Memphis: Negro General Store (Location Key)

The "few customers" inside the "small dingy store" in Memphis where Mink buys animal crackers in The Mansion are Negroes, and it's not unlikely that the store itself is owned by the "Negro man" who is running it (319). The South's first black millionaire was a former slave and successful realtor who opened a bank in Memphis in 1906 to make sure Negroes had access to capital, and there were many black-owned businesses in the city by the time Mink gets there.