140 years after yellow fever, surprisingly little has changed
Molly Crosby
Molly Caldwell Crosby is a bestselling author and journalist who lives in Memphis. Her book, "The American Plague," is a narrative history of the 1878 yellow fever epidemic.
It was an early spring that year too – 1878 – as Mardi Gras celebrations in Memphis ended and news of yellow fever erupted. Even though the outbreak was in another country, ship trade made everyone our neighbor. And, Memphis was a major hub, webbed by train tracks and edged by riverboats.
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