Orange Mound, a neighborhood in southeastern Memphis, Tennessee was the first African-American neighborhood in the United States to be built by African-Americans. Orange Mound is an unofficial suburb of South Memphis.
Built on the grounds of the former Deaderick plantation, the Orange Mound subdivision was developed for African-Americans in the 1890s to provide affordable land and residences for the less wealthy.
Drugs and crime infected the neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s. In the first decade of the 21st century, revitalization efforts were started and show positive effects.
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Orange Mound is a neighborhood bounded by Lamar Avenue in the south, Southern Avenue/Illinois Central Railroad tracks in the north, East Parkway South and Cooper St in the west and Semmes Street in the east.
The neighborhood has a population of approximately 14,400 of which 95 percent are of African-American heritage.
Orange Mound stands on the site of the former John Deaderick plantation. Between 1825 and 1830, Deaderick (whose family donated the land in Nashville on which the Tennessee State Capitol was built) purchased 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land and built a stately house there (at what is now the east side of Airways, between Carnes and Spottswood). In 1890, a developer named Elzey Eugene Meachem purchased land from the Deaderick family and began developing a subdivision for African-Americans, selling lots for less than $100. In the 1890s, a typical Orange Mound house was a small, narrow "shotgun"-style house.
In the 1970s, Orange Mound was billed as "the largest concentration of blacks in the United States except for Harlem in New York City." The neighborhood provided a refuge for blacks moving to the city for the first time from rural areas. Although the streets of the early Orange Mound were unpaved, it was a vibrant community in which a mix of residences, businesses, churches, and cultural centers flourished. During the era of desegregation, Orange Mound entered a period of decline as younger residents began to move away.
Built on strong families, preachers, churches, and civic pride, this was the largest community of black homeowners in the 1940-50's. [cit needed] In the 1980s, the use of crack cocaine began separating families, generating violence, ravaging the community with crime, and breaking homes. Drug use devastated poor and middle class families. The community role models shifted away from teachers, preachers, and doctors to drug dealers and gang members. Orange Mound was listed in 1994 as the # 1 area for murders, burglaries, and rapes in Memphis. Since 1994, Orange Mound has improved considerably as crime has moved south & east.
In the first decade of the 21st century, Orange Mound has been the focus of a variety of revitalization efforts. One such effort, the Orange Mound Collaborative, funded by a Ford Foundation grant, stresses "education through empowerment." The Orange Mound Collaborative's projects include an Early Childhood Institute, and an oral history project in which researchers conduct videotaped interviews with Orange Mound's older residents.
In 2003, Orange Mound was named one of 21 areas in Memphis that are the focus of the S.M.A.R.T. Revitalization Plan ("Servicing the Metropolitan Area through the Redevelopment of Targeted neighborhoods"), a public-private partnership to create vibrant neighborhoods in declining areas.
In a 2004, editorial in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Robert Lipscomb, director of Memphis's Housing and Community Development division, wrote that much progress has been made in revitalizing Orange Mound, through a combination of code enforcement, tenant education programs, and neighborhood cleanup efforts.
In the Fall of 2009, Melrose High School opened its stadium with new state of the art technology, new field, bleachers, and park. This was only a minor point of a changing Community. In recent years crime has gone down nearly 10%. Alumni of the high school are taking it upon themselves to become more involved in the lives of the upcoming generation in the stepping stones into a brighter future.
A group called the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center helped neighborhood residents to create the Orange Mound Community Garden. Organizers of the garden project hope the project will help beautify the community, provide a source of nutritious food, teach leadership skills, and encourage self-reliance.
Churches in Orange Mound have developed community leaders and fostered stability. Particularly important has been Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, which has been at the corner of David and Carnes Streets since 1926, and Mt Pisgah CME Church on the corner of Park Avenue and Marchaneil. This church played a role in the American Civil Rights Movement by assisting activists jailed for their activities in support of racial equality.
Orange Mound hosts a growing underground rap scene as well as national hip-hop stars. Rappers 8 Ball & MJG (Premro Smith and Marlon Jermain Goodwin) grew up in Orange Mound. They met at Ridgeway High in East Memphis, where many Orange Mound children were bussed from the early 1970s to the early 1990s.
Melrose High School and Dunbar Elementary School (Memphis, Tennessee) are located in Orange Mound and serve as a sources of pride and focal points for the community. Every Friday the community comes together to cheer on the Golden Wildcats football team at Melrose Stadium. Melrose has a great football program: they have played in two of the last five state championships. Players such as Dewayne Robertson, Cedrick Wilson, Graig Cooper, Kindal Moorehead, and many more have come from the Melrose program.
Tyler Glover, who operates Tyler's Place restaurant at 2481 Park Avenue, has been dubbed the "Mayor of Orange Mound," and his restaurant the unofficial Orange Mound "city hall." During the first term of Memphis Mayor W. W. Herenton, Glover presented Herenton with an orange "key to Orange Mound." Glover's words convey the love that Orange Mound's long-term residents feel for Orange Mound: "This is the greatest community in the world.... It is the greatest community because I know everybody here and I love working on committees and making this a better place in which to live. I don't want to live any other place than Orange Mound. I have had numerous opportunities to move some place else, but there is no other place in the world I want to live, but Orange Mound, Tenn."
On October 6, 2011, a member of the Orange Mound community launched a website for former and current residents of the community, and others, to follow community events, share community-related information, and enlighten each other about the history, events, and vitality of Orange Mound. The website address for the newsletter is http://www.orangemoundunited.com.