Hundreds of commuters drive through the community of Memphis every day, unaware they are passing historic territory.
Nestled just north of Palmetto's Lincoln Park and Lincoln Middle School off of U.S. 41, the seemingly quiet area may appear to be like any other small community. On a typical day, you'll find teenagers riding their bikes, families gathered on their porches and neighbors huddled over a chess game in an open garage.
But this community is suffering from a silent epidemic - an identity crisis of a near-forgotten past that may fade away forever.
The Old Memphis Cemetery sits north of the community as a historic testament, holding the graves of some of the first black settlers and freed slaves to come to the area - some who lived in Memphis. But area libraries offer few details on the origins of the predominantly black area. Several longtime residents, most up in age, know the community's history, yet they seem to hold onto it like a secret that's given away only when someone asks.
It isn't knowledge that's freely shared.
Why?
"They just don't bother with it," 86-year-old Charlie Shanks said sitting outside his Memphis home one recent afternoon.
But the older residents are not all to blame. Shanks, a retired truck driver and concrete layer who moved to the area in 1943, said it's hard to pass down Memphis' history to today's youth.
"They don't think about that - just what's happening today," he said.
Many residents simply refer to the area as Palmetto, even though it's outside town limits.
Palmetto surrounds Memphis' borders, outlined by Second Avenue West, 16th Avenue East, 17th Street East and 25th Street East. No one has ever given any thought to annexing the community into Palmetto, said Manatee County commissioner Gwen Brown.
Shanks is not the only person who has noticed that people don't know where the community of Memphis is - much less what it is. Brown recognizes the need to preserve Memphis' historic identity before it disappears with the older generation.
"When you have new people moving to the area, they don't have anything of the past," Brown said.
What Memphis was
History records Memphis as an 80-acre subdivision north of Palmetto that grew up during the 1880s. It was advertised as the New Town of Memphis, according to a historic General Directory of Manatee County. The area was marketed as prime prairie land suitable for orange groves, but it never materialized into a town.
Local historians believe the area's name derived from Memphis, Tenn., but they vary on details. Herald archives state the land was owned by Robert Willis, a journalist and real estate developer with roots in Tennessee. He sold the land in the early 1900s to someone who decided to divide and sell the land to blacks. Another local newspaper's archives said the economic boom of the Tennessee town during the 1880s may have inspired Florida developers.
In the early 1900s, Memphis became a popular and close-knit black settlement. The rural land was used for farms and housing for black sawmill workers, Shanks said. Workers held church in an old Palmetto shack where the congregations of St. Andrew African Methodist Episcopal Church and St. John Missionary Baptist Church were born, Shanks said.
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