Throngs of people fill Memphis' Beale Street, famed for its many bars and clubs frequented by some of the greatest names in blues music. As African Americans migrated north from the fields to the cities after the abolition of slavery, their route came to be known as the "blues highway." The port city of Memphis was the first major stop along the way, becoming a spawning ground for blues, jazz, and rock-and-roll.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Traveling the Blues Highway," April 1999, National Geographic magazine)