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87-563: The first four plants known to have been domesticated at the Riverton Site in Illinois in 1800 BCE were goosefoot ( Chenopodium berlandieri ), sunflower ( Helianthus annuus var. macrocarpus ), marsh elder ( Iva annua var. macrocarpa ), and squash ( Cucurbita pepo ssp. ovifera ). Several other species of plants were later domesticated. The term Eastern Agricultural Complex (EAC) was popularized by anthropologist Ralph Linton in

174-611: A "blueprint" for future incidents of police brutality nationwide. The incident also resulted in the disbanding of the city's "SCORPION" unit, which had been mandated with directly combating the most violent crimes in the city. All the officers charged with involvement in Nichols's death were members of the unit. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 324.0 square miles (839.2 km ), of which 315.1 square miles (816.0 km )

261-524: A dull blackish-brown color....I find it pretty good food for humans." Another plant species at Riverton that can confidently be identified as domesticated was sunflower ( Helianthus annuus ). This is based on the larger size of the seed in the domesticated than in the wild varieties. Remains of plants that were used, but may or may not have been domesticated at Riverton, include bottle gourd ( Lagenaria siceraria ), squash ( C. pepo ), wild barley ( Hordeum pusillum ) and marsh elder ( Iva annua ). Some of

348-586: A few years to the thickness they had been in the wild. By about 500 BCE, seeds produced by six domesticated plants were an important part of the diet of Native Americans in the middle Mississippi River valley of the Eastern Woodlands region. The local indigenous crops were replaced slowly by other more productive crops developed by the Mesoamericans in what is now called Mexico : maize, beans and additional varieties of squash. Maize, or corn,

435-630: A focal point of Spanish activity until, as Holmes summarizes: [T]he Treaty of San Lorenzo or Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 [implemented in March 1797], [had as its result that] all of the careful, diplomatic work by Spanish officials in Louisiana and West Florida , which has succeeded for a decade in controlling the Indians [e.g., the Choctaws ], was undone. The United States gained the right to navigate

522-457: A heavy crop of tiny seeds in panicles at the end of every branch. In early winter, when the panicles are dry, it is quite easy to gather these seeds in considerable quantity. Just hold a pail under the branches and strip them off. Rub the husks between the hands to separate the seed and chaff, then winnow out the trash. I have collected several quarts of seed in an hour, using this method. The seeds are quite fine, being smaller than mustard seeds, and

609-563: A large territory in the Southeast. French explorers led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle , and Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto encountered the historic Chickasaw in this area in the 16th century. J. D. L. Holmes, writing in Hudson's Four Centuries of Southern Indians (2007), notes that this site was a third strategic point in the late 18th century through which European powers could control United States encroachment beyond

696-711: A manufacturing area with pits and a significant number of discarded tools, and a residential area with the clay floors of homes. The site was first noticed in the 1950s, and Dr. Frank Winters of the Illinois State Museum began excavations at the site in 1961. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 18, 1978. It is one of three archaeological sites on the National Register in Crawford County ;

783-625: A multicultural mix of influences: country , rock and roll , soul , and hip-hop . The city is home to a major professional sports team , the Grizzlies of the NBA . Other attractions include Graceland , the Memphis Pyramid , Sun Studio , the Blues Hall of Fame and Stax Museum of American Soul Music . Memphis-style barbecue has achieved international prominence, and the city hosts

870-399: A natural or man-made event, such as a fire, leaves a bare patch of soil. The process of domestication of wild plants cannot be described with any precision. However, Bruce D. Smith and other scholars have pointed out that three of the domesticates (chenopods, I. annua , and C. pepo ) were plants that thrived in disturbed soils in river valleys. In the aftermath of a flood, in which most of

957-719: A population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census , Memphis is the second-most populous city in Tennessee after Nashville . Memphis is the fifth-most populous city in the Southeast , the nation's 28th-most populous overall, as well as the largest city bordering the Mississippi River and third largest metropolitan statistical area behind Greater St. Louis and the Twin Cities on the Mississippi River. The Memphis metropolitan area includes West Tennessee and

