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Category: Black History

Nikki Giovanni: A Poet’s Upbringing in Tennessee

by Stephanie Davis and Joyska Nunez-Medina “… a place where no matter what, I belong. And Knoxville belongs to me. I was born there in Old Knoxville General and I am buried there with Louvenia.” – Nikki Giovanni, from “400 Mulvaney Street” Poet and writer Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr. was born on June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Although her younger years were spent in Wyoming, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, she returned to K... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta
Black History Literature

2-9-21

Rosenwald Schools and the Importance of Preserving History

by Oliver Arney In July 2020, the historic Canaan School in Columbia, Tennessee, built in 1928 and restored in 1998, burned to the ground. With this blaze, Tennessee lost one of its last Rosenwald Schools. A single-room school from the 1920s built for African American students during the height of segregation, the Canaan School served as a reminder of the long fight for equality. When it was built, segregation was the law, not only at the state level, but on the federal level as a result of ... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta at 2-9-21
Architecture Black History

8-20-20

Breaking the Color Barrier on the Mound: The Story of Dan Bankhead

by Matthew Gailani April 15, 1947 remains one of the most important days in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. It was the day Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers shattered the color barrier and became the first African American athlete to play for an MLB club in the modern era. The triumph of Jackie Robinson is celebrated and well documented in movies, books, blogs, and among MLB teams. Lesser known is the story of Dan Bankhead. Bankhead, like Robinson, was an elite baseball player wh... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta at 8-20-20
Baseball Black History

7-5-19

This Promise of Change

by Mamie Hassell The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, stated that “no state may deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.” Many Southern states found loopholes when the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case ruled in 1896 that the 14th Amendment was not violated as long as the state provided “separate but equal” facilities or accommodations for African Americans. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. B... Read More
at 7-5-19
Black History Book Club

2-2-19

Grant Shockley Fought and Died for America; A Decade Later, His Mother Fought for Civil Rights

by Lisa M. Budreau, Ph.D. In 1917, the United States drafted 61,069 Tennesseans into the First World War; roughly 17,339 were African Americans from across the state. They were part of an eventual two million American servicemen who were transported to the Western Front to join our allies in a global war that had been underway since 1914. African American and white men living in the rural south bore much of the burden for fighting this war. Although disproportionately drafted, most black ... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta at 2-2-19
Black History Exhibitions Featured WWI

11-27-18

Tennesseans, and their Families, Made the Ultimate Sacrifice During World War I

In The Tennessean, on the 100th Anniversary of the end of WWI, Lisa M. Budreau, PhD, Senior Curator of Military History at Tennessee State Museum and author of Bodies of War:  World War I and the Politics of Commemoration in America, 1919-1933, (New York University Press, 2010), writes of the ultimate sacrifice paid by Tennesseans and their families during the war.  "Over 100,000 Tennesseans volunteered or were drafted," she writes, "six of them receiv... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta at 11-27-18
Black History Exhibitions Featured World War I WWI

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