Culture of Memphis, Tennessee
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As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 650,100 people, 250,721 households, and 158,455 families residing in the City of Memphis. In 2003, the Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 42nd largest in the United States, with a population of 1,239,337.
One of the largest celebrations in Memphis is Memphis in May. The month-long series of events promotes Memphis' heritage and outreach of its people far beyond the city's borders.
Memphis is the home of founders and establishers of various American music genres, including Blues, Gospel, Rock n' Roll, and "sharecropper" country music.
The city has been home to persons of many different faiths. An 1870 map of Memphis shows religious buildings of the Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Christian denominations and a Jewish congregation.
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[edit] Demographics
| City of Memphis, population by year[2] | |||
| 1830 | 663 | 1930 | 253,140 |
| 1840 | 1,799 | 1940 | 292,942 |
| 1850 | 8,841 | 1950 | 396,000 |
| 1860 | 22,623 | 1960 | 497,524 |
| 1870 | 40,226 | 1970 | 623,520 |
| 1880 | 33,592 | 1980 | 646,356 |
| 1890 | 64,495 | 1990 | 610,337 |
| 1900 | 102,320 | 2000 | 650,100 |
| 1910 | 131,105 | 2006 | 670,902 |
| 1920 | 162,351 | ||
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 650,100 people, 250,721 households, and 158,455 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,327.4 people per sq mi (898.6/km²). There were 271,552 housing units at an average density of 972.2/sq mi (375.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 61.41% African American, 34.41% White, 1.46% Asian, 0.19% Native American, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.45% from other races, and 1.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.97% of the population.
There were 250,721 households out of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% were married couples living together, 23.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were non-families. 30.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.18.
In the city the population was spread out with 27.9% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 30.7% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 89.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $32,285, and the median income for a family was $37,767. Males had a median income of $31,236 versus $25,183 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,838. About 17.2% of families and 20.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.1% of those under age 18 and 15.4% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] Metropolitan area
The Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 42nd largest in the United States, has a 2003 population of 1,239,337, and includes the Tennessee counties of Shelby, Tipton, and Fayette, as well as the Mississippi counties of DeSoto, Marshall, Tate, and Tunica, and the Arkansas county of Crittenden.
[edit] Crime
While in 2004, violent crime in Memphis was at a record low for more than a decade, that trend has changed. In 2005, Memphis was ranked the 4th most dangerous city with a population of 500,000 or higher in the U.S.[3] Crime in Memphis increased in 2005, and has seen a dramatic rise in the first half of 2006. Nationally, cities follow similar trends, and crime numbers tend to be cyclic. Local experts and criminologists cite as possible causes to the rise in crime in Memphis to gang recruitment, and to a reduction of federal funding by 66% to the Memphis Police Department.
In the first half of 2006, robbery of businesses increased 52.5%, robbery of individuals increased 28.5%, and homicide increased 18% over the same period of 2005. The Memphis Police Department has responded with the initiation of Operation Blue C.R.U.S.H. (Crime Reduction Using Statistical History), which targets crime hotspots and repeat offenders.[4] Memphis ended 2005 with 154 murders, 2006 ended with 160 murders. In 2006, the Memphis metropolitan area ranked second most dangerous in the nation.[5]
In 2006, Memphis ranked number one in violent crimes for major cities around the U.S according to the FBI's annual crime rankings, where it had ranked 2nd in 2005.[6]
[edit] Lifestyle
In 2007, Forbes recorded Memphis as the most sedentary city in America. Although Memphis has a slightly lower statistic on the BMI than the national average of 66% of Americans being overweight or worse off, Memphis holds other records that combine to make the most inactive city in the United States. When asked, 30% of people had not exercised regularly.
Forbes also cited Memphis having only 16.1 acres (0.066 km²) of parkland per 1,000 residents, as well as having a higher television watched per week per person amount at 41 hours (as opposed to the national average of 30 hours). A mention was also made of "favored Southern cuisine". [7]
[edit] Cultural events and fairs
[edit] Memphis in May
The largest celebration put on by Memphis is Memphis in May. The month-long series of events promotes Memphis' musical and culinary heritage and honors a different country, highlighting aspects of the honored nation's history and culture.
Since its founding, the economic and educational impact of Memphis in May has given a significant boost to the city each spring. The celebration includes a diverse mix, beginning during the first weekend of the month at the riverside Tom Lee Park, the site of the Beale Street Music Festival.
During International Week, the city focuses on its honored country, part of a larger program in coordination with area schools to broaden cultural awareness among students, as well as a good deal of business linkage. Other signature events of Memphis in May include the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest (the largest pork barbecue cooking contest in the world)[8] and the closing event of the month — a performance of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra on the river called the Sunset Symphony, also featuring a performance by musicians from the honored country.
