Orange Mound Negroes in Memphis are celebrating 135 years of ignorance oppression White Supremacy, Racism Black on Black Racism & the honoring of The Sons of Confederate Veterans Historian Barron Deaderick who put Negroes back on a Memphis Plantation
MEMPHIS, TN, August 13, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ — There is saying: “If you argue with a fool, people may not be able to tell who is who.” There is also a saying: from Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
This 30 minute Video tells the true story regarding the founding of the African American Community of Orange Mound in Memphis. A White Real Estate Salesman named the “Founder of Orange Mound with no proof that the shotgun house community he is credited for building was ever built. All that exists is only White Supremacy, Racism and Black on Black Racism that explains how a White man is unjustly given credit for founding the Black Memphis Community of Orange Mound.
Anthony “Amp” Elmore is a Memphis born 5-time world Kickboxing champion, Memphis 1st Independent 35mm Theatrical Filmmaker, Community activist challenges the notion that White Real Estate Salesman E.E. Meacham is the founder of the Black Memphis community of Orange Mound.
Anthony “Amp” Elmore Sr. notes that he has the absolute strongest credentials in Memphis history to challenge the E.E. Meacham white racist false narrative that E.E. Meacham A founded the Black Memphis community of Orange Mound.
Anthony “Amp” Elmore is the 1st person in Memphis history to chronicle; “Black Memphis history.” Anthony “Amp” Elmore Sr. to create the 1st “Black Memphis History” website. Click here to visit the website titled: Black Memphis History . Com
Anthony “Amp” Elmore has lived in Orange Mound at the date of this News Story for 53 years. In regards to Orange Mound Anthony “Amp” Elmore is the most noted Memphis residence living in Orange Mound. Anthony “Amp” Elmore Sr. purchased his 1st house and opened a Carpet business in Orange Mound in 1972. Elmore also opened a Karate School in Orange Mound and Elmore opened “Elmore African Imports” whereas at the corner of Southern Semmes Elmore owned multiple businesses.
In fact Anthony “Amp” Elmore African Imports designed an Tuxedo for President Obama whereas this Orange Mound inspired African Tuxedo will be place in the Barack Obama Presidential Library
Click here to see video and a thank you letter President Obama sent to Anthony “Amp” Elmore
In 1981 Anthony “Amp” Elmore was the 1st in Memphis history to bring E.S.P.N. to Memphis. In addition, Elmore was the 1st in Memphis history produced shows for Black Entertainment Television. In 1988 Anthony “Amp” Elmore Sr. was the 1st in Memphis history to produce an “Independent 35mm Theatrical Film titled (The Contemporary Gladiator.)
Orange Mound is rightfully not only “The Birthplace of 35mm Theatrical Filmmaking in Memphis” Anthony “Amp” Elmore Sr. 1988 film is not only Memphis 1st Independent 35mm Theatrical film Anthony “Amp” Elmore’s 1988 film “The Contemporary Gladiator” is “The 1st Kickboxing film in World Film history.
in 2006 Anthony “Amp” Elmore Sr. created in Orange Mound “The 1st All African Styled Home in America” whereas Anthony “Amp” Elmore converted his over 5000 square Foot home in Orange Mound to the 1st Museum and educational center in Memphis. While the home is no longer a museum.
Anthony “Amp” Elmore has brought African dignitaries to his Orange Mound home whereas Orange Mound is known as “The Birthplace of African Cultural Diplomacy.” just google it.
In addition Anthony “Amp” Elmore has written more regarding Orange Mound than anyone in the History of Orange Mound. Click here and view Anthony “Amp” Elmore recently created “The Orange Mound News Network.”
Anthony “Amp” Elmore Sr. has created more than 1000 You Tube Videos and one who had jogged through Orange Mound for decades. Anthony “Amp” Elmore challenge anyone to just do an online search of the words: “Anthony “Amp” Elmore and Orange Mound” and what will come up is that Anthony “Amp” Elmore has written more about Orange Mound than anyone in Orange Mound’s 146 year history.
This year 2025 in Memphis, Tennessee, brings with it a profound and heart-wrenching tragedy. The air in the community of Orange Mound is electric with preparation, filled with a sense of pride and anticipation for what many believe is their 135th anniversary. Yet, beneath this surface of celebration lies a foundation of sand—a meticulously constructed lie that has stood for over a century, suffocating the truth and robbing the Memphis community of its genuine heroes. The founders of the Orange Mound 135th celebration made sure not to include Anthony “Amp” Elmore Sr. Anthony “Amp” Elmore rejects “White Supremacy of the Celebration.”