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1044-674: A yellow fever outbreak, 20,000 residents fled the city. The ensuing panic left the poverty-stricken, the working classes, and the African-American community at the most risk from the epidemic. Those who remained relied on volunteers from religious and physician organizations to tend to the sick. By the end of the year, more than 5,000 were confirmed dead in Memphis. The New Orleans health board listed "not less than 4,600" dead. The Mississippi Valley recorded 120,000 cases of yellow fever, with 20,000 deaths. The $ 15 million in losses caused by

1131-753: Is Phillips Spring in Missouri. At Phillips Spring, dating from 3000 BCE, archaeologists found abundant walnuts, hickory nuts, acorns, grapes, elderberries, ragweed, bottle gourd, and the seeds of Cucurbita pepo , a gourd with edible seeds that is the ancestor of pumpkins and most squashes. The seeds found at Phillips Spring were larger than those of wild C. pepo . The agency for this change was surely human manipulation. Humans were selecting, planting, and tending seeds from plants that produced larger and tastier seeds. Ultimately, they would manipulate C. pepo to produce edible flesh. By 1800 BCE, Native Americans were cultivating several different plants. The Riverton Site in

1218-567: Is land and 9.0 square miles (23.2 km ), or 2.76%, is water. Downtown Memphis rises from a bluff along the Mississippi River . The city and metro area spread out through suburbanization, and encompass southwest Tennessee, northern Mississippi , and eastern Arkansas . Several large parks were founded in the city in the early 20th century, notably Overton Park in Midtown and the 4,500-acre (18 km ) Shelby Farms . The city

1305-638: Is that agriculture in the Eastern Woodlands preceded the import of crops from Mexico and that the Eastern Woodlands were one of about ten cultural regions in the world to become an " independent center of agricultural origin ." In the 1970s and 1980s, new archaeological techniques demonstrated that by 1800 BCE the Native Americans of the eastern woodlands had learned to cultivate indigenous crops independently and that indigenous crops formed an important part of their diets. A major element in determining that plants were cultivated rather than being collected in

1392-409: Is the bottle gourd , remains of which have been excavated at Little Salt Spring , Florida dating to 8000 BCE. Squash ( Cucurbita pepo var. ozarkana ) is considered to be one of the first domesticated plants in the Eastern Woodlands, having been found in the region about 5000 BCE, though possibly not domesticated in the region until about 1000 BCE. The squash that was originally part of the complex

1479-663: The Civil War and the end of slavery , the city continued to grow into the 20th century. It became among the largest world markets for cotton and hardwood . Home to Tennessee's largest African-American population, Memphis played a prominent role in the American Civil Rights Movement . Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 after activities supporting a strike by the city's maintenance workers. The National Civil Rights Museum

1566-771: The Mississippi River and won control over the Yazoo Strip north of the thirty-first parallel. The Spanish dismantled the fort, shipping its lumber and iron to their locations in Arkansas. In 1796, the site became the westernmost point of the newly admitted state of Tennessee, in what was then called the Southwest United States. The area was still largely occupied and controlled by the Chickasaw nation. Captain Isaac Guion led an American force down

1653-641: The Treaty of Tuscaloosa , signed in October 1818 and ratified by Congress on January 7, 1819, the Chickasaw ceded their territory in Western Tennessee to the United States . The city of Memphis was founded less than five months after the U.S. takeover of the territory, on May 22, 1819 (incorporated December 19, 1826), by John Overton , James Winchester and Andrew Jackson . They named it after

1740-580: The Wabash River and northeast of Palestine , Illinois . The site, which dates from the Late Archaic period (3000-1000 BCE), is the type site of the Riverton culture. The Riverton culture, of which only three known sites had been discovered as of 1978, inhabited the central Wabash Valley and had distinct methods of making tools. The remains at the Riverton site can be separated into two areas:

1827-495: The Wabash River valley of Illinois, near the present day village of Palestine , is one of the best known early sites of cultivation. Ten house sites have been discovered at Riverton, indicating a population of 50 to 100 people in the community. Among the hearths and storage pits associated with the houses, archaeologists found a large number of plant remains, including a large number of seeds of chenopods ( goosefoot or lamb's quarters ) which are likely cultivated plants. Some of

