Neighborhoods Archives

"Our 'wealth' was rooted in our commonwealth," says Rev. Marlon Foster, a lifelong resident of South Memphis. "And our physical and mental health was sustained in and by community. It still must be."

Commentary

Health of neighborhoods rooted in commonwealth of our neighbors

The founder of Knowledge Quest explains his lifelong quest for hope and healing at home.

Rev. Marlon FosterDecember 26, 2025

Ephie Johnson (third from left) is executive director of Neighborhood Christian Centers, co-founded by her mother, JoeAnn Ballard (seated), and late father, Monroe Ballard Sr.

Commentary

Sharing our bountiful blessings, feeding our bodies and souls

Why Neighborhood Christian Centers believes in the power of creating community through food.

Ephie JohnsonDecember 25, 2025

In Tennessee, 48 local and state agencies are partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and reaping financial benefits. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Commentary

Stop, look and see our neighbors being taken away right before our eyes

Federal agents drag men from their apartments or their cars, pull over women who look Hispanic, break in doors or windows, surround a home...

Joni LaneyDecember 16, 2025

Business

Blaze delays but doesn’t deter residents’ efforts to raise the Heights

It took developers several years to reclaim and renovate the colorful row of century-old storefronts that hug the south side of Summer Avenue at...

Rose RagsdaleMarch 10, 2025

Kelis Rowe (left) and her sister, Adriane Johnson-Williams, grew up in Whitehaven, walking distance from the Levi Public Library. When they weren't in school or at church, they were in the library reading and dreaming. Recently, they both became published authors. "Librarians are demigods, my sister and I both agree on that," Adriane says. (Karen Pulfer Focht)

Hope in Memphis

A Sister Story: How two siblings from Whitehaven both became authors

When Kelis Rowe and Adriane Johnson-Williams weren't at school or in church, they were at the Levi Public Library.

David WatersOctober 7, 2024

Government Spending

Coalition aims to break cycle of poverty with sweeping $1.4 billion ‘More for Memphis’ initiative

What would it take to break the multi-generational cycle of poverty in Memphis? To reverse decades of race- and class-based discrimination and exploitation, disinvestment...

David WatersFebruary 21, 2024

Paul Young, the child of two ministers, took the oath of office as Mayor of Memphis in January 2024.

Faith

Meet Paul Young: How a preachers’ kid became the new mayor of Memphis

On New Year’s Day 1992, a Memphis minister brought his two young sons to the brand-new Pyramid on the Mississippi River. The shimmering Downtown...

David WatersJanuary 3, 2024

Rev. Cheryl Cornish at First Congregational Church in Cooper-Young. (By Karen Pulfer Focht)

Faith

Memphis congregation embraced Cornish’s “theology of hospitality”

Shortly before she retired in October as senior pastor of First Congregational Church, Rev. Cheryl Cornish preached a sermon on the miracle of “the...

David WatersDecember 6, 2023