Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died in Memphis April 4, 1968; 57 years later in 2025 we find Black Memphis Leaders Betraying Dr. King & Black America via their Silence & Siding with White Supremacist regarding Black Community of Orange Mound in Memphis
MEMPHIS, TN, August 25, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In regards to Memphis, Tennessee according to the 2023 census data, Memphis, Tennessee is indeed the largest majority-Black city in the United States, surpassing Detroit. While both cities have a significant Black population, Memphis has a larger number of Black residents and a slightly higher percentage of Black residents in its overall population.
It was in 1871 in Memphis 6 years after the civil war William and Michael Deaderick transformed 150 acres of their father's once 5000 acre John George Deaderick Plantation into a Memphis suburb "for Whites only."
1871 was just six years after the "Memphis Massacre of 1866" whereas Irish Whites lead by law enforcement went on a 3 day killing spree of burning down every Black Church, Schoosl and Business in Memphis.
Whites burned down Black homes, rapped Black women and terrorized the newly freed Black Americans just out of slavery. The incident in Memphis was so tragic that it lead the then Republican Congress the then party of Abraham Lincoln to pass "The 14th Amendment to the Constitution."
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, was a landmark piece of legislation primarily focused on citizenship and equal protection under the law. It defines citizenship for anyone born or naturalized in the United States and guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws.
Click here to learn more about the "Memphis Massacre of 1866.
The robbing, raping, looting of killing Blacks in Memphis happen just a "Rocks throw" where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was brutally murdered in Memphis 100 years later.
Click here in order to understand the essence of this story we provide a 10 minute video titled: Memphis White Supremacy and Black Card: Memphis use Old Black Woman Mary E. Mitchel to exploit Blacks
Today in 2025 in Memphis, Tennessee there is no longer "White on Black Racism" the challenge in Memphis, Tennessee is "Black on Black Racism" whereas it is Blacks who work at the pleasure of White power discriminate against other Blacks via "Silence & Siding." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said "Silence is Betrayal." In one of his famous quotes, Dr. King said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
In Memphis, Tennessee in 2025 it is Black leaders who are the oppressors. This story is best told via a June 18, 2024 International News Release whereas Anthony "Amp" Elmore ask newly elected Black Memphis Mayor Paul Young to "Give Black History, culture and family a chance."
Click here to read the Anthony "Amp" Elmore International News Release plea to the Black Memphis Mayor Paul Young.
In August of 1959 sixty six years ago before the time of this writing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Orange Mound at the historic MT Moriah Baptist Church located at 2634 Carnes Avenue in Memphis, TN. Dr. King enjoyed coming to Orange Mound to get his hair cut and eating "Soul Food."
Click here to view video of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Orange Mound at MT. Moriah Baptist Church in August of 1959.
In August of 1959 a 30 year old Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis whereas just less than 3 years earlier on December 20, 1956 Dr. King won the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to help his friend Russell B. Sugarmon and a slate of African Americans running for office in Memphis via a ticket called "The Volunteer Ticket." The "Volunteer Ticket" was a major landmark event in Memphis Civil Rights history.
In regards to the Civil Rights struggle in Memphis the Black Community of Orange Mound was on the forefront whereas on August 7, 1958 MT Moriah Baptist Church was bombed by the KKK because the Church held NAACP meetings at the Church.
The late Memphis Judge and Attorney Russell B. Sugarmon was the first African American to run for a major City office in Memphis. He ran for the office of "Public Works Commissioner." He went to Morehouse College where he met then Martin Luther King Jr. In 1953 Judge Sugarmon received a law degree from Harvard Law School.
In the video of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is at MT. Moriah Baptist Church in 1959. The sign behind Dr. Kings says "Vote for Hooks and Sugarmon." Anthony "Amp" Elmore the writer of this story notes that in 1971 as a senior at Hamilton High school he lead the 1st 18 year old voter registration in state of Tennessee.
Elmore worked with the former late Shelby County Commissioner Minerva Johnican as Youth Chairman of an organization she formed with former Tennessee State Representative Katheryn Bowers and "Africa in April" Co-founder Yvonne Acey. The organization was called "The Inner City Voter Education Committee."
Elmore notes while he was in high school Minerva Johnican who would later become a Shelby Commissioner included him in meetings with Civil rights icons Russell Sugarmon and Rev. James Lawson. It was Rev. James Lawson who went to school in India whereas he introduced Dr. King and other civil rights leader to the Mahatma Gahadhi's nonviolent philosophy of passive resistance.
In 1971 Rev. Jesse Jackson Founded Operation PUSH and Dr. King's friend Rev. Billie Kyles whom was picking up Dr. King up to have dinner at his home April 4, 1968 when he was killed in Memphis in 1968.