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1914-628: The ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River . From the city's foundation onwards, African Americans formed large proportion of Memphis' population. Prior to the abolition of slavery in the United States , most Black people in Memphis were enslaved, being used as forced labor by white enslavers along the river or on outlying cotton plantations in the Mississippi Delta . The city's demographics changed dramatically in

2001-572: The 1850s and 1860s, due to waves of immigration and domestic migration. Due to increased immigration since the 1840s and the Great Famine , Irish Americans made up 9.9% of the population in 1850, but 23.2% by 1860, when the total population was 22,623. Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861, and Memphis briefly became a Confederate stronghold. Union ironclad gunboats captured it in

2088-453: The 1880s Memphis led the nation in sanitary reform and improvements. Perhaps the most significant effect of yellow fever on Memphis was in demographic changes. Nearly all of Memphis's upper and middle classes vanished, depriving the city of its general leadership and class structure that dictated everyday life, similar to that in other large Southern cities, such as New Orleans , Charleston, South Carolina , and Atlanta, Georgia . In Memphis,

2175-744: The 1940s. Linton suggested that the Eastern Woodland tribes integrated maize cultivation from Mayans and Aztecs in Mexico into their own pre-existing agricultural subsistence practices. Ethnobotanists Volney H. Jones and Melvin R. Gilmore built upon Ralph Linton's understanding of Eastern Woodland agriculture with their work in cave and bluff dwellings in Kentucky and the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas . George Quimby also popularized

2262-639: The 1960s, the city was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement , as its large African-American population had been affected by state segregation practices and disenfranchisement in the early 20th century. African-American residents drew from the civil rights movement to improve their lives. In 1968, the Memphis sanitation strike began for living wages and better working conditions; the workers were overwhelmingly African American. They marched to gain public awareness and support for their plight:

2349-538: The 20th century, with four lynchings between 1900 and the lynching of Thomas Williams in 1928. A Tennessee Powder Company built an explosives powder plant to make TNT and gunpowder on a 6,000-acre site in Millington in 1940. The plant was built to make smokeless gunpowder for the British Armed Forces during World War II . In May 1941, DuPont (1802–2017) took over the plant, changed the name to

2436-740: The Appalachians and their interference with Indian matters—after Fort Nogales (present-day Vicksburg ) and Fort Confederación (present-day Epes, Alabama ): "Chickasaw Bluffs, located on the Mississippi River at the present-day location of Memphis. Spain and the United States vied for control of this site, which was a favorite of the Chickasaws." In 1795 the Spanish Governor-General of Louisiana , Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet , sent his lieutenant governor, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos , to negotiate and secure consent from

2523-624: The Chickasaw Ordnance Works, and produced powder for the United States Armed Forces . There were 8,000 employees. The plant was dismantled after the war in 1946. From the 1910s to the 1950s, Memphis was a place of machine politics under the direction of E. H. "Boss" Crump . He gained a state law in 1911 to establish a small commission to manage the city. The city retained a form of commission government until 1967 and patronage flourished under Crump. Per

2610-585: The Ohio River to claim the land, arriving on July 20, 1797. By this time, the Spanish had departed. The fort's ruins went unnoticed 20 years later when Memphis was laid out as a city after the United States government paid the Chickasaw for land. At the beginning of the century, as recognized by the United States in 1786 Treaty of Hopewell , the land still belonged to the Chickasaw Nation . In

2697-622: The Sylvers , Jay Reatard , Zach Myers , and Aretha Franklin . On December 23, 1988, a tanker truck hauling liquefied propane crashed at the I-40/I-240 interchange in Midtown and exploded , starting multiple vehicle and structural fires. Nine people were killed and ten were injured. It was one of Tennessee's deadliest motor vehicle accidents and eventually led to the reconstruction of the interchange where it occurred. On June 2, 2021,

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2784-401: The altercations, which were described as "heinous" and showed "a total lack of regard for human life", according to Memphis police chief Cerelyn "CJ" Davis. The officers were fired and charged with second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, and other crimes. The relatively rapid dismissal and prosecution of the offending officers were favorably perceived by Nichols's family, and Davis called it

