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Last Updated June 22, 2005
Memphis, the largest city in Tennessee though its metropolitan area is second to Nashville, is in the state's far southwestern corner, 500 miles from the Appalachian border with Virginia but only 20 miles from Mississippi's cotton fields and riverboat casinos. Metropolitan Memphis has one of the highest percentages of blacks in the country--evidence of the city's economic heritage as a capital of the Cotton Kingdom. Big Mississippi planters used to come north to sell their crop in the courtyard of the Peabody Hotel where the ducks march each day, then make financial arrangements for the next growing season. Such facts have shaped the city's most celebrated tradition, the blues--a musical form worlds apart from Nashville's country music, which emerged from mountainous, mainly white Middle and East Tennessee. The Memphis sound originated from the self-taught musical stylings of poor, rural blacks in the Mississippi Delta. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the most talented black musicians migrated north to Memphis and congregated downtown on Beale Street. The blues sound was later adapted by Elvis Presley, a poor white from rural Mississippi, in pivotal sessions in July 1954 at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis--the birth of rock 'n' roll, and the beginnings of an Elvis cult that long outlived the man. In the early 1960s Memphis once again became the crucible of a new sound, soul music, which emerged as a counterpoint to rock, its increasingly white-dominated cousin. For some years Memphis tried to live down this musical heritage; much of Beale Street was razed and set on a misguided path toward urban renewal. But the city has come to recognize its history as an asset. Graceland, Presley's garishly decorated mansion, attracts hordes of musical pilgrims from all over the world, and a Museum of American Soul Music opened in 2003 on the site of the Stax studio, demolished in 1989, where Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers and Sam & Dave once made their records. Music is not the city's only asset. Geographically central, Memphis is the home of the first supermarket chain (the Piggly Wiggly, founded in 1916; its symbol, Mr. Pig, has slimmed down) and the first Holiday Inn. Home of the world's busiest cargo airport, Memphis calls itself "America's distribution center": by far its biggest employer, and still growing, is FedEx, which ships its domestic packages in and out of Memphis Airport every night. For some years racial discord has scarred the political life of Memphis. It is the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968; the site of the murder, the Lorraine Motel, was converted into a civil rights museum. Even today, resurgent Beale Street is one of the few racially integrated spaces in the city, a division that holds equally true in voting. Blacks vote almost unanimously Democratic; whites vote Republican by margins almost as great. Blacks now outnumber whites in Shelby County; many have moved into the middle class, although Memphis continues to have the highest poverty rate in Tennessee. The 9th Congressional District of Tennessee consists of most of the city of Memphis, some of its suburban fringe and about 30 precincts in east Shelby County. Redistricting in 2002 reduced the black percentage from 66% to 60%, but the 9th remains the strongest Democratic district in the state. In 2004, Bush bettered his 2000 performance in every Tennessee district except this one, where he ran much worse. The congressman from the 9th District is Harold Ford Jr., a Democrat first elected in 1996 at age 26; his father, Harold Ford Sr., had been elected in 1974 at 29 and served for 22 years. Harold Ford Jr. grew up in Memphis until 1979, when the family moved to Washington. He graduated from St. Albans School, a classmate of Jesse Jackson's son Yusef and a friend of John Kerry's step-sons, and from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He worked on the Clinton transition team and at the Economic Development Administration (and thus technically worked for Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, whom he has praised as a "profound influence"). Months before his election, he graduated from University of Michigan law school. The Fords are a large family--Harold Ford Sr. has 11 siblings and Harold Ford Jr. has 75 first cousins--from a humble background. Ford Sr. grew up in a house with no plumbing, but the family built a successful funeral home business. There's been a Ford on the Memphis Council since 1971; other Fords have served on the county commission and in the state Senate. Ford Sr. became a lobbyist after retiring from Congress in favor of his son, who had cut an ad for him at age 4, calling for "lower cookie prices." Ford won the primary 60%-34%. In the general, "Jr."--as his campaign buttons read--won 61%-37%, slightly better than the 58% his father had won during his last three elections. In the House, Harold Ford Jr. has been notably more moderate on issues than his father and most members of the Black Caucus, although he has the most liberal voting record in the Tennessee delegation. He talks regularly with his father, but they often disagree on issues. A member of the New Democrat Coalition, he voted against needle exchanges, for prayer in school and anti-flag burning constitutional amendments, for the balanced budget amendment, the capital gains tax cut, repeal of the estate tax, normal trade relations with China, aid to tobacco farmers, and the use of force in Iraq. He has backed the concept of private accounts in Social Security, and has sided with conservatives on national education testing and trade promotion authority, but he has taken liberal stands on affirmative action and against cutting tax rates. He worked with Majority Whip Roy Blunt to gain overwhelming passage in the House of a bill to expand charitable contributions to faith-based institutions; Senate Democrats stymied enactment in 2004. With bipartisan support, he has proposed creation of KIDS savings accounts to give every American a $500 savings account, at birth. After the 2002 election, Ford shook up the Democratic Caucus for a few days when he quixotically challenged Nancy Pelosi for minority leader. Pledging a "clean break" in the party's strategy, he made a flood of media appearances in the six days before the caucus vote. He said Pelosi was too far to the left. On November 14, Pelosi won 177-29. At Newt Gingrich's suggestion, he was tapped for a Pentagon advisory group on force transformation. At home in Memphis, Ford's appeal has crossed racial lines. He was reelected with 82% in 2004, against his first Republican opponent since 1998. In the summer of 1999 he crisscrossed Tennessee testing the ground for a run against Senator Bill Frist. He promised he would decide whether to run by Labor Day, but the deadline passed and, while campaigning less, he did not announce he was not running until February 2000; some Democrats groused that he had left the party without a serious candidate. In March 2002, when Senator Fred Thompson announced that he would not run for reelection, Ford resumed his exploratory tour. In Knoxville he told National Rifle Association members that the debate over guns had become too polarized and that he would join their organization. When it became clear that most of the party establishment was backing Congressman Bob Clement, Ford said he would not run. Frist has consistently said he will not run for reelection in 2006, and in May 2005 Ford said he would run for the open Senate seat. Though Tennessee has been trending Republican, his moderate record and his appeal across racial boundaries could make him a strong candidate. Running as a Democrat in Tennessee is more of a challenge than is the issue of race, he has said. But there is another obstacle, what former Senator Jim Sasser called the "uncle problem." Ford's uncle, state Senator John Ford, has attracted a considerable amount of unflattering publicity over the years for a wide range of personal and ethical troubles; in May, the day after Harold Ford filed paperwork to run for the Senate, his uncle was indicted on federal corruption charges. His temporary setbacks have not quelled Ford's ambitions, or clouded his prospects for higher office. He was the keynote speaker at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. In 2001, People magazine listed him among the "50 most beautiful people in the world." If he is elected to the Senate he could easily become a prominent national figure and in the years ahead, he could be a plausible national candidate.
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