Memphis's flag divides its field in three: a white panel along the hoist, a red area above, a blue one below. At its center, a yellow rounded shield reading MEMPHIS, SHELBY COUNTY, TENNESSEE, with a steamboat on the Mississippi.
The Mississippi is not decorative for Memphis. It is everything. Memphis exists because of the river. Founded in 1819 on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, Memphis became the largest cotton market in the world in the 19th century. Steamboats came down the river loaded with bales of cotton.
Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's historic Black district, is the birthplace of the blues. W.C. Handy, B.B. King, Muddy Waters played here. Sun Studio recorded Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, creating rock and roll.
Elvis dominates Memphis like a ghostly presence. Graceland, his mansion turned museum, draws 600,000 visitors a year. It is the second most visited private home in America after the White House. Elvis died here in 1977, but he never really left.
Memphis is also the world capital of barbecue (Memphis style: dry ribs with a spice rub) and the home of FedEx, which employs 30,000 people locally. The flag and its steamboat are a reminder that it all begins with the river.