In addition to African and Irish immigrants, there were also waves of Jewish, Italian and German immigration.

In the 1870's a series of cholera, and yellow fever epidemics struck the area, and between 1872 and 1878 over half of the population had died or had fled the city of Memphis. 25,000 fled, and over 5,000 died in one month alone. African Americans who had a much greater immunity to yellow fever, assisted the sick, tended to the dead and helped to rebuild the city after the disease had passed.
The wake of mosquito borne disease left economic devastation in Memphis. After the epidemics, the African American community remained in the area and became more involved in rebuilding the community. Beale Street was a large center for African American civic and social activities. Robert Church, a freed slave, became the South's first African American millionaire in 1899, buying real estate and other ventures during the yellow fever epidemic. In 1881, Church bought the first bond to help the city reestablish its forfeited charter during its bankruptcy following the plague.

In the 20th century, Beale was a bustling street, and music could be heard in the night clubs and in the churches. Night life was sometimes a dangerous mix of seedy characters, easy money and liquor. This was the atmosphere that gave birth to the Blues.

The Blues and Gospel spirituals have roots in the cotton fields, linking them back to the traditional musical styles of Africa and her people. The tribal harmonies and rhythms handed down from father to son, mother to daughter, were combined with music from the church to form a completely American form of music. The juke joints and honky tonks had acquired a new sound, and the Blues was born.
It was here in 1909 that band leader William Christopher Handy wrote the first Blues song, a campaign theme for the notorious Memphis mayor, "Boss" Crump, called "Boss Crump Blues," and later published the work as "The Memphis Blues." It caught on fast, and soon Blues bands filled smoky clubs, and Jazz orchestras played their beats in theaters and parks. Jazz was evolving in Memphis and in New Orleans during this time.

Music filled the air day and night in turn of the Century Memphis, and Beale was a Mecca for young musicians. "St. Louis Blues" came out in 1913, and Handy had created a revolution in music that resulted in the first uniquely American music style. The Blues is the fore-runner of Soul and Rock & Roll, two more uniquely American music styles later born here in Memphis.
Other great Blues men followed Handy's steps; Muddy Waters, Furry Lewis, Albert King, Alberta Hunter, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Memphis Minnie McCoy, and in the 1940's Riley "Blues Boy" King, whose stage name would come to be known as B.B. King.

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