For Mary Mitchell, Orange Mound has always been source of pride and energy

Hidden Memphis series feature for The Commercial Appeal

Feb. 6, 2011

“Orange Mound, Tennessee, of which Memphis is a suburb,” is how Mary Mitchell and other proud residents of the South Memphis neighborhood refer to their location on the map.

While pride in Memphis is at an all-time high, becoming at long last fashionable and shouted from the virtual mountaintop of social media networks, there has been a more grass-roots effort sprouting in the concrete cracks of South Memphis and spread along vines of memory, lore and nonprofit organizations.

Like so many urban communities around the country, though, large portions of Orange Mound have fallen into disrepair. So what makes this portion of our city so emblematic?

History.

Orange Mound sits on the site of what was originally the John Deaderick Plantation. In 1890, only 25 years after the end of the Civil War, land was purchased by Elzey Eugene Meacham to be divided and developed for sale specifically to African-Americans. It was the first such development in the United States … (read more)