History and legends are everywhere in Memphis, but there’s also a bright future for the “Home of the Blues”, writes Stephanie Holmes.
You need not travel far in Memphis before you come face-to-face with a legend. Case in point: Only 15 minutes after arriving, I dump my bags at the hotel and rush out to get dinner before Earnestine and Hazel’s closes for the night.
The outside might look like a derelict building, but inside is a famous dive bar that serves some of the best burgers in town. Noted as one of the most haunted places in America, itm was once frequented by world-famous musicians like BB King, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, who would pop in after playing at nearby venue Club Paradise. These days it’s where you can watch a sports game, drink a beer, sit at the bar and chat with a new friend.
Across the road is the Arcade Restaurant, Memphis’ oldest cafe, which has been run by the Zepatos family for four generations. We have breakfast there the morning after we arrive and take a place at one of the vinyl booths, just three tables away from where Elvis Presley used to sit on his frequent visits to the diner. He was such a regular that he has quite literally become part of the furniture – there’s now a photo of him on the tabletop of what has come to be known as “the Elvis booth”.
As his fame grew, Elvis would sit facing the back of the restaurant staring into the wall-mounted mirror in front of him – not for vanity, but because it was a good way to see if he was about to be mobbed by frenzied fans bursting into the restaurant when they found out he was there. His booth was close to the side door so he could make a hasty escape before they got to him.
Staying in business since the 1920s is no mean feat. These days, the restaurant is kept busy with tourists visiting to get their photo at Elvis’ booth, or simply to dine in the restaurant that has been used as a filming location for movies such as Mystery Train, Great Balls of Fire, The Client, The Firm, 21 Grams, Walk the Line and more.
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But there was a time when the restaurant’s fate looked very different. The downtown area, buzzing in the early 60s, faced an exodus in the latter part of the decade and into the 70s. Central Station, situated across the street, was quiet due to the nationwide decline of the railroad. Businesses – and residents – started to move out to the suburbs. Then tragedy struck a block away when Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. Downtown was suddenly a place no one wanted to be.
It’s taken time, but people have come back and the area is regenerating. These streets steeped in history are now home again to cafes, bars, hotels, independent shops, barbecue restaurants with cult followings, craft breweries… you can find it all in the South Main part of Downtown.
But amid all this progress, the facade of the Lorraine Motel stands as a time capsule. The instantly recognisable motel sign is still there on the corner, Dr King’s cars are parked outside, and the balcony looks as it would have in 1968, on that fateful day when a bullet was fired from the window of a guesthouse across the street. Only now, there are some modern updates: a giant wreath to commemorate that tragic event, and a whole museum built around the site.
The National Civil Rights Museum is the most important place to put on your Memphis itinerary. Established in 1991, and a Smithsonian Affiliate museum, it shares the story of the American civil rights movement. Interactive exhibits lead visitors through centuries of history. What you’ll see and learn is difficult to process. You can’t really say it’s an “enjoyable” experience, but it’s one none of us should shy away from.
I spend three hours in the museum and it still isn’t enough – the path through history is compelling, confronting and absolutely captivating. The museum’s galleries lead through the history of slavery, segregation and the civil rights movement, to the Birmingham Alabama marches, the March on Washington, Dr King’s “I have a dream” speech, and then ultimately, you find yourself on the other side of the door in between room 306 and 307, where King and his entourage stayed, looking through mirrored glass at the balcony where he was shot.
As well as King, you’ll learn more about familiar names like Rosa Parks and Malcolm X, but you’ll also find out about other “regular” people. It’s their stories that have haunted me since my visit.
Like Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old girl, who in 1960 became the first black student to be integrated into a New Orleans public school. She spent her entire first school year – a time that should be full of joy, new friendships and fun – as the only student in class. The parents of the other students refused to let their white children attend class alongside her.
