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and Isaac Hayes' restored peacock-blue 1972 Superfly Cadillac El Dorado. Beale Street is history! Beale Street is culture! Beale Street is music!! No visit to Memphis is complete without a trip to the Beale Street Entertainment District www.beale- street.comcan hear the music blaring from the establish- ments for blocks. It's blues, it's jazz, it's cool, it's hot! Take in a show at the Orpheum Theater www.orph- eum-memphis.com. Regardless of what's playing, it's sure to be entertaining. And there isn't a bad seat in the house. If you want to know more about the history of HISTORY LESSON Memphis, contact Elaine Turner or Joan Lee-Nelson with Heritage Tours. She's a walking encyclopedia filled with incredible knowledge about African- Americans in Memphis. Heritage Tours was founded by the two sisters in November 1983 as the first and onlyAfrican-American owned, historical city sightsee- ing tour agency in the state of Tennessee. Tour high- lights follow: Go to the home of W.C. Handy, who moved to Memphis in 1905. The W.C. Handy Home & Museum is where he and his family lived and where Handy, known as the Father of the Blues, wrote some of his most famous blues songs including: Mr. Crump Don't Low,Memphis Blues, St. Louis Blues and Beale Street Blues. The home had been burned out, abandoned and forgotten until Harry Godwin, a blues historian rediscovered Mr. Handy's Memphis home. Mr. Godwin spearheaded a successful campaign to save the landmark. On October 7, 1985, the home was moved from 659 Jeanette Street to the Beale Street Historic District. There is also the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum on the Burkle Estate www.-slavehavenunder- groundrailroadmuseum.org. The home of Jacob Burkle is one of the latest discov- eries of Heritage Tours. It has become one of the most intriguing and popular sites on the tour. A German immi- grant, Burkle championed the cause of assisting slaves to freedom. Hee was a wealthy livestock trader who also opened the first bakery in Memphis. But to his family and fellow conspirators, Burkle was one of the conductors on the "Underground Railroad." The old Burkle mansion is now known as Slave Haven. Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum, located just north of Downtown Memphis, served as an impor- tant link in an intricate network of safe houses along var- ious routes of the Underground Railroad. Lining the walls are historical documents and displays, which paint a vivid picture of the past and reflect the harsh realities of slavery. A walk through the home reveals trap doors and a cellar that would have been perfect hiding places for runaway slaves. The secret hideaway can be reached by entering a trap door and descending the stairs to a small- bricked cellar. That's where runaway slaves once huddled waiting for a signal that it was safe to leave on their jour- ney to the north. Drive pass Clayborn Temple AME Church, a well- known meeting place for civil rights activists in the 1960s. "We hope someone will preserve this place with history in mind," said Elaine Turner, one of the owners of Heritage Tours. The Hunt-Phelan Home, owned by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, was a haven for slaves who, while there, were taught to read and write and then helped to escape. Other tour sites include: Graceland, the Memphis Zoo, Photo Credit: Darlen Donloe Sun Studio, the Memphis Rock n Soul Museum, First Baptist Beale St. Church (built by slaves), Mount Olive CME Church, Cotton Row, antebellum homes, the slave market district, civil war history and Black business history. There is also a Music Heritage Tour that includes Beale Street, Soulsville, Stax Museum of American Soul Music, W.C. Handy Memphis Home, Memphis Rock 'N Soul Museum, Royal Studio, Sun Studio and BB King and Elvis statues. There is also a Memphis Civil Rights Tour, which includes the National Civil Rights Museum, sit-in protest locations, Dr. Martin Luther King Memorials and the route of King's last march. There is also a Memphis City Sights Tour, an Elvis Blues Suede Tour, a Memphis Nightlife Tour and a Beale Street Walking Tour. For 36 Black Meetings & Tourism July/August 2012: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com Photo Credit: Darlen Donloe toursmemphis.com. How do you like Memphis now? information: www.heritage-