T. O. Fuller State Park in South Memphis is Tennessee’s only state park within Memphis city limits, valued both as a forested refuge for wildlife and as the site of the Chucalissa archaeological complex. Named for Thomas O. Fuller, an advocate for the education and advancement of African Americans, it was begun in 1938 by a segregated African American Civilian Conservation Corps unit during the Great Depression. It became the first state park east of the Mississippi River open to African Americans. In 1940, construction uncovered a prehistoric village, leading to the preservation and interpretation of Chucalissa, a Mississippian mound complex and later a National Historic Landmark.

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Memphis, Tennessee · USA