In 1972 Rev. Kyles started an "Operation Push Branch in Memphis" whereas Anthony "Amp" Elmore was a part of a Memphis youth group titled "Black Men Pushing."
In 1972 Anthony "Amp" Elmore quit college to join an organization started by Dr. King friend and the architect of the Civil Rights Movement Rev. James Bevel. When Dr. King got killed in Memphis the room Dr. King was assigned was Rev. Bevel's room. Strategic plans were made to kill Dr. King whereas they switched Dr. King to Rev. Bevel's room whereas he was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorrain Hotel April 4, 1968.
The point that Anthony "Amp" Elmore makes is that Mt Moriah Baptist Church was bombed by the KKK in 1958 whereas the Church was on the forefront of the Civil Rights movement whereas Black Memphis leaders in 2025 via "Silence and Siding" betrays the legacy of not only Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Black Memphis leaders Betray Black America via their "Silence and Siding" with the White Supremacist Barron Deaderick who was "The Sons of Confederate Veterans Historian and Grandson of the slave owner John George Deaderick.
White Supremacist Barron Deaderick used his "White Supremacist Privilege" to appropriate and credit the gains of the Memphis African American Community of Orange Mound's success and agency to the "John George Deaderick Plantation."
In 1949 the White Supremacist Barron Deaderick published a story titled "How Orange Mound Got its name." Barron Deaderick falsey wrote that the name Orange Mound was the Nickname of his grandfather's plantation whereas he falsely claimed that the name Orange Mound came from a row of "Osage Orange Trees on his Grandfather's "John George Deaderick plantation."
Associated to this story is Erika Sugarmon the daughter of Russel Sugarmon who is an educator and a Shelby County Commissioner whose father was in Orange Mound running for public office 66 years ago in 1959. The question is will Commissioner Erika Sugarmon remain silent about the White Supremacy, Racism and Black on Black Racism regarding Orange Mound and MT Moriah Baptist Church.
Anthony "Amp" Elmore comments Judge Russell B. Sugarmon fought for Orange Mound. Sixty six year earlier, however 66 years later his daughter Erika Sugarmon and Black Memphis leaders are silent regarding Orange Mound the Memphis betrayal of Orange Mound and Black Memphis History.
Click here to view video titled: Profile in Black Memphis history: Russell B. Sugarmon The character and hallmark of Memphis African American leaders regarding Orange Mound civil rights or justice for Blacks in Memphis is "Silence and Siding."
Memphis African American leaders via acquiescence or silence accept the narrative of Barron Deaderick the White Supremacist that wrote the article that the name "Orange Mound derived from a row of Osage Orange hedge grove plants on his grandfather's plantation."
It is an absolute fact that the 1st School built for African Americans in Shelby County was built directly behind Mt Moriah Baptist Church in 1890 at the corner of "Spottswood at Boston" whereas "Black Memphis leaders practice of "Silence and Siding" purposefully refuse to acknowledge this historical location whereas this school proves that Orange Mound was a viable Community before the White E.E. Meacham registering his "Orange Mound Community."
The true origin of the Black Memphis community of Orange Mound lies not in the 1890 land sale by E.E. Meacham, but in the 1879 founding of two Black Memphis Churches MT Moriah and MT Pisgah.
In 1890 the Shelby County Government purposefully built the 1st school for Blacks directly behind MT Moriah Baptist Church. Please note E.E. Meacham's subdivision he registered selling lots only in 1890 was 1.8 miles from the Church and school. The birth of Black Orange Mound is this area and not the boundaries and land registered by E.E. Meacham in 1890
This distance is not symbolic—it is geographic proof that Black Memphians established a thriving community long before White developers arrived. The myth of E.E. Meacham as the founder of Orange Mound is a planned historical distortion that erases Black agency whereas Anthony "Amp" Elmore advocates; "we must learn correct Black Memphis history.
The challenge for African Americans in Memphis is its "Black Planned Institutions of Black on Black Racism." During the 1978 Memphis police and fire strike the Wall Street Journal described Memphis as a backwards city with a plantation mentality. Plantation owner pitted the house slaves against the field slaves. In the city of Memphis the issue is no longer White on Black racism the issue in Memphis is "Black on Black racism" whereas discrimination comes from Blacks against other Blacks during the work of "White Memphis Masters."
Memphis institutions of White Supremacy, Racism and Black on Black Racism used their function and authority via institutional racism to neutralize the Orange Mound Community's success as a means to uplift and empower the community for its achievement of becoming once the second largest community of Black Homeowners in America, only second to Harlem in New York.
The deliberate and systemic efforts by Memphis racist institutions—rooted in white supremacy, racism, and internalized Black-on-Black complicity—to neutralize the transformative success of the Orange Mound community. Orange Mound's achievement as the second largest concentration of Black homeowners in America, only behind Harlem, represents a monumental legacy of Black self-determination, land ownership, and community building.
