority populations. Her career focused on community service and political...
James Aaron Wax was born in 1912 in St. Louis. Wax entered Washington University at St. Louis in 1930 and later transferred to Southeast Missouri State College, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in 1935. Encouraged to enter the rabbinate by...
Annesdale Park; Beale Street; Bethel-LaBelle; bus barns; Cherokee; CoDe North, Inc.; community planning; Cooper-Young; Greenlaw; housing; mayors; Memphis Landmarks Commission; Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA); neighborhoods; oral...
The Peggy Jemison Neighborhood Collection contains material related to the history of the Annesdale Park, Beale Street, Bethel-LaBelle, Cherokee, Cooper-Young, Greenlaw, Smokey City, South Main, and Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhoods. -- In 1977,...
This collection was donated to the Memphis Public Library and Information Center by Miriam DeCosta-Willis. It chronicles a record of her achievements as a student, teacher, scholar, writer, world traveler, and community activist over a span of...
architecture; Central Gardens; historic preservation; midtown; neighborhoods; social life;
The Central Gardens Historic District is one of the iconic midtown neighborhoods of Memphis, Tennessee. Spanning 83 blocks, nearly 511 acres, and encompassing approximately 1,540 structures, the neighborhood has maintained its present-day...
civil rights; community groups; firefighting; labor; law;
Twelve men in 1955 made history when they became the first African-American firefighters in Memphis, Tennessee. They endured inequitable conditions and discrimination from the very beginning. They were forced to live in segregated quarters, at...
