Posts in History
MONA LISA LANIER: Loving Where You Live Through Dance

“I just need a space to dance,” Mona Lisa Lanier said to me as she flicked on the lights of a former elementary school turned community recreation center. The room, once a classroom, is now a dance studio with mirrors and photos of dancers in brightly colored costumes lining the wall. 

Lanier proudly pointed out her students and how much they’ve grown since these photos were taken. 

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A Father's Legacy: Clark Shaw & Old Country Store

Legacy seems to be a common thing we seek to define after someone has passed away. We look to be inspired on how to improve ourselves, our families, and our communities. We try to sift through a life and determine what traits, stories, and accomplishments made this person special, successful, and significant. Certainly, a handful of people achieve so much notoriety that we go through this process while they are alive, leading to the next bestselling how-to book or biography. But all too often we are left searching for the words to say, the deeds to remember, after that person is gone.

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A West High, South Side Story

It didn’t make sense to the kids in the room.

Consolidating Jackson City Schools and Madison County Schools had been a conversation in the Hub City since at least 1970, but social media and the 24-hour news cycle didn’t exist in the spring of 1992. That’s when Casshawndra Gillispie, a sophomore at the time, sat with other athletes in the West High School cafeteria and learned the school would be closing in just a few months. She and her classmates would have to continue their education and athletic careers at South Side High School.

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Developed Downtown: Mitch Carter and the Moore Studio Heritage

If you've spent any time in downtown Jackson, or had a drink at The Downtown Tavern, you’re probably familiar with Moore Studio — and more importantly, Mr. Carter. I first met Mitch Carter when I had just moved to West Tennessee. I was young and impressionable and Mr. Carter most definitely made an impression on me. He could charm the venom out of a copperhead, entice the stoic to giggle and cut up, and make the most trepidatious about having photos done feel presidential when he was finished making their portrait.

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