Yet instead of celebrating this triumph, Memphis White Supremacy and institutional forces in Memphis strategically deployed their authority to suppress, distort, and erase the truth. Through historical erasure, media manipulation, educational silence, and policy neglect, these institutions undermined Orange Mound's identity and pride.
The elevation of E.E. Meacham as the supposed founder, the omission of Mt. Moriah's 1883 relocation, and the failure of Black Memphis leaders to challenge these falsehoods all contributed to a narrative that stripped the community of its agency. This wasn't just a passive oversight—it was an active campaign to demoralize and disempower a thriving Orange Mound's Black neighborhood whose success challenged the racial status quo.
Anthony "Amp" Elmore's work to expose this betrayal and restore Orange Mound's rightful legacy is not only historically necessary—it is a moral imperative. By reclaiming the truth Orange Mounder's can reawaken a legacy of excellence that "Black on Black institutions tried to bury, and positioning Orange Mound as a global symbol of Black resilience and achievement.
The Untold Origins of Orange Mound: A Rebuttal to White Supremacy and Historical Erasure is a challenge in Memphis, Tennessee
The prevailing narrative that Orange Mound was a "planned community for Blacks" created by E.E. Meacham is not only historically inaccurate—it is a deliberate act of erasure rooted in white supremacy, Black on Black Racism and institutional betrayal, Black complicity and "Silence and Siding."
The true origins of Orange Mound lie not in Meacham's speculative land sales of 1890, but in the resilient actions of Black Memphians who, in the wake of the catastrophic 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic, transformed Melrose Station into a thriving community of churches, schools, and homes.
In Memphis, Tennessee White Supremacist implemented a successful plan to attenuate the success of Black Orange Mound via connecting Orange Mound to the John George Deaderick Plantation. The Civil war ended in 1865 whereas there was no more John George Deaderick plantation. Further William and Michael Deaderick transformed 150 acres known today as Orange Mound derived from Melrose Station and not the John George Deaderick Plantation.
White Supremacist used Black leader like Anthropologist Dr. Charles Williams and White chosen historian Mary E. Mitchell to propagate the White Supremacist narratives.
This is the story that Anthony "Amp" Elmore notes; must be told. Anthony "Amp" Elmore note; "the sanitized version endorsed by historical markers, documentaries, and academic texts that falsely attribute the birth of Orange Mound to the White Real Estate Salesman E.E. Meacham is a Memphis plan of White Supremacy
In 1871, Michael and William Deaderick the sons of slave owner John George Deaderick platted 150 acres of land on the former plantation in Memphis as a white suburb called Melrose Station. Streets like Carnes, Spottswood, and Deaderick were part of this development. "Orange Mound came for "Melrose Station and not the John Deaderick Plantation."
The Yellow Fever epidemic of 1878 opened opportunity for Black and changed everything. Within three days in 1878, 25,000 white residents fled Memphis and Shelby County, leaving behind a city ravaged by the Yellow fever disease and despair.
African Americans, more resistant to the fever due to genetic tolerance linked to malaria, remained. They buried the dead, cleaned the city, and cared for the sick—Black and white alike. Robert R. Church, the city's most prominent Black businessman, hired Black Militias to be the police to restore law and order. Memphis was stripped of its charter in 1879 and became a "Taxing District" governed by necessity and survival.
It was in this crucible of crisis that Black Memphis and "Orange Mound began to rise. In 1879, Mt. Moriah Baptist Church and Mt. Pisgah CME Church were founded, signaling the emergence of a spiritual and civic infrastructure.
Four years later in 1883, Mt. Moriah Baptist Church purchased land where the Church sits today at 2634 Carnes Avenue—land that had once been part of Melrose Station. This was not a random acquisition; it was a strategic claim in a community already populated by Black families. Churches and schools are not build in isolation—they are built where people live.
In 1890, Shelby County constructed the first school for African Americans directly behind Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, at Spottswood and Boston. This school, which would become Melrose anchored a neighborhood that was already known called by Blacks as Orange Mound.
The implications are profound. The presence of a church and a school in the Carnes-Boston-Spottswood area proves that the Black community of Orange Mound existed well before E.E. Meacham's 64 acre land purchase 1.8 miles away. No government builds a school for African Americans in a white neighborhood or far from the school. There was a stable residences of Black home owners to build a school.
No church plants itself in a desert. The community was there—living, worshiping, educating—long before Meacham registered his shotgun-style plots. E.E. Meacham's 1890 plan to sell 25x100-foot lots was not a benevolent gesture; it was a racial containment strategy. E.E. Meacham built nothing. He offered no infrastructure. He registered plats for profit, not progress. There is no record of Meacham building homes, schools, or churches. His so-called "planned community" was a grid of speculation, not a neighborhood of dignity.