The word “incredulous” fails to capture the full scope of this historical injustice. In this proud, historic neighborhood, common sense is not common, as generations of African Americans have been led to celebrate a historical narrative that is, in reality, a monument to their own oppression. Anthony “Amp” Elmore challenges this fraud of the 135 year celebration.
This is a story of ignorance, White Supremacy, Racism, and Black on Black Racism, where an entire community has been conditioned to honor a fraudulent “Negro Plan” credited in 1890 by a white developer, E.E. Meacham. The White developer planned the worst community scheme to defraud African Americans in American history, a stunning act of cynical exploitation that remains a stain on the city of Memphis past.
The White Rea Estate Salesman E.E. Meacham’s plan was not a blueprint for a home; it was a schematic for a human warehouse. It was the antithesis of a planned community, a shocking urban atrocity that has no equal in American history. E.E. Meacham’s vision was to cram 981 “shotgun houses,” each a claustrophobic 25 by 100 feet, onto a mere 64 acres of land. This was not a space for families to grow and thrive; it was a design for a human storage facility, a dense, suffocating grid that chillingly mirrored the horrors of the Middle Passage, where Black bodies were packed together for the convenience of white commerce.
But the inhumanity of the plan went far beyond density. Meacham’s plat maps, a document of his chilling disregard for human life, were devoid of a single provision for basic infrastructure—the lifeblood of any modern community. There were no planned roads, no sewage lines, and no mention of a reliable source of clean water. For a community of nearly 1,000 homes, this would have necessitated 981 outhouses on a mere 64 acres, creating a public health nightmare of biblical proportions.
The stench would have been a constant, suffocating cloud, a daily reminder of the squalor. Imagine the logistics: how could residents manage trash collection, daily life, and basic hygiene in such a dense, unmanaged space? The plan was a non-starter, a testament to how little Meacham cared for the lives of the people he intended to exploit.
It was a ghetto on paper, a place designed not to succeed, but to fail. The fact that a community was built at all is a tribute not to Meacham, but to the extraordinary resilience of the people who refused to be contained by his cynical vision.
This insidious myth, a historical fabrication built on a house of cards, has been painstakingly propped up by a chorus of influential figures and institutions. The 2013 PBS documentary, “A Community Called Orange Mound,” became a powerful tool of this historical deceit. Its producer, Jay Killingsworth, wielding his authority with a casual disregard for truth, anointed E.E. Meacham as the community’s founder.
With no actual photos of Meacham’s purported community, the film deceptively inserted generic “stock photos” of shotgun houses, creating a powerful visual lie that gave the myth a tangible, believable face. This was not a mistake; it was an act of White Supremacy, a conscious effort to frame the Black Orange Mound community’s history through the lens of a white man’s fraudulent plan.
This deception was then given a spurious academic stamp of approval by African/American anthropologist Dr. Charles Williams in his book, “African American Life and Culture in Orange Mound”. Relying on conjecture without a single shred of concrete evidence, Dr. Charles Williams gave credibility to the E.E. Meacham myth. Dr. Charles Williams used and he continue a profound betrayal of historical scholarship via his naming E.E. Meacham the founder of the Black Community of Orange Mound.
Its axiomatic and common sense whereas anyone can view the 1890 E.E. Meacham’s plans of he packing 981 plots of land on 64 acres would have been a tragedy. There is not a community ever planned in American history where you would pack 981 houses on 25 x 100 plots of land.
What is even more tragic; E.E. Meacham created a “For Negroes only Shotgun house Community.” In the history of America there has never been a “Shotgun House Community.” Such a creation would be for “Negroes Only.”
Even more egregiously, “The Commercial Appeal newspaper amplified this lie with a full-page story featuring the Jay Killingsworth fictional shotgun houses.”
The Tennessee Historical Commission, a body entrusted with preserving historical truth, erected a racist historical marker. This historic marker in Orange Mound is based on a fabricated tale from White Supremacist Barron Deaderick, a historian for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, falsely claimed the name “Orange Mound” came from Osage orange trees on his grandfather’s plantation. Barron Deaderick’s plan was a vile attempt to tie Black history and the Black Community of Orange Mound to a slave-owning past.
The true history, of Orange Mound the one that has been deliberately silenced and buried, is a powerful and glorious story of Black agency and triumphant resilience. The real founding of Orange Mound began not in 1890, but in the harrowing aftermath of the yellow fever epidemic of 1878. As 25,000 white residents fled the city in terror, it was the Black population—14,000 strong—who stayed behind to nurse the sick and rebuild the city. They were the true saviors of Memphis, and they laid the foundation for the community that would become Orange Mound.