2871-493: The annual World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest , which attracts more than 100,000 visitors each year. Higher-level educational institutions include the University of Memphis , Christian Brothers University and Rhodes College . Occupying a substantial bluff rising from the Mississippi River, the site of Memphis has been a natural location for human settlement by varying indigenous cultures over thousands of years. In

2958-679: The area annexed was slightly smaller than first proposed. In 1893 the city was rechartered with home rule , which restored its ability to enact taxes. The state legislature established a cap rate. Although the commission government was retained and enlarged to five commissioners, Democratic politicians regained control from the business elite. The commission form of government was believed effective in getting things done, but because all positions were elected at-large , requiring them to gain majority votes, this practice reduced representation by candidates representing significant minority political interests. In terms of its economy, Memphis developed as

3045-544: The black settlement was left in ruins. Two whites were killed in the riot. Many blacks permanently fled Memphis afterward, especially as the Freedmen's Bureau continued to have difficulty in protecting them. Their population fell to about 15,000 by 1870, 37.4% of the total population of 40,226. Historian Barrington Walker suggests that the Irish rioted against blacks because of their relatively recent arrival as immigrants and

3132-429: The chenopod ( Chenopodium berlandieri ) seeds had husks only a third as thick as those of wild seeds. Riverton farmers had bred them selectively to produce a seed easier to access than wild varieties of the same plant. The wild food guru of the 1960s, Euell Gibbons , gathered and ate chenopods. "In rich soil," he said, " lamb's quarters will grow four or five feet high if not disturbed, becoming much branched. It bears

3219-422: The chenopod seeds had husks only one third as thick as those of wild seeds. Riverton farmers had bred them selectively to produce a seed easier to access than wild varieties of the same plant. Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee . It is the county seat of Shelby County , in the southwesternmost part of the state, and is situated along the Mississippi River . With

3306-741: The city has a majority African-American population. Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the American South . Many renowned musicians grew up in and around Memphis and moved to Chicago and other areas from the Mississippi Delta , carrying their music with them to influence other cities and listeners over radio airwaves. Former and current Memphis residents include musicians Elvis Presley , Jerry Lee Lewis , Muddy Waters , Carl Perkins , Johnny Cash , Robert Johnson , W. C. Handy , Bobby Whitlock , B.B. King , Howlin' Wolf , Isaac Hayes , Booker T. Jones , Eric Gales , Al Green , Alex Chilton , Three 6 Mafia ,

3393-496: The city population. The Union Army's presence attracted many fugitive slaves who had escaped from surrounding rural plantations. So many sought protection behind Union lines that the Army set up contraband camps to accommodate them. Memphis's black population increased from 3,000 in 1860, when the total population was 22,623, to nearly 20,000 in 1865, with most settling south of the city limits. The rapid demographic changes added to

3480-482: The city were the lower classes, such as German and Irish immigrant workers and African Americans. None had the means to flee the city, as did the middle and upper-class whites of Memphis, and thus they were subjected to a city of death. Immediately following the Board of Health's declaration, a Citizen's Relief Committee was formed by Charles G. Fisher. It organized the city into refugee camps. The committee's main priority

3567-493: The city. A massive panic ensued. The same trains and steamboats that had brought thousands into Memphis, in five days carried away more than 25,000 refugees, more than half of the city's population. On August 23, the Board of Health finally declared a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, and the city collapsed, hemorrhaging its population. In July of that year, the city had a population of 47,000; by September, 19,000 remained, and 17,000 of them had yellow fever. The only people left in

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3654-551: The country to come home. Though yellow fever cases were recorded in the pages of Elmwood Cemetery's burial record as late as February 29, 1874, the epidemic seemed quieted. The Board of Health declared the epidemic at an end after it had caused over 20,000 deaths and financial losses of nearly $ 200 million. On November 27, a general citizen's meeting was called at the Greenlaw Opera House to offer thanks to those who had stayed behind to serve, of whom many had died. Over

