The Chattanooga History Center and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center will present The Big Nine’s Cookin’ on Tuesday, March 30.
The History Center will reprise its Nicely Tour, The Big Nine, at 6 p.m., with sociologist, blues musician, and Chattanooga native, Dr. Clark White, serving as tour guide. At the conclusion of the walking tour, participants will go in Bessie Smith Cultural Center, where they will be served a fried chicken dinner (from Champy’s), served to the sounds of old blues records. Movies celebrating the blues and blues culture will also be shown and there will be a cash bar.
Registered participants will meet on the street sidewalk in front of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, 200 Martin Luther King Blvd. The fee is $15 per person. Registration is complete with payment of the fee, and the deadline is Friday, March 26.
Call 423-265-3247, extension 10, or 266-8658 to register.
Prior to 1982, the area covered in the tour segment of this program was anchored by what was then officially named Ninth Street, and known colloquially to local residents as “The Big Nine.” For many years, it was the center of African American life in Chattanooga. Its businesses included the Martin Hotel (which housed many famous African American performers, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Nat King Cole), Lowery Five & Dime, the L&G Diner and many others.
In 1982, the street was widened to handle traffic congestion, and the name changed to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The wider street became a major thoroughfare, destroying the neighborhood ambiance of the area.