The Bluff City Chinese: a 150-Year Retrospective

In the summer of 1873, Sam Gee, an immigrant from China, advertised his laundry business on Third Street and Beale Street in the local newspaper Daily Appeal. To the best of our research, he is the first recorded Chinese-American in Memphis.

Our exhibits will feature historical photographs and documents about Chinese people first coming to the South in the 1870s, as plantation owners and industrial bosses searched for cheap labor after the formal abolition of slavery, and the growth of Chinese-owned small businesses and community organizations over time. This exhibition will run from September 29 to October 31 at the Goodwyn Gallery, to your left from the main entrance of the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library.