Ford family’s Memphis history extends back to Reconstruction era
The Ford political dynasty has deep roots in Memphis that stretch across three centuries. (Illustration by Nick Lingerfelt/The Daily Memphian)
The saga of the city’s best-known political family began in the Reconstruction era just before the dawn of the 20th century when Newton F. Ford became a member of the Shelby County Quarterly Court.
The Quarterly Court was the predecessor to the current Shelby County Board of Commissioners.
Newton F. Ford also founded Ford’s Chapel AME Zion Church in what was then unincorporated Shelby County, according to “Nineteenth Century Memphis Families of Color: 1850-1900.”
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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