I took my 98- and 94-year-old parents to Disney. It was a magical trip, but not for the reasons you'd expect. 

The presidential campaign of 1968 was a last hurrah for the “Old Politics,” in which political machines and party leaders determined the major nominees. It also highlighted a “New Politics,” in which candidates took their cases to the people, through party primaries and modern technology.

'I volunteer and run for those who want to but say they can't, and for those who can't but wish they could.'

Consider the difference between a planned community such as Seaside, Florida, and an overdone Disney sequel. We can simply look to our neighbors in Nashville to see what an overdone sequel looks like in an urban environment.

When her husband was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, a woman who started her own business dropped everything to care for him and their three young daughters. Ten years later, the entrepreneurial spirit returned.

The horrors of the battle fought at Shiloh April 6-7, 1862, made it clear that the weaponry of war had far outstripped the Napoleonic-era tactics taught at West Point. 

When asked about Memphis, 55 percent nationally have a favorable opinion, up seven points since 2017. Among multicultural millennials, that favorability exceeds the national audience by 10 percentage points, up five since 2017.

As the story goes, FBI agents hired provocateurs to smash store windows and start a riot designed to embarrass King. A recent account includes civil rights photographer Ernest Withers in the plot, but there's no credible proof for the theories. 

In this week's Memphis 10: Johnny Football says farewell, Memphis comedy gets a showcase, and the city's future is as contested as ever.

The Rev. James Lawson, who invited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis 51 years ago, will speak at Memphis Cares 2 on April 7 at Crump Stadium. The event recalls the first Memphis Cares, held three days after King's assassination.

Every three months or so, 50 people who comprise the MSCC board of directors file into a room for their quarterly meeting. They include law enforcement and criminal justice leaders as well as people from business, faith, nonprofit and grassroots sectors.

Playback Memphis was life-giving to this band of 14, who were “voluntold” to participate in what most would deem a crazy idea – bringing police officers together with those who had spent their lives running from them.

In Memphis, new immigrants make up just over 5 percent of the metro population, but account for 9 percent of the area's business owners.

With this entry, McKenzie Leaks was named an ambassador in the national Do the Write Thing Challenge, an anti-violence essay contest. Her essay was one of two chosen from 2,000 submitted by students from 16 schools in the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office Every Day in School program.

Jared Rawlings' essay was one of two chosen from 2,000 submitted by students from 16 schools in the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office Every Day in School program. He was named an ambassador in the national Do the Write Thing Challenge, an anti-violence essay contest.

Bill Russell and Bob Cousy saw each other as brothers, not just athletes. Their relationship reflects a standard our society has yet to attain.

For decades now we’ve treated Tom Lee Park – 30 precious acres linking the heart of Downtown to the Mississippi River – as a kind of Liberty Bowl West: a venue to be fully used a few days each May, a de facto fairgrounds.

In a 1973 interview with Ebony magazine, Memphis sanitation worker John C. White said Dr. Martin Luther King's sacrifice stayed with him: “I've had a better life.”

'I can predict that when the Memphis River Parks Partnership’s work on Tom Lee Park is complete, few will look back and long for the flat field that we experience today.'

The history-altering transfer of public property to an upstart nonprofit transformed Van Turner from mild-mannered lawyer and county commissioner to gutsy leader, willing to take the heat for removing Confederate symbols of slavery and racism.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said it's his job to look at an issue affected by county government, look at how many people it touches, look at the cost both societal and fiscal, and look at where he can be most effective.

A bland marker erected near the midpoint of an almost century-long celebration of Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis now has a new companion marker. It describes the grotesque nature of Forrest's "business enterprise." 

Discriminatory laws will only set the tone for continued discrimination – up to and including targeted violence. These proposed laws are a distraction from Tennessee priorities like good schools, healthy environments and safe communities.

Motivated by the fact that the majority of Tennessee’s third-grade students can’t read or do math on grade level, a bipartisan group of legislators has committed to exploring policy improvements for students prior to third grade.

'I’m pretty certain it was that Memphis grit and grind that I wasn’t always so comfortable with that helped me earn a license as a locomotive conductor at nearly 40 years old.'