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The Ugly Death of Cairo, Illinois

At the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers sits Cairo, Illinois, a historic river town that the cruise lines no longer visit, at least in part because of complaints from passengers. Cairo today is nearly a ghost town, its broad Commercial Street almost completely razed. What few buildings remain are largely abandoned, and passengers disliked the eerie feel of the town built to house 20,000 people where only 3000 reside today. With such historic buildings as Riverlore mansion, built in 1865, the Customs House museum, or Fort Defiance, which is directly at the confluence, Cairo still has some points of interest, but the town is largely in shambles due to a eight-year shooting war between its white and Black communities from 1967-1975. Blacks refused to buy from Cairo businesses as a matter of principle. Whites preferred to shop where there weren’t fires, bombings and snipings, so they also stayed away, and the end result was that nearly every restaurant and retail business closed. In recent years, there have been efforts to rejuvenate the town, and to heal race relations in Cairo, but the lack of jobs and the extreme poverty have thwarted efforts at any renaissance. The historic buildings on Commercial Street, neglected since the 1960’s, have collapsed one by one. Furthermore, while the picketing, marching, boycotting and shooting stopped in the early 1970’s, the mysterious fires did not, and buildings and houses continue to burn in Cairo, under circumstances that suggest that multiple arsonists may be at work. Cairo is a sad story, a cautionary tale to America of what happens when people are stubbornly racist and refuse to reconcile. 

Clarence Saunders and the Memphis Origins of the Supermarket

Memphian Clarence Saunders might not be a household name, but the next time you or your loved ones “run to the supermarket” you can thank him. In the early twentieth century (around 1916, I believe) he invented the concept of the “self-service grocery store” when he opened the first Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis. The store featured such innovations as pre-measured packages of sugar and flour. The concept took off nicely, and Saunders began building a mansion for himself on Central Avenue that people nicknamed “The Pink Palace”. Unfortunately, Saunders sold the Piggly-Wiggly stores to others, and eventually went bankrupt. Later, he started a chain of Clarence Saunders grocery stores that he called “Sole Owner” stores to point out that while he might have sold the rights to the Piggly Wiggly name, he still had rights to his own name. When this building on Lamar in Glenview was recently renovated and painted, the Clarence Saunders sign here was revealed, and the building owners decided to restore it as well. Saunders tried one more daring concept around World War II when he created Keedoozle, an automated grocery store where customers would use keys to “unlock” items that would slide down chutes. Payment was by means of a vending-machine, and the customer received his goods in a box at the end of the process. This newfangled technology proved too confusing for Memphians, and the concept failed. The ornate Italianate mansion that Saunders lost in bankruptcy is today Memphis’ beloved Pink Palace Museum. 

Moonwalking With The Klondike Dance, Drum and Bugle Corps Back in 1970

Anyone who has ever been to a majorette jamboree knows that majorettes and drummers are a big part of Memphis culture. So I was really interested when I came across this July 4, 1970 article from the Commercial Appeal about the Klondike Dance, Drum and Bugle Corps, which for one thing proves that the roots of drumming and drilling in Memphis go back at least that far (legendary drummer Willie Hall claims back to 1969). Also of interest is the reference to the dancers doing the “moon walk”, so that dance is clearly older than Michael Jackson, and might have come from Memphis!

Mahalia Jackson Chicken in Dallas TX, 1969

Back in June, I blogged about the Mahalia Jackson Chicken System after I had seen one of their old buildings in Tallahassee. The African-American franchise venture was started in 1968 by Dr. Benjamin Hooks and State Representative A. W. Willis Jr in Memphis as an experiment in Black entrepreneurship. Mahalia Jackson had always been a supporter of Black business as well and had her own recipe for fried chicken. Besides that, it was the late 1960’s, and thanks to Colonel Sanders, franchising was the hottest thing going. Some research in old newspapers at the University of Memphis led to these photos and advertisements from the Dallas, Texas store, which was on Forest Avenue in South Dallas. While the logo and graphics are the same, the building architecture is slightly different from the standard ones seen in Orange Mound on Park Avenue, in Milwaukee, in South Memphis or in Tallahassee. Now if I could only find their chicken recipe…

Many Voices: How Racism Killed Earle, Arkansas

More background history on the rather tragic town of Earle, Arkansas. Many Voices was a civil rights newspaper published in West Memphis from 1970-1972, covering events in the East Arkansas delta region. Earle was often mentioned in various issues of the newspaper, as there was always some kind of protest, conflict or boycott going on there. I suppose that’s what led to the downtown of empty and abandoned stores.

More of the Tragic Story of Earle, Arkansas

More background information on the troubles in Earle, Arkansas in 1970 that might have led to the town’s current situation. I also read yesterday that the State Board of Education is threatening to dissolve Earle’s school district because of financial problems, which would force Earle children to ride nearly 40 miles roundtrip a day to attend school in Marion or in Wynne. Based on what I saw in Crawfordsville, I don’t see how dissolving and closing schools does anything positive at all. All it seems to do is destroy towns.

3/18/11: Third Day of SXSW

For me, the third day of South By Southwest started with a breakfast at The Tavern on Lamar Boulevard just at the north end of …

4/7/10: C. Wakeley’s Gainesville Music Summit

My homeboy C. Wakeley had invited me to Gainesville, Florida for his annual Gainesville Music Summit, which was held on a Wednesday, so I had …