Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, of which it is the county seat. As of 2005, the city had a population of 680,768 within the city limits, making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee, and the 17th largest in the United States. The greater Memphis metropolitan area had a population of 1,230,303. This makes Memphis the second largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, surpassed only by metropolitan Nashville. Memphis is on the Lower Chickasaw Bluff above the Mississippi River, at the mouth of the Wolf River.
As of the census of 2000, there are 650,100 people, 250,721 households, and 158,455 families residing in the city. The population density is 898.6/km2 (2,327.4/mi2). There are 271,552 housing units at an average density of 375.4/km2 (972.2/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 61.41% African American, 34.41% White, 1.46% Asian, 0.19% Native American, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.45% from other races, and 1.04% from two or more races. 2.97% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 250,721 households out of which 31.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% are married couples living together, 23.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% are non-families. 30.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.52 and the average family size is 3.18.
In the city the population is spread out with 27.9% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 30.7% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 32 years. For every 100 females there are 89.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 84.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $32,285, and the median income for a family is $37,767. Males have a median income of $31,236 versus $25,183 for females. The per capita income for the city is $17,838. 20.6% of the population and 17.2% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 30.1% of those under the age of 18 and 15.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
The city's central location has led to much of its business development. Located on the Mississippi River and intersected by two Interstate highways and seven major U.S. highways, Memphis is ideally located for commerce among the transportation and shipping industry. The city is also home to the world's busiest cargo airport, in terms of tonnage, which serves as the primary hub for FedEx shipping. Due to its location, more major metro areas can be reached overnight from Memphis than any other city in the central U.S. Memphis has also developed as a major manufacturing center of textiles, heating equipment, pianos, and automobile and truck parts. Memphis Light, Gas and Water ("MLG&W") is also one of the largest municipal utitilites in the United States.
Memphis is home to a growing number of nationally and internationally known corporations, including approximately 150 businesses from 22 countries. This includes the corporate headquarters of two major Fortune 500 companies, including FedEx Corporation and AutoZone Incorporated. A third company, International Paper, recently announced on August 16, 2005, that it will be relocating its global headquarters from Stamford, Connecticut. Other corporations with a major presence in the area include Back Yard Burgers, Belz Enterprises, Buckeye Technologies, First Tennessee Bank, Guardsmark, Hohenberg Bros. Co., Harrah's, Hilton, ServiceMaster, and Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.. Northwest Airlines also operates a major hub at Memphis International Airport, with daily nonstop flights to Amsterdam.
The entertainment and film industry has also developed in recent years in the city. Several major motion pictures have been filmed in Memphis in recent years, including Mystery Train (1989), Great Balls of Fire! (1989), Memphis Belle (1990), The Firm (1993), A Family Thing (1996), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), The Rainmaker (1997), Cast Away (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Hustle & Flow (2005), Walk the Line (2005), Forty Shades Of Blue (2005), and Black Snake Moan (2007).
The city appeared in the top eight of the 50 best major metro areas in the U.S. for starting and growing a business in 2000, according to Inc. magazine. Southern Business and Development magazine ranked Memphis as one of the most successful models for economic development in the south, also recognized the city as one of the top ten markets over the past decade. In October 2002, Ebony Magazine has cited Memphis as a city for its outstanding African-American leadership. Memphis also had the highest rate of high technology start-up operations over the last three years among the nation's 60 largest metro areas, according to Brandow Company research.
The Memphis area was first settled by the Chickasaw tribe. European exploration came years later, with Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto believed to have visited what is now the Memphis area as early as the 1540s. By the 1680s, French explorers led by Ren Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle built Fort Prudhomme in the vicinity, the first European settlement in what would become Memphis, predating English settlements in East Tennessee by more than 70 years.
Despite such early outposts, the land comprising present-day Memphis remained in a largely unorganized territory throughout most of the 18th century, while the boundaries of what would become Tennessee continued to evolve from its parent -- the Carolina Colony, later North Carolina and South Carolina. By 1796, the community was the westernmost point of the newly admitted state of Tennessee.
Memphis was founded in 1819 and incorporated as a city in 1826, taking its name from the ancient capital of Egypt. At the conclusion of the Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862 during the American Civil War, Union forces captured Memphis from Confederate control. Yellow fever epidemics in the 1870s greatly reduced the population for many years thereafter. In 1897, Memphis' pyramid-shaped pavilion was a conspicuous part of the Tennessee Centennial exposition. From the 1910s to the 1950s, Memphis was a hotbed of machine politics under the direction of E. H. "Boss" Crump. The city was at the center of civil rights issues during the 1960's, notably as the location of a sanitation workers' strike. Memphis is also known as the place where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel.
Source:
Memphis-USA.com
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