The Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center in Henning.
In the 1970s, a book and television mini-series called Roots: The Saga of an American Family almost single-handedly raised the country’s awareness of genealogy and African-American heritage.
The book sold eight and a half million copies, making it one of the best selling books of all time. It was written by Alex Haley, who wrote it loosely based on the stories he heard in the 1920s when he lived with his grandparents in Henning, which is in the small community of Henning, Tennessee.
The television miniseries based on Roots was, and remains, the highest rated miniseries in television history.
Today Haley’s boyhood home is a historic site and museum in Lauderdale County.
Click here to be taken to its web site.
Fort Pillow State Historic Park
Lauderdale County is also the site of Fort Pillow State Historic Park, which preserves the site of one of the Civil War’s more controversial battles.Click here to be taken to a virtual tour of it.
Tennessee State Library and Archives photo
Lauderdale County was also the site of Ashport, a river town on the Mississippi River that once had houses, churches, stores, hotels and a steamboat landing.
Like other Mississippi River towns in Tennessee such as Fulton and Randolph, has ceased to exist over the years. Here, on the right, is a photo that was taken in Ashport in the 1920s.
On the right column you will find more information about Ashport.
And here’s a photo of the Lauderdale County Courthouse.