Memphis in May sprang from the Cotton Carnival festivities, a big society bash from the world of King Cotton. The Cotton Carnival started holding big musical events at the fairgrounds, and in the early 1980s the idea of Memphis in May got started. Germany and Japan were the first two nations. Events were scattered around the city. A barbecue contest was held in tents in downtown parking lots. It proved so popular it has grown exponentially with a dedicated volunteer corps, corporate sponsorship, school involvement, and general citizen attendance. People travel from afar to compete in the barbecue contest and to enjoy the Beale Street Music Fest -- originally held in vacant lots on that storied street.
[edit] Carnival Memphis
Carnival Memphis (formerly known as the Memphis Cotton Carnival), is a series of parties and festivities staged every year by the Carnival Memphis Association and its member krewes (similar to that of Mardi Gras) during the early summer. Carnival salutes various aspects of Memphis and its industries, and is reigned over by the current year's secretly selected King & Queen of Carnival. Fall brings the Mid-South Fair to the city each year.
[edit] Cooper-Young Festival
An arts festival, the Cooper-Young Festival, is held annually in September in the Cooper-Young district of Midtown Memphis. The event draws artists from all over North America, and includes art sales, contests, and displays.
Since the late 1980s the Cooper-Young Festival has grown into one of Memphis' most anticipated events, with over 50,000 guests in recent years enjoying a mix of art, music and crafts presented by over 300 artisans from around the country. The festival celebrates the arts, people, culture and Memphis heritage. In addition to art, the festival includes sales of clothing, jewelry, live music, and gay novelty items.
[edit] Voodoo Music Experience
As a result of Hurricane Katrina, in August 2005 Memphis co-hosted the Voodoo Music Experience, normally the centerpiece of Halloween festivities in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2006 the annual musical event returned to New Orleans, Louisiana.
[edit] Music and the arts
[edit] Music
After the Yellow Fever epidemics of the 1870s, Memphis' population was very low, and it slowly started being replenished by country people from the Mid-South. Farmers and freed slaves alike brought their musical roots here, and the commercial hurlyburly created a polishing of this talent and heritage, best exemplified by bandleader and composer [(W. C. Handy.)] Memphis is the home of founders and establishers of various American music genres, including Blues, Gospel, Rock n' Roll, and "rockabilly" country music (in contrast to the "rhinestone" country sound of Nashville). Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and B. B. King all got their starts in Memphis in the 1950s. They are respectively dubbed the "King" of Country, Rock n' Roll, and Blues.
Other famous musicians who either grew up or got their starts in the Memphis area include the Box Tops,with [(Alex Chilton)], the Gentrys, the Grifters, Nights Like These, Carl Perkins, John Lee Hooker, Justin Timberlake, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Charlie Rich, Lucero (band), Al Green, Muddy Waters, Big Star, Tina Turner, Roy Orbison, Willie Mae Ford Smith, Sam Cooke, Booker T. and the MGs, Otis Redding, Arthur Lee, The Blackwood Brothers, Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, The Staple Singers, Sam and Dave, Three 6 Mafia, 8 Ball & MJG, Yo Gotti, Elise Neal, Shawn Lane, Terry Manning, The Sylvers, Aquanet,Steve Cropper, and Anita Ward. Memphis is also a haven for opera, and has produced such singers as Ruth Welting and Kallen Esperian. The New York Metropolitan Opera first visited around 1910 and played to packed houses until recently when they quit doing 3-day stands. The University of Memphis is considered strong in music and performance. It has its own opera company. Ballet flourishes here as well and modern dance groups perform here frequently.
The Highland Strip is an area located near the University of Memphis and is known as a haven for the college crowd. Venues such as Newby's showcase local musicians as well as national touring acts on a weekly basis. But Beale Street is the mecca for live performance. Very-high quality bands vie for work on this popular street, crowded by tourists and locals alike.
[edit] The arts
Well-known writers from Memphis include Civil War historian Shelby Foote, made famous by the Civil War series on Public Television, and playwright Tennessee Williams, who wrote his first play on Snowden Street and saw it performed on Glenview Street. Theater flourishes at Playhouse on the Square and its satellite locations as well as at Theatre Memphis.
Memphis has also had a significant impact in the world of photography. William Eggleston, the pioneer of color photography as a serious artistic medium and considered one of the greatest photographers of all time, still lives and works in Memphis. A number of younger photographers, including Jeanne Umbreit and Huger Foote, are Memphians. Some other notable Memphis photographers were fashion/celebrity photographer Jack Robinson and civil rights-era documenter Ernest C. Withers.
In the last two decades, the art scene in Memphis has exploded. The independent art scene has had some success on South Main, located in downtown Memphis on the trolley line. Several art galleries have moved into the neighborhood, fueling a real estate boom that has expanded into new residential construction. Perhaps the most interesting conversion has been the Power House, a former power plant near Central Station that has been transformed into contemporary art space for Delta Axis.