The genesis of the neighborhood of Orange Mound came in 1879, with the establishment of two churches: Mt. Moriah Baptist Church and Mt. Pisgah CME Church. The fact that Mt. Moriah had already purchased land for its location at 2634 Carnes Avenue is an indisputable piece of evidence—a marker of a stable, organized, and self-sufficient community decades before Meacham’s 1890 shotgun house scheme.
Even more damning to the false narrative is the fact that in 1890, the very year Meacham registered his failed plan, the Shelby County Government built the first school for African Americans in the area. Governments do not build schools in empty fields; they build them for established communities with families and homeowners. Clearly in the area near MT Moriah Baptist Church was an area of Black Home owners near their Church and School.
It is at the corner of Spottswood and Boston directly behind MT Moriah Baptist on Spottswood where the 1st school for Blacks was built in Shelby County in Orange Mound, whereas the absence of a historical marker where the school once stood is a testament of the neglect of African American elected officials to acknowledge that a vibrant community existed before E.E. Meacham plan for Black residents.
Before E.E. Meacham Blacks had already built the Black Community of Orange Mound for themselves. This Black community was already built had no need for E.E. Meacham’s plan to sell lots for Shotgun homes and ignored it entirely. Blacks had built homes and a community before the White E.E. Meacham had plans to sell only lots for “Shotgun Homes.”
The authentic Orange Mound Community was a triumph of dignity and economic empowerment, a shining contrast to Meacham’s squalid vision. The real and untold story of Orange Mound is found in the 1911 advertisements for “Montgomery Park Place,” a subdivision for “Colored People” that was a true model of upscale Black urban planning. These ads, like the ones from The Commercial Appeal pictured provided image, proudly touted a community with large lots, sidewalks, trees, and, most importantly, financing from the Black on Commerce bank. Clearly Orange Mound while not called Orange Mound but called “Montgomery Park Place” would be the 1st Black Community in America with White bank financing.
In regards to E.E. Meacham his was a plan for a Ghetto, Whereas Montgomery Park Place was advertisements for a Black thriving prosperous community. The Orange Mound that exists today—with its spacious lots, its mature trees, and its strong sense of community pride—is the physical legacy of Montgomery Park Place, not the shotgun house ghetto that never was. The name “Orange Mound” itself was a name the Black community gave itself, a symbol of their independence, which E.E. Meacham simply co-opted.
To continue celebrating the 1890 founding is not just a historical error; it is an act of Black on Black racism, a devastating self-inflicted wound that honors a racist plan while erasing the courageous men and women who, against all odds, built their own community. The time has come to tear down these false monuments and to finally honor the true founders of Orange Mound, whose resilience and vision created a legacy of power, prosperity, and pride.
The most tragic dimension of this historical fraud is that it has been perpetuated by both white and Black individuals. When Dr. Charles Williams, an African American anthropologist, used his platform to validate the Meacham myth, he inadvertently became an instrument of the very system he was supposed to critique. His academic imprimatur gave the lie a weight it never deserved, misleading generations of students and historians. Similarly, Jay Killingsworth’s choice to use Wendell Payton, a Black man, as the narrator for his documentary was a masterful piece of racist manipulation. It created a powerful illusion of authenticity, making the audience believe this was a Black-led historical account, when in fact, it was a white man’s version of history being told through a Black voice.
This is the very definition of Black on Black racism—the unwitting or conscious participation in the erasure of one’s own people’s true history. The false narrative has been so deeply ingrained that challenging it is often met with resistance from those who have been taught to believe it, creating a painful division within the community itself.
Click here to see a Memphis News story Dated August 8, 2025 on WMC Memphis, Tennessee where you will see Lilli Jackson chair of the 135 Orange Mound Anniversary Celebration. Her 1890 date came from the Racist White Narrative of E.E. Meacham starting Orange Mound. The White E.E. Meacham did not start Orange Mound however they are purporting a Racist White narrative. Anthony “Amp” Elmore challenges this false White Supremacist Narrative.
What is unknown and untold about Orange Mound is the 1911 “The Montgomery Park Place development.” Also in 1885 the jobs created by the Montgomery Park racetrack are the true unsung heroes of Orange Mound’s economic development. The racetrack, a major source of employment, provided a stable economic foundation for the community, allowing Black families to achieve a level of prosperity and homeownership that was nearly impossible elsewhere in Jim Crow Memphis.
The Community of Orange Mound was not a community built on poverty and desperation, but one built on a strong, self-sufficient economic base. The advertisements for Montgomery Park Place were not just selling land; they were selling a vision of dignity and respect. The inclusion of sidewalks, a seemingly small detail, was a powerful symbol of a modern, well-planned community, a stark contrast to Meacham’s visionless wasteland.