3741-614: The danger of their work, and the struggles to support families with their low pay. Their drive for better pay had been met with resistance by the city government. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , known for his leadership in the non-violent movement, came to lend his support to the workers' cause. King stayed at the Lorraine Motel in the city, and was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968,

3828-526: The day after giving his I've Been to the Mountaintop speech at the Mason Temple . After learning of King's murder, many African Americans in the city rioted, looting and destroying businesses and other facilities, some by arson. The governor ordered Tennessee National Guardsmen into the city within hours, where small, roving bands of rioters continued to be active. Fearing the violence, more of

3915-567: The disease carried by river passengers traveling by ships along the waterways. During the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878, more than 5,000 people were listed in the official register of deaths between July 26 and November 27. The vast majority died of yellow fever, making the epidemic in the city of 40,000 one of the most traumatic and severe in urban U.S. history. Within four days of the Memphis Board of Health's declaration of

4002-434: The domesticated weeds became more productive. The seeds of some species became substantially larger and/or their seed coats were less thick compared to the wild plants. For example, the seed coats of domesticated chenopodium is less than 20 microns thick; the wild chenopodium of the same species is 40 to 60 microns thick. Conversely, when Native Americans quit growing these plants, as they did later, their seeds reverted within

4089-423: The election of all the at-large positions. Memphis did not become a home rule city until 1963, although the state legislature had amended the constitution in 1953 to provide home rule for cities and counties. Before that, the city had to get state bills approved in order to change its charter and other policies and programs. Since 1963, it can change the charter by popular approval of the electorate. During

4176-596: The epidemic bankrupted Memphis, and as a result, its charter was revoked by the state legislature. By 1870, Memphis's population of 40,000 was almost double that of Nashville and Atlanta, and it was the second-largest city in the South after New Orleans. Its population continued to grow after 1870, even when the Panic of 1873 hit the US hard, particularly in the South. The Panic of 1873 resulted in expanding Memphis's underclasses amid

4263-536: The epidemic reported seeing as many as 100 to 150 patients daily. The Episcopal Community of St. Mary at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral played an important role during the epidemic in caring for the lower classes. Already supporting a girls' school and church orphanage, the Sisters of St. Mary also sought to provide care for the Canfield Asylum, a home for black children. Each day, they alternated caring for

4350-483: The fifth-busiest inland water port in the U.S. The Globalization and World Cities Research Network considers Memphis a "Sufficiency" level global city as of 2020. Memphis is a center for media and entertainment, notably a historic music scene . With blues clubs on Beale Street originating the unique Memphis blues sound, the city has been nicknamed the "Home of the Blues". Its music has continued to be shaped by

4437-556: The first millennium A.D. people of the Mississippian culture were prominent; the culture influenced a network of communities throughout the Mississippi River Valley and its tributaries. The hierarchical societies built complexes with large earthwork ceremonial and burial mounds as expressions of their sophisticated culture. The Chickasaw people, believed to be their descendants, later inhabited this site and

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4524-682: The franchise until after the passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.) Historian L. B. Wrenn suggests the heightened political hostility of the Democratic contest and related social tensions contributed to a white mob lynching three black grocers in Memphis in 1892 . Journalist Ida B. Wells of Memphis investigated the lynchings, as one of the men killed was a friend of hers. She demonstrated that these and other lynchings were more often due to economic and social competition than any criminal offenses by black men. Her findings were considered so controversial and aroused so much anger that she

4611-683: The freedmen. Unlike the disturbances in some other cities, ex-Confederate veterans were generally not part of the attacks against blacks in Memphis. As a result of the riots in Memphis, and a similar one in New Orleans, Louisiana in September, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution . In the 1870s, a series of yellow fever epidemics devastated Memphis, with

4698-594: The greater Mid-South region , which includes portions of neighboring Arkansas , Mississippi and the Missouri Bootheel . One of the more historic and culturally significant cities of the Southern United States , Memphis has a wide variety of landscapes and distinct neighborhoods . The first European explorer to visit the area of present-day Memphis was Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541. The high Chickasaw Bluffs protecting

