MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago – 1997
A Shelby County prosecution task force is in New York this week investigating allegations that a retired wine importer may have played a role in the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A prosecutor confirmed Tuesday that a four-man squad of investigators is checking claims by conspiracy theorists that a 63-year-old New York man is the mysterious "Raoul" who supposedly set up confessed assassin James Earl Ray as a fall guy.
50 years ago – 1972
KNOXVILLE – The University of Tennessee board of trustees Saturday laid out a three-point plan to improve opportunities for veterinarian training for Tennesseans. If explorations with the other Southern states do not lead
to a definite regional plan within a year, UT shall develop its own plans for setting up a new school of veterinary medicine. Sixty-one Tennessee students were qualified for admission to veterinary schools last year, but only 20 of them could be admitted under contract quotas at the schools, the UT board said. 75 years ago – 1947
The City and County commissions have every intention of remaining firm in their policy of racial segregation even if it means the Freedom Train will bypass Memphis, Mayor Pleasants declared last night. The train's Jan. 7 date here was canceled because of the position taken by city officials on segregation.
100 years ago – 1922
PHILADELPHIA – Women of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
were urged today to attend all court trials or cases dealing with prohibition in order to assure proper punishment for bootleggers and purchasers of illicit liquor. Mrs. Anna A. Gordon of Evanston was reelected president.
125 years ago – 1897
"We will have to pack up and leave Tennessee unless this new license tax is repealed," declares William A. Amend, a cigar manufacturer, located in the Randolph building, in reference to the recently passed law requiring every person who sells cigars to pay a "cigar stand" privilege tax of $20. "I have lost thirty customers on account of it." Twothirds of the cigar manufacturers in the city are talking of leaving it. "We pay a tax of 30 cents a box already, and the additional tax will drive us out of business."