The presence of large lots and trees further underscores this point, showing a commitment to a high quality of life that was unheard of for Black people at the time. This was a direct, living refutation of the racist stereotypes that defined Black communities as inherently poor and unorganized. Montgomery Park Place was proof that when given the opportunity, Black people would build beautiful, thriving, and prosperous communities.
This story, however, is not just about the past; it is about the present and the future. The continued celebration of the Meacham myth means that the true founders—the brave men and women who stayed in Memphis after the plague, who built their churches, and who laid the groundwork for their own community—are denied the recognition they so rightfully deserve.
It means that the next generation of Orange Mound residents will continue to be taught a lie, a lie that diminishes their heritage and their capacity for self-determination. The time has come for a new narrative, one that reclaims the truth and honors the real story of Orange Mound. It is a story of resistance, not submission. It is a story of Black power, not of a “Negro Plan.” E.E. Meacham created a plan for Negroes and only Negroes.
Anthony “Amp” Elmore notes “The false historical marker needs to be removed, the history books need to be rewritten, and the community needs to have an honest conversation about what it means to celebrate a history that was not their own.” The anniversary in 2025 should not be a celebration of ignorance; it should be a powerful moment of truth and a new beginning, a celebration of the real founders and the real legacy of Orange Mound. The two Black Churches MT. Moriah and MT. Pisgah should be honored and not a White Real Estate Salesman.
Most importantly the false narratives perpetuated by 89 year old Orange Mound Honorary Historian Ms. Mary E. Mitchell whose narrative of the White Supremacist Barron Deaderick who falsely wrote that the name Orange Mound comes from an Osage Orange Tree of the Deaderick Plantation. Ms. Mitchell as an honorary historian unjustly connects Orange Mound to the John George Deaderick plantation.
Ultimately, the story of Orange Mound is a microcosm of the larger struggle for historical accuracy and racial justice in America. It’s a battle over who gets to tell the story and whose history gets to be remembered. For too long, the story of Orange Mound has been told by those with a vested interest in obscuring the truth. But now, thanks to historians like Anthony “Amp” Elmore, the truth is finally coming to light. Elmore’s simple challenge—to look at the E.E. Meacham plan and see its fatal flaws—is a powerful tool for a community to reclaim its own history.
The evidence is there, hiding in plain sight: the churches, the school, the 1911 ads, and the very physical layout of the community itself. It is a story of stolen history, of a deliberate attempt to erase Black agency and replace it with a narrative of white paternalism. The fight to reclaim Orange Mound’s history is a fight for the soul of the community, a fight to ensure that the real heroes of its past are finally given their due, and that their legacy of resilience and self-determination is celebrated for generations to come. The celebration in 2025 can either be an empty tribute to a lie, or it can be a revolutionary act of truth, honoring the true founders of Orange Mound. The choice is with the community.
On August 8, 2025 Anthony “Amp” Elmore filed an amendment to his Federal Lawsuit titled: Elmore v. City of Memphis, Tennessee. Anthony “Amp” Elmore is fighting Memphis White Supremacy, Racism and Black on Black Racism. Anthony “Amp” Elmore added African/American elected officials who represent Orange Mound to his Federal Lawsuit.
Elmore added Tennessee State Senator London Lamar, Shelby County Commissioner Britney Thornton, Memphis City Councilwoman Jana Swearengen to the lawsuit whereas they represent Orange Mound and continue to allow the “Racist Historical Marker” in Orange Mound. Equally important is the fact that there does not exist a Historical Marker at the corner of Spottswood and Boston to acknowledge the 1st school for African/American built in Shelby County a fact that proves that Orange Mound predates the White Real Estate Salesman E.E. Meacham.
The amendment to the lawsuit forces Dr. Charles Williams, Mary E. Mitchell and the Orange Mound Arts Council to cease and desist the White Racist narratives of E.E. Meacham founding Orange Mound and we are asking the court t enjoin they for continuing to spread the false racist narrative that the name Orange Mound comes for an Osage Hedge Grove trees on the John George Deaderick Plantation.
Our Journey and Mission
Orange Mound, established as the first community in America built for Blacks by Blacks, has a rich history often overshadowed by negative stereotypes. Mainstream media and societal biases have painted Orange Mound as a “ghetto,” contributing to a 30% decline in property values while surrounding communities have prospered. The Orange Mound News Network was created to
counter this narrative and highlight the true spirit and resilience of our community.
Anthony Amp Elmore, a five-time world karate kickboxing champion, filmmaker, and community activist, has been a beacon of change in Orange Mound. With over five decades of community service, Elmore has dedicated his life to uplifting Orange Mound. From becoming a homeowner at 19, establishing businesses, to founding the Proud Black Buddhist World Education Association, Elmore’s contributions have been immense
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