4785-508: The local Chickasaw so that a Spanish fort could be erected on the bluff; Fort San Fernando De Las Barrancas was the result. Holmes notes that consent was reached despite opposition from "disappointed Americans and a pro-American faction of the Chickasaws" when the "pro-Spanish faction signed the Chickasaw Bluffs Cession and Spain provided the Chickasaws with a trading post". Fort San Fernando de las Barrancas remained

4872-428: The location from the waters of the Mississippi was contested by European settlers as Memphis developed. By 1819, when modern Memphis was founded, it was part of the United States territory. John Overton , James Winchester , and Andrew Jackson founded the city. Based on the wealth of cotton plantations and river traffic along the Mississippi, Memphis grew into one of the largest cities of the Antebellum South . After

4959-427: The middle-class began to leave the city for the suburbs. In 1970, the Census Bureau reported Memphis's population as 60.8% white and 38.9% black. Suburbanization was attracting wealthier residents to newer housing outside the city. After the riots and court-ordered busing in 1973 to achieve desegregation of public schools, "about 40,000 of the system's 71,000 white students abandon[ed] the system in four years." Today,

5046-414: The naval Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862, and the city and state were occupied by the Union Army for the duration of the war. Union commanders allowed the city to maintain its civil government during most of this period but excluded Confederate States Army veterans from office. This shifted political dynamics in the city as the war went on. The war years contributed to additional dramatic changes in

5133-402: The next year property tax revenues collapsed, and the city could not make payments on its municipal debts. As a result, Memphis temporarily lost its city charter and was reclassified by the state legislature as a Taxing District from 1878 to 1893. But a new era of sanitation was developed in the city, a new municipal government in 1879 helped form the first regional health organization, and during

5220-458: The old vegetation is killed by the high waters and bare patches of new, often very fertile, soil were created, these pioneer plants sprang up like magic, often growing in almost pure stands, but usually disappearing after a single season, as other vegetation pushed them out until the next flood. Native Americans learned early that the seeds of these three species were edible and easily harvested in quantity because they grew in dense stands. C. pepo

5307-401: The orphans at St. Mary's, delivering children to the Canfield Asylum, and taking soup and medicine on house calls to patients. Between September 9 and October 4, Sister Constance and three other nuns fell victim to the epidemic and died. They later became known as the Martyrs of Memphis. At long last, on October 28, a killing frost struck. The city sent out word to Memphians scattered all over

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5394-770: The other two sites, the Swan Island Site and the Stoner Site , were the other two known Riverton culture sites as of 1978. The Eastern Agricultural Complex of the United States is one of about 10 places in the world where humans independently domesticated wild plants and initiated agriculture. The Riverton Site is one of the best known and earliest sites of extensive cultivation in the eastern U.S. By 1800 BCE, Native Americans were cultivating several different native plants at Riverton for food and containers. The cultivated plants were bottle gourd ( Lagenaria siceraria ), marshelder ( Iva annua var. macrocarpa), sunflower ( Helianthus annuus var. macrocarpus), and 2 cultivated varieties of chenopod ( Chenopodium berlandieri ), as well as

5481-416: The plants to make them more productive and accessible. The region of this early agriculture is in the middle Mississippi valley, from Memphis north to St. Louis and extending about 300 miles east and west of the river, mostly in Missouri , Illinois , Kentucky , and Tennessee . The oldest archaeological site known in the United States in which Native Americans were growing, rather than gathering, food

5568-509: The poorer whites and blacks fundamentally made up the city and played the greatest role in rebuilding it. The epidemic had resulted in Memphis being a less cosmopolitan place, with an economy that served the cotton trade and a population drawn increasingly from poor white and black Southerners. The 1890 election was strongly contested, resulting in white opponents of the D. P. Hadden faction working to deprive them of votes by disenfranchising blacks . The state had enacted several laws, including

5655-412: The possible cultivation of squash ( Cucurbita pepo ) and little barley ( Hordeum pusillum ). Ten house sites have been discovered at Riverton, indicating a population of 50 to 100 people in the community. Among the hearths and storage pits associated with the houses, archaeologists found a number of plant remains, including a large number of seeds of chenopods (goosefoot or lamb's quarters). Some of

