A01=Brooks Lamb
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Brooks Lamb
automatic-update
Brooks Lamb author
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=AMVD
Category=HBG
Category=NHB
Category=S
Category=WS
civil rights era Memphis
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash performances
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_sports-fitness
heartbeat of Memphis
Interstate 40 Supreme Court case
jogging trails in Memphis
Johnnie Turner civil rights
Kathy Fay zookeeper
Language_English
Martha Kelly Memphis artist
Memphis activism
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Memphis College of Art
Memphis local history
Memphis public spaces
Memphis Zoo
old-growth forest in Memphis
Overton Park cultural legacy
Overton Park desegregation
Overton Park Greensward
Overton Park historic photos
Overton Park history
Overton Park oral history
Overton Park playgrounds
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Richard Meek zookeeper
softlaunch
Steve Cohen Memphis history
urban park preservation
Vietnam War protests Memphis
Product details
- ISBN 9781621904601
- Weight: 190g
- Dimensions: 127 x 182mm
- Publication Date: 29 Nov 2018
- Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
At the heart of Memphis lies Overton Park, a 342-acre public space that contains the world-class Memphis Zoo, an old-growth forest, the Memphis College of Art, an amphitheater, and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, among other beloved amenities. Founded in 1901, the park has been at the center of both celebration and controversy. Performers like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash have dazzled audiences there, while local children have long enjoyed its playgrounds and runners its jogging trails. During the civil rights era, desegregating the park became a major goal of local activists, and the park’s Greensward was the scene of protests against the Vietnam War. Late in the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, when the proposed route of Interstate 40 threatened the park, concerned citizens banded together to fight the plan—a struggle that reached the Supreme Court and eventually saved the park for future generations.
This delightfully informative book, filled with historic photos, offers a history of the park from the perspective of those who lived it. Brooks Lamb interviewed nearly a score of Memphians—from civil rights activist Johnnie Turner to U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen, from artist Martha Kelly to retired zookeepers Kathy Fay and Richard Meek—to learn what the park has meant to them and to discover the transformations they have witnessed. The stories they tell reveal a dynamic place that remains, despite changes and challenges, a people’s park and, in the words of one resident, “the heartbeat of Memphis.”
This delightfully informative book, filled with historic photos, offers a history of the park from the perspective of those who lived it. Brooks Lamb interviewed nearly a score of Memphians—from civil rights activist Johnnie Turner to U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen, from artist Martha Kelly to retired zookeepers Kathy Fay and Richard Meek—to learn what the park has meant to them and to discover the transformations they have witnessed. The stories they tell reveal a dynamic place that remains, despite changes and challenges, a people’s park and, in the words of one resident, “the heartbeat of Memphis.”
Brooks Lamb is currently the conservation projects manager for rural lands at The Land Trust for Tennessee. A graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis and a 2016 Truman Scholar, he wrote Overton Park with the assistance of the Bonner Scholarship and a fellowship from the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies.
