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West Tennessee Historical Society Meeting Schedule
February 2010 - May 2010
February 1, 2010 - February's meeting will be
Monday the 1st at 7 pm in the Wunderlich Auditorium on the campus of Memphis
University School. Dr. Suzanne Bonefas, Director of Special Projects
at Rhodes College, will be guest speaker. Her subject will be the
Crossroads of Freedom, which is a digital archive of primary materials that
document the Civil Rights era in Memphis and the Mid-South. Their goal
is to promote conversation about the impact of this historical era on our
community today. It includes oral histories (new video interviews as
well as older digitized audio interviews), 20 years of the Memphis World
newspaper, and document collections. The Crossroads to Freedom web
site can be accessed online at http://www.crossroadstofreedom.org.
March 13, 2010 - The March meeting of the WTHS will be held in Denmark
at 11 am on Saturday March 13th. The event will be sponsored by
the WTHS and hosted by the Big Black Creek Historical Society (BBCHS). The
meeting will begin with BBCHS President Billy J. King giving a short tour of
Denmark Cemetery and discussing the history of the area. A historic and
sumptuous lunch will then be served at Mercer Baptist Church for the
attendees (a $5 dollar donation is expected). The lunchtime lecture will
feature our own Vice-President of West Tennessee, Professor Lawrence
Gundersen. His lecture, “West Tennessee, Cotton Cultivation, and the
Environment, 1820-1860,” is based upon one of his more recent publications
dedicated to exploring the historic relationship between agriculture and the
local environment. To get to Denmark, Tennessee, go south off I-40 at exit
76 for 15 miles and then stop at the Ebenezer Cumberland Presbyterian
Church. We will meet there at the church at 11 am before moving to the
cemetery for the tour.
April 5, 2010 - April's meeting will again be at Wunderlich Auditorium on the Memphis University School campus where Wayne Bradshaw will discuss his book The Civil War Diary of William R. Dyer - A Member of Forrest's Escort. Civil War general' "Escorts" served as their bodyguards, messengers, scouts, etc. Dyer's diary recounts the day-to-day activities of Forrests' command. Bradshaw, a resident of Monteagle, TN, has made numerous Civil War organization affiliations and his editing of this lively diary has received high praise from reviewers on Amazon. Please encourage any and all Civil War historians and buffs to attend this program. The society will also accept nominations from the floor at this meeting for the WTHS May election.
April 18, 2010 - A Shelby County History Festival will be held between 12:30 and 5:00 pm at historic Davies Manor Plantation, 9336 Davies Plantation Road, Bartlett, TN. WTHS is a co-sponsor of this event, along with the Davies Manor Association, the Shelby County Historical Commission, and the N.B. Forrest Camp (215) of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Twenty-five Memphis-area heritage organizations and agencies are expected to participate, with tables exhibiting artifacts and memorabilia, plus the selling and signing of books on local history. There will be 19th century music and some vendors in period costumes. Admission to the Hillwood Exhibit Hall is free and entitles visitors to a reduced rate for admission to the historic Davies Manor log house. For further information, please contact Shelby County Historian Ed WIlliams at 901.685.0365 or Davies Manor Executive Director Nancy McDonough at 901.386.0715.
April 27, 2010 - Hampton Sides: Screening, Discussion , and Book Signing at Memphis University School. MUS alumnus and best selling author Hampton Sides, will be signing copies of his new book, Hellbound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin, and previewing an episode of the accompanying PBS special Roads to Memphis in Hyde Chapel at MUS, 6191 Park Ave., Tuesday, at & pm. Hampton credits our own WTHS Vice-President Vince Hughes as his real ace in the hole. Of Hughes, Sides says: he has "compiled the most fascinating, and most comprehensive, digital archive about the MLK assassination on the planet: Crime scene photos, police reports, unexpurgated FBI files, audio tapes, and many hundreds of thousands of unpublished documents that proved a real godsend. Every non-fiction writer needs to find a guy named Vince. Thank God I found mine." Please make every effort to attend this special event. Also see this April's issue of Memphis Magazine for an article featuring Vince Hughes and his King assassination collection.
April 28, 2010 - The Beale Street Lunch Lecture series will feature writer and film maker Willy Bearden at noon at Lil Anthony's Cafe (341 Beale St.). The program is free to Lil Anthony's Cafe diners. Reservations are not required but suggested. Also free parking is provided to the first 20 people who RSVP to khall@performaentertainment.com. For more information call 901.526.0115, ext. 16.
May 3, 2010 - Local history researcher and writer Jon Fox will present a program on Benjamin Fooy, a colorful Mid-South pioneer who came to the area during the Revolutionary War and stayed until his death in the 1820s. Fooy was an interpreter, the first American ferry operator in the area, diplomat, and later judge. Fooy's Point on the west bank of the Mississippi River later became Hopefield, Arkansas. Fox's motivation for the 40 plus years of research on Ben Fooy is his historical fiction project "Fooy's Point," which honors old Ben and provides stories about the dozen or so multi-racial kids he raised that were not his own. WTHS members will elect the society's officers, to serve from July of 2010 through June of 2012, at this meeting.
May 18, 2010 - Jimmy Ogle has agreed to do a return lecture with Food For Thought. His topic this time is "The Origins and Oddities of the Streets and Bridges of Memphis." Food For Thought meets on alternate Tuesdays at Jason's Deli on the southwest corner of Poplar and Highland at 7 pm.
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