History Tours

Heritage Tours Memphis (901/527-3427, www.heritagetoursmemphis.com [1], $25–35) is the city’s only tour company dedicated to presenting Memphis’s [2] African-American history. Operated by Memphians Elaine Turner and Joan Nelson, Heritage Tours offers black heritage, musical heritage, civil rights, and Beale Street [3] walking tours. They can also arrange out-of-town tours to area attractions, such as the Alex Haley home in Henning, Tennessee. Most local tours cost $25 and last about three hours.

The black heritage tour starts at the W. C. Handy Home and Museum [4] and includes a stop at the Slavehaven Underground Railroad Museum [5], plus narration that tells the story of black Memphians such as Ida B. Wells, Robert Church, and Tom Lee, and the events leading up to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

You will drive past the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ at 930 Mason Street, where Dr. King gave his famous “mountaintop” speech the night before his death.