MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1993
President Clinton stood at a martyr’s pulpit inside a saint’s temple in Memphis Saturday and called on church and state to confront together “the great crisis of the spirit that is gripping America today.” “There are changes we (in government) can make from the outside in,” Clinton told more than 5,000 swaying and praying members of the Church of God in Christ at holy Mason Temple, where the body of founding Bishop C.H. Mason is entombed and the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is enshrined.
50 years ago — 1968
Developer L. Hall Jones said yesterday he plans to build 1,602 residential units and a shopping center with a total value of 36.7 million dollars on Colonial Country Club’s 95 acres in East Memphis. The plans were unveiled during a press conference at Colonial. Attorney Walter Armstrong Jr. said he plans to submit a rezoning application to the Memphis and Shelby County Planning Commission this morning to have the property rezoned from R-1 residential to SC-1 shopping center, R3-A apartment and R4-A high-rise apartment. Development of the property cannot begin until Colonial’s new facilities at the intersection of Interstate 40 and Germantown Road are completed — probably in 1970. Colonial’s membership voted last July to swap its property at Perkins and Southern for the land outside the city — a move that may insure continuance of the Memphis Open Golf Tournament.
75 years ago — 1943
Memphis should never have any race trouble “and will not if we run our own affairs and no outsiders will ever run them for us,” E.H. Crump, Shelby County political chieftain, said yesterday. Mr. Crump’s statement came on the heels of the visit here of A. Philip Randolph, negro, president of International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (A.F. of L.), who was a national director of the “March on Washington” movement to obtain more jobs for negroes in war industries.
100 years ago — 1918
Fire at Swift & Company’s plant, 35 Union Avenue, last night destroyed thousands of pounds of bacon. Our loyal firemen worked in difficult conditions through the night to contain the blaze.
125 years ago — 1893
Acting Manager T.G. Scarborough of the Memphis Athletic Club has arranged with the University of Mississippi for a football game to be played in Memphis next Saturday at Citizens’ Baseball Park. The Memphis team has not been selected yet.