The Cooper-Young neighborhood in Midtown Memphis has also been home to several art galleries. The Edge is a nascent arts neighborhood, located at the edge of downtown near Madison Avenue, Marshall, and Union Avenue. The Edge is home to Memphis' Black Repertory Theater, world-famous Sun Studios, and Delta Axis, among others. The old commercial strip on Broad Avenue in the Binghampton area is home to a cluster of artists and craftsmen. Real artists, after all, require low rent to get by. Quality commercial art galleries in the east Memphis area include the David Lusk Gallery, Perry Nicole Gallery, L Ross Gallery and Lisa Kurts Gallery. All are on or near Poplar Ave, the main east-west thoroughfare. The Memphis College of Art and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art are near neighbors inside Overton Park, along with The Shell, a 1930's outdoor performing arts venue being reconditioned in 2008-9.
[edit] Religion
Since its founding, Memphis has been home to persons of many different faiths. An 1870 map of Memphis shows religious buildings of the Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Christian denominations and a Jewish congregation.[9] Today, places of worship exist for Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus.
Baron Hirsch Synagogue, which was founded in Memphis in the late 19th century, has the largest congregation of Orthodox Jews in the United States.[10]
Bellevue Baptist Church is a Southern Baptist megachurch in Memphis that was founded in the early 20th century. Its current membership is approximately 27,000. For many years, it was led by Adrian Rogers, a former three term president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The international headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, one of the fastest growing sects of Christianity and the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States, is also in Memphis. The headquarters, Mason Temple (named after the denomination's founder, Charles Harrison Mason), is where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous I've Been to the Mountaintop speech the day before he was killed.
The denominational headquarters of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church are located in Memphis. Memphis is also home to the main Cumberland Presbyterian seminary, the Memphis Theological Seminary. The Cumberland Presbyterian church maintains a library and archival facility at the headquarters.
Memphis is the seat of a Roman Catholic Diocese.
[edit] Media
The Memphis regional market is the forty-fourth largest designated market area (DMA) in the nation, with 657,670 homes (0.597% of the total U.S.). Several media outlets in print, broadcast and internet cover varying segments of the market.
[edit] Newspapers
- The Commercial Appeal — daily (Sunday-Saturday); general news. The Commercial Appeal is Memphis' largest and most widely circulated newspaper.
- The Daily News — daily (Monday-Friday); legal records.
- Memphis Business Journal — weekly; business and economic news.
- The Memphis Flyer — weekly; politics, arts and entertainment, lifestyles.
- The Shelby Sun-Times — weekly; East Memphis and eastern Shelby County community news.
- The Tri-State Defender — weekly; African-American community news.
- La Prensa Latina — weekly; Hispanic community news, Spanish-English bilingual.
[edit] Magazines
- The Downtowner - monthly; community interests; focus on the downtown area.
- Main Street Journal - monthly; news, entertainment and politics.
- Memphis Magazine - monthly; general community interest, arts and entertainment, lifestyles.
- Memphis Parent - monthly; family issues and interests.
- RSVP Magazine — monthly; society and philanthropy events.
- Memphis Sport - bimonthly; local sports and recreation.
- Number: - a visual arts quarterly
[edit] Television
A wide variety of local television stations also serves the market area. The major network television affiliates are WMC 5 (NBC), WREG 3 (CBS), WPTY 24 (ABC), WHBQ 13 (FOX), WLMT 30 (CW)), and WPXX 50 (MyNetworkTV). The area is also served by two PBS stations: WKNO 10 and WLJT 11.
[edit] Radio
Diverse formats can be found on the radio dial throughout the Memphis area. Two of the several stations of note include WMC-FM (99.7 FM, popularly known as FM 100), a leading Hot AC station; and the historic WDIA-AM (1070 AM), the first African-American-operated radio station in the US. WHER the first "All-Girl" radio station was founded in Memphis by record producer Sam Phillips in 1955.[11] WHBQ-AM and WMPS-AM broadcasting personalities Rick Dees, Wink Martindale, and Scott Shannon are now nationally known. WEVL (89.9 FM) is an unusually successful volunteer-run-and-supported station where the many DJs are expert collectors in their musical provinces.
[edit] References
- ^ a b American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ History and Facts about Memphis & Shelby County (2006-11-18).
- ^ Morgan Quitno 2006 Crime Rankings
- ^ Ashby, Andrew (2006-04-07). "Operation Blue C.R.U.S.H. Advances at MPD". Memphis Daily News 121 (76).
- ^ Morgan Quitno 2007 Crime Rankings
- ^ Conley, Christopher (2007-09-27). "Memphis leads U.S. in violent crime". Commercial Appeal.
- ^ Ruiz, Rebecca (2007-10-29). "America's Most Sedentary Cities". Forbes.
- ^ "History of World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest" (2005-05-10). Commercial Appeal.
- ^ Bird's eye view of the city of Memphis, Tennessee 1870.
- ^ Baron Hirsch Congregation
- ^ WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts
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