This month marks the conclusion of Memphis magazine’s fortieth anniversary year, which we’ve celebrated every month by re-publishing articles from our four-decade archive. You will note, however, that there is no such feature in this December issue. That’s because this year’s “Memphian of the Year” honoree is something of a human archive himself, an attorney whose quiet work over five decades on behalf of enhancing and improving our urban environment has made him one of this city’s greatest unsung heroes.
Even before this magazine published its first-ever issue in April 1976, Charlie Newman had already won a famous legal victory that would affect forever the future development of Memphis. In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971 ruled in his favor in Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, a judgment that ultimately prevented the federal government from extending Interstate 40 through this city’s oldest and largest public park.
That landmark decision preserved intact not only Overton Park and its old-growth forest, but institutions such as the Memphis Zoo, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, and Memphis College of Art. It also kept Midtown whole, so to speak. To this day, Memphis is the only city along the entire east-west length of I-40 that is not bisected by the coast-to-coast superhighway.
This year, 45 years after that Supreme Court ruling, Newman played midwife (along with Charlie McVean and Congressman Steve Cohen, among others) in the birthing of Big River Crossing, now the longest pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi, which opened to the public in October. Connecting downtown Memphis with West Memphis, Arkansas, and constructed alongside the Harahan railroad bridge, Big River Crossing ultimately will be part of a major network of hiking/cycling trails that will connect Memphis to Little Rock and south to New Orleans.
Newman’s role with this project made his choice as this magazine’s 2016 “Memphian of the Year” recipient something of a no-brainer for our editorial staff. And while this award is designed to recognize achievement during a particular year — our three previous recipients were Rabbi Micah Greenstein (2013) of Temple Israel, Overton Square developer Bob Loeb (2014), and Memphis Grizzlies star Marc Gasol (2015) — Big River Crossing is just the latest of Newman’s urban-environment triumphs.
As Jackson Baker explains in detail in this month’s cover story (p. 24), Newman’s fingerprints are everywhere, not just with Overton Park and Big River Crossing, but with the development of the Green Line and Shelby Farms Park. His impact upon making this community an ever-more-progressive place has been profound.
No one will be more surprised to see this month’s cover than Newman himself. (Full disclosure: I’ve known Charlie for decades, and he avoids the spotlight.) His has been a long legal career spent quite deliberately in the background, helping to shepherd project after project from concept to reality. But while his is hardly a household name in this city, those of us who care deeply about this community and its future all owe him a debt of gratitude for what he’s done for Memphis. Keep up the good work, Charlie.
