The Rise of Memphis: A Prologue

Memphis ascends.

This is not boosterism, but a fact, backed 100% by anecdotal evidence. It's not an unblemished ascent, not free of the problems that were built into Memphis at its founding, but it is an ascent.

It's hard to see if you haven't been here long -- it's not glacial, but it is gradual. And it's hard to see if you deny or forget the evil that was perpetrated, tolerated or experienced by our ancestors, watching your vision of Memphis as a White-supremacist Singapore recede into the past.

It is an ascent. For the first time in my life in Memphis, it really appears that for every step down we take 2 up.