Tennessee has been shaped over hundreds of years by African American history. And that history, in turn, has been shaped by Tennessee, as a visit to any part of the state can show.
The story of Tennessee is also a rich repository of African American life, from the Underground Railroad to fighting Jim Crow segregation laws to the musical heritage of Beale Street to “Roots.”
A visitor can spend a week traveling the state and touch nothing but African American history. Or that visitor can make a one- or two-day dip around the state to sample some of the finer moments of what African Americans mean to the American experience.
The history is a sometimes joyous, sometimes tragic tale, but at day’s end, it is a tale of overcoming – and pushing forward and celebrating.
Starting in the eastern part of the state, you’ll find the Haley Heritage Square in Knoxville, a tribute to “Roots” author Alex Haley who spent the last 14 years of his life in East Tennessee. A 13-foot statue of the author anchors the square.
If you visit in June, Knoxville will show you the Kuumba Festival, featuring locals and people from Africa spotlighting the heritage of the area and the influences from across the sea. From dance to music to theater and food, the festival is as enjoyable as it is educational.
A short drive to the southwest in Chattanooga, the city’s African American Museum emphasizes both African and African American influences on the city’s growth.
One of the first blues greats to take that music to the masses, Bessie Smith, was from Chattanooga, and the city has honored her with Bessie Smith Hall, a performance venue that also showcases her life.
If you drive back up north from Knoxville in the fall, you can find the National Storytelling Festival in small Jonesborough, near Johnson City. The downtown Historic Jonesborough District is worth the trip anytime of year if you’re a parent teaching your children about history, and the story festival just adds to the education – and there are things are adults as well.
Jonesborough’s history is interesting too. On West Main Street, look for a marker celebrating the Manumission Intelligence and The Emancipator, publications that were the first devoted to the abolition of slavery. They date back to 1819.
A little off the beaten path, over toward New Market, Tenn., is the Highlander Research Foundation. Its predecessor was the Highlander Folk Center, where a group of activists challenged the status quo of segregation and attracted students such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks to its doors in the ‘50s.
No tour of African American history can be complete without touching on the churches.
Chattanooga has Shiloh Baptist Church, founded in 1866 by former slaves who worked 30 years to raise the funds. In Knoxville, Greater Warner Tabernacle AME Zion Church dates back to1845. It is said that this church served as a station on the Underground Railroad which assisted slaves in escaping to freedom.
In Nashville, African Americans built Capers Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, and it’s now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nashville is also home to the American Baptist College, an important voice in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.
Memphis, of course, is the founding ground of the Church of God in Christ, and the Mother Church, Mason Temple, is still operating today. The was the site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous prophetic speech in 1968, "I've Been to the Mountain Top." First Baptist Beale Street was were Ida B. Wells operated her newspaper and her anti-lynching fight until she had to leave town for her own safety.
Faith is a big part of the African American legacy throughout the Tennessee. So is education.
As you enter the middle of the state, you’ll find such treasures as Fisk University in Nashville, also home of Tennessee State University and Meharry College – the three are tributes to African American intellectual life and the drive to improve social standing through education. Each school offers worthwhile history exhibits and experiences.
Fisk, especially, honors the legacies of such prominent graduates as W.E.B. DuBois and Nikki Giovanni.
Up the road in Clarksville, a statue honors hometown pride and joy Wilma Rudolph, an Olympic champion runner who overcame polio, segregation and gender bias to win international fame in 1960. Her three gold medals in Rome were also a shot in the arm to the civil rights movement at the time.
For a view of earlier African American life, visit nearby Columbia, where the Ashwood Rural Historic District preserves intact plantation complexes and Canaan. The latter is a small African American community, built just after the Civil War. Both Ashwood and Canaan illustrate the world of African Americans in the antebellum South.
Over toward the Mississippi River is the small town of Henning, where Alex Haley first heard his family’s tales of Kunta Kinte and Chicken George. The Haley home is now a museum to the author of “Roots,” and nearby is Bethlehem Cemetery, containing a Haley family plot where Chicken George is buried. The power of “Roots” and its narrative is such that it’s a great place to begin any venture into African American history.
Further west in Memphis is the heart of African American history in Tennessee: world famous Beale Street, where business and music flourished and attracted blacks from around the Southeast. Today, Beale Street is entertainment-focused, with B.B. King’s nightclub, numerous others, diners, and nearby Isaac Hayes’ restaurant.
A block away down Beale is Church Park, created in the late 1800s by Robert R. Church, a businessman said to be the South’s first African American millionaire. Over the next decades, the park’s auditorium became a meeting place visited by President Theodore Roosevelt and used to host meetings of African Americans to discuss the agendas of the day.
A few blocks off Beale is the National Civil Rights Museum, built into the Lorraine Motel. That’s where Dr. Martin Luther King was staying when he was assassinated on the balcony in the 1968. Today, the museum enshrines his room and the balcony and offers a multi-media history of the civil rights era in one of the most heavily visited sites in Memphis.
A short drive down Second Street takes you to a white clapboard house built in 1849 by German immigrant Jacob Burkle. The Burkles later opened their home as a part of the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves trying to escape to freedom in the north. A tour of the house includes a visit to a small cellar where slaves waited to escape.
Over on McLemore Avenue stands the Stax Museum of American Soul Museum. It’s built on the site of the original Stax Records studio, where Memphis soul burst out over the nation through Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Booker T. and the MGs, Isaac Hayes and others during the ‘60s and ‘70s.
In you’re in the Memphis area in April, you don’t want to miss the Africa in April Cultural Awareness Festival. It’s five days that honor a different African country each year and focuses on Afrocentric exhibits, seminars and artwork and performances.
Throughout the year, Tennessee presents various festivals and art exhibits devoted to African American ways and crafts. For more information on planning your trip, visit www.tnvacation.com/explore/guides/. There you’ll find a wealth of worthy trips no matter what time of year you decide to visit.
You’ll also see why African American history and Tennessee history can’t be separated – they are so intertwined.