J. Wyeth Chandler (February 21, 1930 – November 11, 2004) served as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

from 1972 to 1982. He was the adopted son of former Memphis mayor and

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Walter Chandler Walter "Clift" Chandler (October 5, 1887 – October 1, 1967) was an American politician from Tennessee and a United States House of Representatives, Representative for the ninth district of Tennessee. He served as mayor of Memphis, Tennessee f ...

. Chandler succeeded the controversial

Henry Loeb Henry Loeb III (December 9, 1920 – September 8, 1992) was an American politician of the Democratic Party, who was mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, for two separate terms in the 1960s, from 1960 through 1963, and 1968 through 1971. He gained ...

, who battled local sanitation workers during a strike that brought

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

to Memphis in April 1968. This violence-ridden episode in the city's history resulted in King's death by assassin

James Earl Ray James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive who was convicted of the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After the assassination, Ray fled to London and ...

on April 4. Chandler spent much of his tenure dealing with the economic and social fallout from the strike and the killing, as the incidents gave the city a bad name among business and charitable interests for some years. Chandler was mayor at the time of

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

's death in 1977, and during the police and firemen's strike the following year. Some Memphians criticized his administration as too "status quo", but he was undeniably popular, winning three consecutive elections. After resigning from office in October 1982 to accept a judgeship appointment from the

Governor of Tennessee The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the commander-in-chief of the U.S. state, state's Tennessee Military Department, military forces. The governor is the only official in the Government of Tenne ...

Lamar Alexander Andrew Lamar Alexander Jr. (born July 3, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who served as a United States senator from Tennessee from 2003 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he also was the 45th governor of Tennessee from 1 ...

, Chandler was succeeded by two interim mayors: first by J.O. Patterson, Jr. (the first-ever

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

to serve in the office), then by Wallace Madewell. The next regularly elected mayor was

Richard Hackett Richard Cecil "Dick" Hackett (born July 21, 1949) served as the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee from 1982 to 1991. Prior to that he was the Shelby County (Tennessee) Clerk from 1978 to 1982. When he took office as mayor, he was 33 years old and w ...

, who served from 1983 to 1991.

References

External links

''Memphis Flyer'' eulogy
* * Mayors of Memphis, Tennessee 1930 births 2004 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in Tennessee {{Tennessee-mayor-stub