5742-416: The poverty and hardship it wrought, giving further credence to Memphis as a rough, shiftless city. Leading up to the outbreak in 1878, it had suffered two yellow fever epidemics, cholera , and malaria , giving it a reputation as sickly and filthy. It was unheard of for a city with a population as large as Memphis's not to have any waterworks; the city still relied for supplies entirely on collecting water from

5829-478: The publisher's summary of L.B. Wrenn's study of the period, "This centralization of political power in a small commission aided the efficient transaction of municipal business, but the public policies that resulted from it tended to benefit upper-class Memphians while neglecting the less affluent residents and neighborhoods." The city installed a revolutionary sewer system and upgraded sanitation and drainage to prevent another epidemic. Pure water from an artesian well

5916-408: The remains of Confederate General and Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest were removed from a Memphis park. On January 7, 2023, after a routine traffic stop, five African American police officers brutally beat a 29-year-old African American man, Tyre Nichols . Nichols died from his injuries in the hospital three days later. Officer body cam footage and local surveillance cameras captured

6003-403: The requirement of poll taxes , that made it more difficult for them to register to vote and served to disenfranchise many blacks. Although political party factions in the future sometimes paid poll taxes to enable blacks to vote, African Americans lost their last positions on the city council in this election and were forced out of the police force. (They did not recover the ability to exercise

6090-424: The river and rain cisterns, and had no way to remove sewage. The combination of a swelling population, especially of lower and working classes, and abysmal health and sanitary conditions made Memphis ripe for a serious epidemic. Kate Bionda, an owner of an Italian "snack house", died of a fever on August 13, 1878. Hers was officially reported by the Board of Health, on August 14, as the first case of yellow fever in

6177-399: The species cultivated by Native Americans for food are today considered undesirable weeds. Another name for marshelder is sumpweed; chenopods are derisively called pigweed, although one South American species with a more attractive name, quinoa , is a health food store favorite. Many plants considered weeds are the colonizers of disturbed soil, the first fast-growing weeds to spring up when

6264-652: The stress of war and occupation and uncertainty about who was in charge, increasing tensions between the city's ethnic Irish policemen and black Union soldiers after the war. In three days of rioting in early May 1866, the Memphis Riots erupted, in which white mobs made up of policemen, firemen, and other mostly ethnic Irish Americans attacked and killed 46 blacks, wounding 75 and injuring 100; raped several women; and destroyed nearly 100 houses while severely damaging churches and schools in South Memphis. Much of

6351-416: The sunny environment and disturbed soil of a settlement, and those seeds sprouted and thrived. Over time the seeds were sown and the ground was cleared of any competitive vegetation. The seeds which germinated quickest (i.e. thinner seed coats) and the plants which grew fastest were the most likely to be tended, harvested, and replanted. Through a process of unconscious selection and, later, conscious selection,

6438-414: The term "Eastern complex" in the 1940s. Authors Guy Gibbons and Kenneth Ames suggested that "indigenous seed crops" is a more appropriate term than "complex". Until the 1970s and 1980s most archaeologists believed that agriculture by Eastern Woodland peoples had been imported from Mexico , along with the trinity of subtropical crops: maize (corn), beans, and squash. What became accepted by the 21st century

6525-462: The uncertain nature of their own claim to "whiteness"; they were trying to distinguish themselves from blacks in the underclass. The main fighting participants were ethnic Irish, decommissioned black Union soldiers, and newly emancipated African-American freedmen . Walker suggests that most of the mob was not in direct economic conflict with the blacks, as by then the Irish had attained better jobs, but were establishing social and political dominance over

6612-407: The wild by 6000 BCE. In the 1970s, archaeologists noticed differences between seeds found in the remains of pre-Columbus era Native American hearths and houses and those growing in the wild. In a domestic setting, the seeds of some plants were much larger than in the wild, and the seeds were easier to extract from the shells or husks. This was evidence that Indigenous gardeners were selectively breeding