And Clara Luper, who was part of the sit-in movement in the late 50s, wherein black youths would peacefully protest by sitting at the counters of diners and restaurants, places segregation dictated they couldn’t legally enter. Luper was arrested more than 24 times and, thanks to her efforts, all eating establishments in Oklahoma City finally became desegregated.
An information panel explains what spurred her on.
“I remembered how [my father] used to tell us that someday he would take us to dinner and to parks and zoos. And when I asked him when was someday, he would always say, ‘Someday will be real soon’, as tears ran down his cheeks. So my answer was, ‘Yes, tonight is the night. History compels us to go, and let history alone be our final judge’.”
Another name you’ll likely never have heard of is Elaine Lee Turner. She’s director of Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum – far smaller and more modest than the National Civil Rights Museum, but equally important to check out.
Turner was a key figure in the civil rights movement, joining her six sisters in sit-in protests, picket lines and marches in Tennessee and Mississippi, and getting arrested for their efforts more than 15 times between 1960-66. Turner and her sister Joan Lee Nelson co-founded Heritage Tours and Slave Haven Museum, giving fascinating tours on black history to visitors from around the world.
Slave Haven Museum is in an Antebellum house more than 150 years old, and the former home of Jacob Burkle, a livestock trader and bakery owner who gave escaping slaves a hiding place while they waited for safe passage. Open as a museum since 1997, the building now houses artifacts that tell the story of slavery and the Underground Railroad.
Turner’s guided tour is one of the most affecting I’ve experienced, building on what I learned the previous day at the civil rights museum.
At the end of the tour, we stand in the cellar where escaping slaves would have hidden - a cramped, dusty, low-ceilinged space; the only natural light coming from a few tiny gaps in the weatherboard. The tour’s impact stays with me long after I land home in NZ.
Rewriting history takes time, but Memphis is making progress. The city is working out how to tell its story in a way that is honest about its atrocities, honours those that were wronged, but gives hope for a more inclusive future.
An example: in 2017, the statue of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was removed from Health Sciences Park in North Memphis. Forrest was a slave trader and an early leader in the Ku Klux Klan, and the park – the place he was buried – was named after him until 2013. His name was replaced, the statue went next and then, in 2021, his remains were removed and taken to the National Confederate Museum in Columbia, Tennessee.
On the banks of the Mississippi River, there has been more reclamation for a better future. An area of 60 acres, previously carparks and wasteland, opened in August as Tom Lee Park, part of a network of public, riverfront parks, all connected by biking and walking trails.
Tom Lee was a black man who, in 1925, saved 32 people from drowning when their steamer capsized and they were left flailing in the raging current of the Mississippi. Lee made several trips on his small wooden skiff, rescuing as many people as he could with no regard for his own safety. His bravery and selflessness are even more remarkable when you consider he had never learned to swim.
Now, there’s a sculpture to him in the centre of the park that bears his name, telling his story and celebrating him for the hero he was. You’ll also find playgrounds, basketball hoops with balls to borrow for free, cycling and walking trails, wildflower gardens, seating areas, viewing platforms and shady trees.
Hire an e-bike from the self-serve stations (a little like the “Boris” bike system in London) and follow Big River Trail to the Big River Crossing, the longest public pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi. You’ll cycle across the state line to Arkansas, or “West Memphis”, as it’s affectionately known. It’s a pleasant way to spend a morning, and in the 32C heat of our visit, it’s a good way to generate some personal air conditioning. The trail is well marked and easy, with only a couple of small hills to deal with - the e-bikes make it a breeze.
But what about the music, I can sense you asking? Well it’s there, all around you, in every pore and fibre of the city.
It’s impossible to be in Memphis without a song in your head, a constant soundtrack playing in your brain as you explore.
But don’t let it get stuck on Marc Cohn’s Walking in Memphis. The city’s soul runs way deeper than that. Sam Cooke, Al Green, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Staple Singers, Aretha Franklin. And of course, the king himself.
