Memphis, Tennessee

=== 20th century ===
[[File:Union Avenue.jpg|thumb|right|Cotton merchants on Union Avenue (1937)]]
In terms of its economy, Memphis developed as the world's largest [[spot market|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=296 |title=City of Memphis Website – History of Memphis |publisher=Cityofmemphis.org |date=April 4, 1968 |access-date=July 2, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615184656/http://cityofmemphis.org/framework.aspx?page=296 |archive-date=June 15, 2010}}</ref> 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.<ref name="lollar">{{cite news |last=Lollar |first=Michael |date=September 11, 2010 |title=Yellow fever left mark on Memphis; historians disagree on impact |url=http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/yellow-fever-left-mark-on-memphis |work=The Commercial Appeal |location=Memphis |access-date=February 23, 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140721064117/http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-news/yellow-fever-left-mark-on-memphis |archivedate=July 21, 2014}}</ref>

Racist violence continued into the 20th century, with four lynchings between 1900 and the [[lynching of Thomas Williams]] in 1928.<ref>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |title=A Study of Mob Action in the South |first=John R. |last=Steelman | author-link=John R. Steelman |institution=[[University of North Carolina]] |year=1928 |page=178|url=https://archive.org/stream/studyofmobaction00stee/studyofmobaction00stee_djvu.txt}}</ref>

A Tennessee Powder Company built an explosives powder plant to make TNT and gunpowder on a 6,000-acre site in [[Millington, Tennessee|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 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.<ref>[https://memphismagazine.com/the-powder-plant/] The Powder Plant |  Memphis, The City Magazine | December 2013</ref><ref>[https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/chickasaw-ordnance-works/] Chickasaw Ordnance Works</ref>

From the 1910s to the 1950s, Memphis was a place of [[machine politics]] under the direction of [[E. H. Crump|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 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."<ref name="wrenn" />{{page needed|date=December 2015}}<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/crisiscommission0000wren |title=Crisis and Commission Government in Memphis |author=Lynette Boney Wrenn |isbn=978-0-87049-997-5 |access-date=November 15, 2016 |year=1998 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |url-access=registration }}</ref> The city installed a revolutionary sewer system and upgraded sanitation and drainage to prevent another epidemic. Pure water from an artesian well 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 the election of all the [[at-large]] positions.<ref name="wrenn" />{{page needed|date=December 2015}}

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.<ref name="wrenn" />{{rp|194}}

During 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 [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|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 wage]]s and better working conditions; the workers were overwhelmingly African American. They marched to gain public awareness and support for their plight: 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 [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|was assassinated]] by [[James Earl Ray]] on April 4, 1968, 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.<ref name="lentz">{{cite news |last=Lentz |first=Richard |date=April 6, 1968 |title=Dr. King Is Slain By Sniper: Looting, Arson Touched Off By Death |url=http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/1968/apr/06/dr-king-slain-sniper-looting-arson-touched-death/ |work=Memphis Commercial Appeal |location=Memphis |access-date=February 1, 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202124825/http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/1968/apr/06/dr-king-slain-sniper-looting-arson-touched-death/ |archivedate=February 2, 2014}}</ref> Fearing the violence, more of 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.<ref name="census1">{{cite web|title=Tennessee – Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |access-date=April 16, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812191959/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |archive-date=August 12, 2012}}</ref> 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."<ref name="dillon">{{cite news |last=Dillon |first=Sam |date=November 5, 2011 |title=Merger of Memphis and County School Districts Revives Race and Class Challenges |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/merger-of-memphis-and-county-school-districts-revives-challenges.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 21, 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111107052336/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/merger-of-memphis-and-county-school-districts-revives-challenges.html |archivedate=November 7, 2011}}</ref> Today, the city has a majority African-American population.

Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the [[Southern United States|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.<ref>Peter Guralnick. ''[[The New York Times]]'', August 11, 2007.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=June 2021}}

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]], [[the Sylvers]], [[Jay Reatard]], [[Zach Myers]], and [[Aretha Franklin]].

On December 23, 1988, a [[tank truck|tanker truck]] hauling liquefied [[propane]] [[Memphis tanker truck disaster|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.<ref>{{cite news |date = December 25, 1988 |title = Death Toll at 9 in Memphis Tanker Explosion |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/25/us/death-toll-at-9-in-memphis-tanker-explosion.html |work = The New York Times |agency = Associated Press |access-date = January 12, 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite report |author = Michael S. Isner |author-link =  |date = February 6, 1990 |title = Fire Investigation Report: Propane Tank Truck Incident, Eight People Killed, Memphis, Tennessee, December 23, 1988 |url = https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Resources/Fire-Investigations/fimemphis.ashx |publisher = National Fire Protection Association |page =  |access-date = January 18, 2021 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20210128223921/https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/News-and-Research/Resources/Fire-Investigations/fimemphis.ashx |archivedate = January 28, 2021}}</ref>