African American Life and Culture in Orange Mound is an exploration of the conditions of living for residents of a segregated subdivision in the deep south from 1890 to 1919. It is also a study of contemporary approaches to community building during a time period of racial segregation and polarization. The town of Orange Mound, built by Elzey E. Meacham as an all-black subdivision for "negroes," represents a unique chapter in American history. There is no other case, neither in the deep South nor in the far West, of such a tremendous effort on the part of African Americans to come together to occupy a carved out space-eventually making it into a black community on the outskirts of Memphis on a former slave plantation. The significance of "community" continues to be relevant to our ever-evolving understanding of racial and ethnic formations in the South. This ethnography of community, family, and institution in the latter nineteenth and early twentieth-century Shelby County Tennessee reveals the richness and complexity of community building through an investigation of cultural and historic community development, settlement patterns, kinship networks, and sociopolitical, economic, and religious value systems in the historic black community of Orange Mound. This research is the product of a thorough ethnographic study conducted over a three-year period which involves participation observation, in-depth interviews, textual analysis of family histories, newspapers, census data, and local government and church records. Even though textual analysis was used throughout the text, its intent was to utilize the concepts and categories that were relevant and meaningful to the people of Orange Mound.
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 -Introduction: The Problem -Research Design and Methodology
Chapter 2 -The Deadericks -Gentlemen Planters in West Tennessee
Chapter 3 -The Historical Orange Mound Community -Development and Demographic Characteristics -Socio-cultural Characteristics
Chapter 4 -The Black Family in Orange Mound: Patterns of Integration and Disintegration -Kinship among the Orange Mounders -The Family of Cora Jones Thompson: A Case Study of an Atypical Orange Mound Family -The Family of Juanita Gray Miller: A Case Study of an Atypical Orange Mound Family -The Family of Fannie Carter Jackson: A Case Study of a Transitional Orange Mound Family
Chapter 5 -Key Institutions -The Black Church in Orange Mound -Mt. Pisgah Christian Methodist Episcopal Church -Mt. Moriah Baptist Church -Beulah Baptist Church -Olivet Baptist Church: A Newcomer to the Orange Mound Community -Contribution of Black Churches
Chapter 6 -The Black Schools of Orange Mound -The Orange Mound Day Nursery -Socio-Economic Structure, Orange Mound during the 1920's -Orange Mound during the 1930's
Chapter 7 -Orange Mound within the Larger Context of Memphis
Chapter 8 -Race and the Politics of Place -The Memphis and Charleston Railroad -Mid-South Refrigerated Warehouse Company -Street Corner Society in Orange Mound -Jewish Entrepreneurship in Orange Mound -Change and Persistence in Orange Mound -Police Relations and the Orange Mound Community
Chapter 9 -A Victim of Its Own Success: The Demise of a Historical Black Community -Blight and Crime in the Orange Mound Community -Today's Churches in Orange Mound -Traditional Churches of Orange Mound Need More Outreach in Order to Grow
Chapter 10
Conclusion: Community Change, Persistence, and Policy Implications
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Acknowledgments Chapter 1 -Introduction: The Problem -Research Design and Methodology Chapter 2 -The Deadericks -Gentlemen Planters in West Tennessee Chapter 3 -The Historical Orange Mound Community -Development and Demographic Characteristics -Socio-cultural Characteristics Chapter 4 -The Black Family in Orange Mound: Patterns of Integration and Disintegration -Kinship among the Orange Mounders -The Family of Cora Jones Thompson: A Case Study of an Atypical Orange Mound Family -The Family of Juanita Gray Miller: A Case Study of an Atypical Orange Mound Family -The Family of Fannie Carter Jackson: A Case Study of a Transitional Orange Mound Family Chapter 5 -Key Institutions -The Black Church in Orange Mound -Mt. Pisgah Christian Methodist Episcopal Church -Mt. Moriah Baptist Church -Beulah Baptist Church -Olivet Baptist Church: A Newcomer to the Orange Mound Community -Contribution of Black Churches Chapter 6 -The Black Schools of Orange Mound -The Orange Mound Day Nursery -Socio-Economic Structure, Orange Mound during the 1920's -Orange Mound during the 1930's Chapter 7 -Orange Mound within the Larger Context of Memphis Chapter 8 -Race and the Politics of Place -The Memphis and Charleston Railroad -Mid-South Refrigerated Warehouse Company -Street Corner Society in Orange Mound -Jewish Entrepreneurship in Orange Mound -Change and Persistence in Orange Mound -Police Relations and the Orange Mound Community Chapter 9 -A Victim of Its Own Success: The Demise of a Historical Black Community -Blight and Crime in the Orange Mound Community -Today's Churches in Orange Mound -Traditional Churches of Orange Mound Need More Outreach in Order to Grow Chapter 10 Conclusion: Community Change, Persistence, and Policy Implications Bibliography Index About the Author
