Rowdy Memphis: The South Unscripted

By John Branston

Book Overview

On October 16, 1954, E. H. Crump, the political boss of Memphis and a force in Southern politics for nearly half a century, died at his home in Memphis. He left a place known as "America's Cleanest City," "America's Quietest City," the capital of Mississippi, and the safest city in the South. To Crump's critics, Memphis was also known as America's least democratic city. Crump's brand of order was already breaking down at the time of his death. That year the U.S. Supreme Court desegregated public schools in Brown v. Board of Education and Elvis Presley cut his first record at Sun Studio in Memphis. The next 50 years in Memphis would belong to the children and lawyers who fulfilled the promise of desegregation, rebels and gamblers, brawlers and killers, hard-nosed politicians and prosecutors, suburban and downtown developers, business visionaries, and the activists who stopped an interstate highway. This is their story.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583850589
• ISBN13: 9781583850589
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: John Branston Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Memphis, Warts and All

If you have interest in Memphis and want a feel for the culture, or just want to be able to talk intelligently of local issues, this is the book for you. Based on a series of articles Branston has written in various magazine/paper assignments, this book segments into different areas of interest. Leading with politicians and gamblers, the most fascinating chapters concern the development of Tunica, Mississippi as a major gambling center while 30 miles north Memphis missed the opportunity. Chapters on interstate development and other civic projects give the reader a good background in significant developments that have shaped this city for better or worse. But to me the best section is the last titled Souvenirs of a Journalist, particularly the chapters on Fred Smith of Fedex, Bill Tanner, self-made millionaire and convicted felon and a fascinating chapter on working in the Distribution center of America as a product packer. The Distribution chapter was researched by two weeks of holding various jobs to understand what drives the Memphis economy. A very interesting article! The initial politician chapters provide good framework but are somewhat mundane. By the end of the book, each chapter is building a new fascinating story and you actually hate to finish as the stories are so interesting. Let's hope this book is the start of a new career for Branston moving from magazine to books. I strongly recommend this book for those with any interest in Memphis.