I once read a book about “Boss Crump”. He was a rare bird in that he was a benevolent dictator or “Boss”.
During his time, Memphis had excellent schools, beautiful parks and low crime. What crime there was was pretty much in the Black areas. He allowed them to do about what they wanted as long as it was limited to their neighborhoods.
Memphis in his time was a far, far better place to live than now.
Memphis was still majority White in his time. Many of the cities were. It was only when Whites started looking for newer housing post-WW2 up until around 1960 when the Black populations started to tick upwards (and the large outflux from the southern rural areas) and eclipsed the White majorities by 1970 when the proverbial dam broke loose (and the ghastly leftist pols and policies that destroyed said cities).