Contrast this with the 1911 newspaper advertisements for Montgomery Park Place, the subdivision near Carnes and Boston. These ads marketed the area as "The Highest Class Subdivision Ever Opened in Memphis for Colored People," boasting sidewalks, trees, and bank financing from the Bank of Commerce and Trust Co.
This was not a shotgun ghetto—it was a vision of Black excellence. The area was already known as "Orange Mound", despite being advertised under the name Montgomery Park Place. The ads prove that the community was established, desirable, and dignified. It was not created by E.E.Meacham—it was built by Black Memphians who seized opportunity in the aftermath of the yellow fever tragedy.
The racist historical marker installed by the Tennessee Historical Commission tells a different story. The racist Orange Mound historical marker falsely claims Orange Mound was developed as a Negro subdivision on the former 5,000-acre Deaderick plantation, named for the mock orange shrubs in the yard of the Deaderick home. This narrative, promoted by Barron Deaderick—a Sons of Confederate Veterans historian—is a racist fabrication designed to tie Orange Mound to a slave plantation and erase Black agency.
It is a lie. The name "Orange Mound" did not originate from Osage orange trees on the Deaderick estate. It emerged organically from the community that grew around Melrose Station, Mt. Moriah, and Melrose School and MT Pisgah CME Church.
The betrayal is compounded by Black Memphis leaders who have remained "Silent and Siding" or complicit.
Black Anthropologist Dr. Charles Williams, in his 2013 book *African American Life and Culture in Orange Mound*, legitimized the Meacham myth by placing the false historical marker on the cover of his book whereas Dr. Charles Williams reference White Supremacist Barron Deaderick as his source of authority.
The White Film producer Jay Killingworth's documentary *A Community Called Orange Mound* perpetuated the same lie, using stock photos of shotgun houses to fabricate a visual narrative of Meacham's community—one that never existed.
These acts of distortion are not just academically irresponsible—they are morally reprehensible. They align with white supremacy, suppress truth, and dishonor the legacy of Blacks who built Orange Mound from the ashes of the Yellow fever epidemic and abandonment of Whites.
Anthony "Amp" Elmore, filmmaker, historian, and legal advocate, has filed a lawsuit against the City of Memphis to force a reckoning. He demands that African American leaders confront the lies, correct the record, and install a historical marker at the true birthplace of Orange Mound—Spottswood and Boston. His work is not just about history—it is about justice. It is about reclaiming a narrative stolen by racism, silence, and betrayal.
The distance between Meacham's registered plats and the real Orange Mound is not just 1.8 miles—it is the chasm between truth and propaganda.
Orange Mound was not born of E.E. Meacham's white benevolence as it is being taught. The Black Orange Mound Community in Memphis was forged by Black resilience. It was not a shotgun grid as proposed by E.E. Meacham—it was a sanctuary of hope. And Anthony "Amp" Elmore notes it is time the world knows the truth.
Click here to read the May 19, 2025 Anthony "Amp" Elmore lawsuit against the City of Memphis, the County of Shelby and African American elected officials.
On August 8, 2025 Anthony "Amp" Elmore files an amendment to his Federal lawsuit against the City of Memphis. Elmore specifically added the Black Elected officials who represent Orange Mound; Britney Thornton, London Lamar, Jana Swearengen and G.A. Hardaway. Anthony "Amp" Elmore explains on the corner of Spottswood at Boston was the 1st School for African Americans in Shelby County. This history should be told whereas it is purposeful that a historical Marker is not at this location.
The Memphis City Government and the Shelby County Government has a planned strategy to ignore the fact that in 1890 the Shelby County Government built the 1st School for Blacks at that location. The evidence of a School built by the Shelby County Government proves that Orange Mound was a viable community before the White E.E. Meacham registered his plans for a "Negro Shotgun House Community." Elmore ask the Federal government to force Black Elected officials to represent Black Orange Mound via installing a historical marker at that location.
The case of Black Memphis leaders is to erase Black Memphis history and discriminate against other Blacks who stand up. Please click here to see a You Tube video posted May 29, 2024 titled: Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris "Dis" African Leader.
Black Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris discriminated against African leaders. The Black Shelby County Mayor "Ducked out" and went into hiding not be seen associating with African leaders. Whereas if a White Governor would visit Shelby County Government he would have bent over backwards to honor a White Leader. See the video Black Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris practice "Black on Black Racism."
About Us
"If Lions were historians, hunters would no longer be heroes." This powerful African proverb encapsulates the mission of the Orange Mound News Network (OMNN). Founded by Anthony Amp Elmore, OMNN aims to reclaim and reshape the narrative of Orange Mound through the power of filmmaking, education, and content creation. Our goal is to challenge the negative stereotypes and biased portrayals that have long plagued our community, creating a positive space for family, Black culture, history, and education.
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