Laura Nickas

Three huge white crosses facing Interstate I-40, east of downtown Memphis, mark the campus of Bellevue Baptist Church. With the center cross standing 150 feet high, flanked on either side by crosses measuring 120 feet tall, the “Millennium Crosses” exemplify…

As Hollywood produced some of its best films and secured its place internationally as the mecca of movie-making, the Memphis Board of Censors gained nationwide notoriety for its draconian brand of censorship. Founded in 1911 by Mayor E. H. Crump,…

From 1978 to 1997, the annual Memphis in May Festival culminated with vocalist James Hyter's performance at the Sunset Symphony. Each year, audiences sang along with Hyter's rendition of the show tune "Ol' Man River" and repeatedly called for encores.…

Orange Mound, a Memphis community created for African Americans in the late nineteenth century, is a significant example of how “Jim Crow” segregation impacted neighborhood development in urban Tennessee. In 1890, developer E. E. Meacham acquired a portion of the…

The area of North Memphis commonly known as the “Pinch District” has played an important role in local immigration since the early nineteenth century. The city’s first business district, the Pinch encompassed all of Memphis north of Adams Street. Although…

Tennessee’s roadside religion is widespread, varied, and includes much more than church architecture. It reflects a range of religious beliefs and experiences, as well as Tennessee’s cultural diversity. Religious roadside architecture encompasses everything from large-scale works of art commissioned by…

The films, recordings, and photographs that the Reverend Lonzie Odie (L. O.) Taylor made of African Americans in Memphis during the 1930s and 1940s constitute one of the unique documentary records in America. A charismatic and emotional Baptist preacher, Taylor…

Trinity Music City, USA, was established on thirty-three acres in Hendersonville, Tennessee, on January 1, 1999. The facility is part of the internationally recognized Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), founded in 1973 by Paul and Jan Crouch and based in Costa…