6699-524: The wild was the larger size of edible seeds and the thinner seed coat of the domesticated plant compared to its wild relative, an attribute of domesticated crops that came about through human selection and manipulation. When cultivation of most indigenous plants ceased in favor of maize agriculture about 900 CE, seed sizes and seed coats of plants reverted to their former uncultivated size and thickness. The earliest cultivated plant in North America

6786-547: The world's largest spot cotton market and the world's largest hardwood lumber market, both commodity products of the Mississippi Delta. Into the 1950s, it was also the world's largest mule market. These animals were still used extensively for agriculture. Attracting workers from Southern rural areas as well as new European immigrants, from 1900 to 1950 the city increased nearly fourfold in population, from 102,350 to 396,000 residents. Racist violence continued into

6873-606: Was a relative latecomer to the Eastern Woodlands Cultures. The oldest known evidence of maize in what is now known as Mexico dates to 6700 BCE. The oldest evidence of maize cultivation north of the Rio Grande in use is by about 2100 BCE at several locations in what later became Arizona and New Mexico . Maize was first grown by Eastern Woodlands Cultures by around 200 BCE, and highly productive localized varieties became widely used around 900 CE. The spread

6960-439: Was discovered in the 1880s, securing the city's water supply. The commissioners developed an extensive network of parks and public works as part of the national City Beautiful movement , but did not encourage heavy industry, which might have provided substantial employment for the working-class population. The lack of representation in city government resulted in the poor and minorities being underrepresented. The majority controlled

7047-413: Was established there and is a Smithsonian affiliate institution. Since the civil rights era, Memphis has become one of the nation's leading commercial centers in transportation and logistics . The largest employer is FedEx , which maintains its global air hub at Memphis International Airport . In 2021, Memphis was the world's second-busiest cargo airport. The International Port of Memphis also hosts

7134-485: Was first grown as a supplement to existing local indigenous agricultural plants, but gradually came to dominate as its yields increased. Ultimately, the EAC was thoroughly replaced by maize-based agriculture. Most EAC plants are no longer cultivated, and some of them (such as little barley) are regarded as pests by modern farmers. Riverton Site The Riverton Site is an archaeological site located immediately west of

7221-421: Was forced to move away from the city. But she continued to investigate and publish the abuses of lynching . Businessmen were eager to increase the city population after the losses of 1878–79, and supported the annexation of new areas; this measure was passed in 1890 before the census. The annexation measure was finally approved by the state legislature through a compromise achieved with real estate magnates, and

7308-402: Was important also because the gourd could be made into a lightweight container that was useful to a seminomadic band. Chenopods have edible leaves, related to spinach and chard, that may have also been gathered and eaten by Native Americans. Chenopod seeds are starchy; marsh elder has a highly nutritious oily seed similar to sunflower seeds. In gathering the seeds some were undoubtedly dropped in

7395-716: Was raised for edible seeds and to produce small containers (gourds), not for the thick flesh that is associated with modern varieties of squash. Cucurbita argyrosperma has been found in the region dated to circa 1300-1500 BCE. C. pepo cultivars crookneck, acorn, and scallop squash appeared later. Other plants of the EAC include The plants are often divided into "oily" or "starchy" categories. Sunflower and sumpweed have edible seeds rich in oil. The seeds of erect knotweed and goosefoot are starches, as are maygrass and little barley, both of which are grasses that yield grains that may be ground to make flour. The archaeological record suggests that humans were collecting these plants from

7482-430: Was so slow because the seeds and knowledge of techniques for tending them had to cross inhospitable deserts and mountains, and more productive varieties of maize had to be developed to compete with local indigenous crops and to suit the cooler climates and shorter growing seasons of the northern regions. Maize does not flower under the long day conditions of summer north of tropical Mexico, requiring genetic adaptation. Maize

7569-534: Was to separate the poor from the city and isolate them in refugee camps. The Howard Association, formed specifically for yellow fever epidemics in New Orleans and Memphis, organized nurses and doctors in Memphis and throughout the country. They stayed at the Peabody Hotel , the only hotel to keep its doors open during the epidemic. From there they were assigned to their respective districts. Physicians of

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