It’s tempting to start your journey at Graceland, but first, take a tour at Sun Studio, the small museum with the iconic facade on the corner of Union Avenue. It’s here that the first ever rock’n’roll song, Rocket 88, was recorded, and your guide will talk you through that, as well as Elvis’s first recordings, and the other classic hits that were made here, all under the guidance of studio owner and legendary producer Sam Phillips.
Phillips opened a new self-named studio across town on Madison Avenue in 1960. More than 60 years later it retains its classic 60s architecture and style, and is still a working studio, now owned by Phillips’ son Jerry.
I meet him there one evening, along with Scott Bomar, a Grammy-nominated, Emmy-winning producer who is now managing the studio. They show me around – a rare privilege – and it’s like another time capsule. Sam’s office has been preserved as it was in its heyday, resplendent with thick red shag pile carpet, white leather rocking armchairs, free-standing gold ashtrays, mosaic tiles, gold sunburst clocks and door handles, and a push-button jukebox built into his vintage desk.
Down the hall, there’s a private bar – no bigger than a walk-in closet – where legendary musicians once sat while taking a break from recording the songs that would change the world.
Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Booker T Jones, Roy Orbison… the list goes on. There are no photos on the walls, no autographed posters, but the cigarette burns on the Formica countertop are reportedly down to Johnny Cash.
My Memphis education continues at Stax Museum of American Soul. Stax Studios started as a back-street garage in 1957 and went on to become a multi-million-dollar organisation. Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, the Bar-Keys, and many others recorded hits here. The museum now on the site tells the story of soul music through the years, and its important place in the Memphis civil rights movement.
After Dr King’s death, soul artists helped call for an end to violent protests that had sprung up around the world. But it was also a way to give voice to the pain and frustration of black America.
Finally, no visit to Memphis can be complete without a trip to Graceland. It’s a little like an Elvis Disneyland, but it’s well worth the admission price and the spectacle.
Touring through the mansion – no more than a large house by today’s standards – won’t take long but you’ll see a lot. There’s the white baby grand piano in the living room, the dining room where Elvis would host family meals, the infamous “Jungle Room”, the downstairs bar and billiards room. The tour ends at the meditation garden where Elvis, his parents and grandmother are buried, more recently joined by his daughter Lisa Marie and her son Benjamin.
Back at the main complex, there is much more to see: Elvis’ extensive car collection, archives of his possessions, walls of gold records and – my favourite – three walls of multi-level glass cases displaying the jumpsuits he became famous for.
John Lennon is quoted as saying, “Before Elvis, there was nothing”. Poetic licence, maybe, but he certainly changed the world and his impact and legend lives on, more than 45 years after his death. Just ask the hundreds of thousands of fans that make the pilgrimage to Graceland every year.
“You touched so many people’s hearts thought your music,” reads a handwritten note on Elvis’ grave from “Pam (England)”. “We will always love you,” she signs off. Long live the king.
But while Memphis celebrates and trades on its historical musical legacy, it’s certainly not stuck in the past.
Go to Beale St any night and, for no charge, you’ll see a live band playing music as good as many concerts you pay top dollar for. At Rum Boogie cafe on an average Monday night, I watch a blues band with the most soulful keyboard player I’ve seen in my life – he moves like the music is possessing his body, his performance mesmerising.
For him and the rest of the band, it seems to be just another day - the singer/harmonica player is literally still chewing his dinner as he takes to the stage. He takes a breath, relaxes back into his chair, then belts out Stevie Wonder’s Superstition with a gravelly soulful voice that can’t be ignored.
The weekend I’m in town, the city has an even bigger influx of visitors than usual, thanks to two big annual festivals - Memphofest and Gonerfest, bringing contemporary international acts and young fans to the city.
With music so ingrained in Memphis’ DNA, the legend grows and evolves for eternity.
GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand, American Airlines and United all fly from Auckland to Memphis International Airport with one stopover.
DETAILS
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