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. 

This year marks the 150-year anniversary of Chinese-Americans living in Memphis, and we would like to share more of our history with the greater community about Chinese-Americans' role in Southern history and American history in general. Exhibits will feature historical photographs and documents about Chinese people first coming to the South in the 1870s, as plantation owners and industrial bosses first searched for cheap labor after the formal abolition of slavery, and the growth of Chinese-owned small businesses and community organizations over time.

This exhibit will be at the Goodwyn Gallery, to your left from the main entrance of the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library.