the mississippi river at memphis also fits into a big narrative

We are now back in Tuscaloosa where I am prepping for not only this class, but "American Civilization to 1865," a course where I will, among other things, encourage students to think about the many ways we can ponder the beginnings of human settlement in the United States. To emphasize this point, the music that will soon play (it's being processed as I write) underneath this clip has the words "them seeing" in its title. It is one of those free Youtube offerings. The title is suggestive of how we must be aware of how our respective viewpoints are very subjective. Whether we consider the Paleo-Indians who arrived from Asia thousands of years ago or Christopher Columbus who arrived in the Bahamas at the end of 1492, we must consider broader narratives.

Speaking of which, I will be thinking of my summer travels, which concluded in Memphis and Southhaven, Mississippi. I've posted a short clip of the Mississippi River from Memphis. Many of the adventure-seekers who arrived in North America in search of glory and greater economic opportunity traveled along this waterway.

While in Memphis - a place to which I traveled to conduct two interviews for my research on the migratory patterns of African Americans to, through and from South Florida during the twentieth century. Yes,  I am finally working on something that gets me out of the nineteenth century, my comfort zone - I learned more about this city's history. Named after the ancient capital of Egypt, Memphis was incorporated in 1819. Notably, this city's African American population grew considerably during the Civil War because of the presence of Union soldiers. But a race riot in 1866 contributed to black flight from the area. However, even with the rise of Jim Crow law,  the infamous Beale Street was a hub for black-owned businesses by the early twentieth century. In fact, journalist Ida B. Wells co-owned an anti-segregationist newspaper that was housed on this street. Composed by W.C. Handy, a trumpet player from Clarksdale, Mississippi, the tune "Beale Street Blues" is a nod to Beale Street's storied past as an entertainment district for African Americans.

These days, visitors to Memphis's National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was shot in 1968, seem to become part of the past. You can detect as much when you watch how their exit from one theatre in this museum. Notice the turn of the century silhouettes before them as they walk. If this was the museum's intention or not, and I suspect it was, it's a neat idea. Again, the past is never dead. It's not even past, said Faulkner.