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 based on the stories he heard in the 1920s when he lived with his grandparents in the Lauderdale County town of Henning.
The Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center in Henning.
The television miniseries based on Roots remains the highest rated miniseries in television history.
Today Haley’s boyhood home is a historic site and museum. Click here to be taken to its web site.
Members of the First Indian Baptist Church (Golddust) in 1962 (Cubert Bell photo)
Lauderdale County is also home to a small Choctaw Indian reservation.
The story of West Tennessee’s Choctaw community is a fascinating one that involves the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, an abandoned town called Golddust, and a Shelby County prehistoric mound complex called Chucalissa. Click here to read it.
Fort Pillow State Historic Park
Several miles west of the Choctaw Reservation, you will find Fort Pillow State Historic Park, which preserves the site of one of the Civil War’s more controversial battles.
Click here to take a virtual tour of Fort Pillow.
Tennessee State Library and Archives photo
Finally, 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.
