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Category: Black History

Curator's Corner - Memphis, TN: Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign

Each month, Curator’s Corner welcomes a Tennessee State Museum curator to offer insight and interpretation on Museum artifacts and their connection to Tennessee history. By Tranae Chatman  In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a “separate-but-equal doctrine” in the landmark decision of Plessy v. Ferguson. For the next 58 years, this legal doctrine (known as “Jim Crow”) supported segregated public accommodations for Black and white citizens acr... Read More
Posted by Stephanie Davis at 1-11-23
Black History Tennessee History Tennessee in the 20th Century

12-15-22

Museum Explores the Histories and Legacies of Rosenwald Schools in Two Upcoming Exhibitions in 2023

A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America to run February 24 – May 21, 2023 Building a Bright Future: Black Communities and Rosenwald Schools in Tennessee will run from June 16, 2023 – February 25, 2024   In the early 20th century, a historic collaboration led to the building of nearly 5,000 public schools in the Southeastern United States to improve education opportunities for Africa... Read More
Posted by Melina Ludwig
Black History Exhibitions

12-6-22

New Acquisitions to the Museum's Collection: Fall 2022

This story originally appeared in the Fall 2022 print edition of the Tennessee State Museum Quarterly Newsletter. Ruth Goodson Lane Collection, mid-1900s A collection of photographs, newspapers, sheet music, and uniforms related to the service of Ruth Goodson Lane was recently acquired by the Tennessee State Museum. Lane, a Nashville resident, studied nursing at Nashville General Hospital and trained as a World War II Cadet Nurse. The Cadet Nurse Corps, created in June 1943 ... Read More
Posted by Stephanie Davis
Black History Change and Challenge Civil War Museum Collection Newsletter Southeastern Indian History WWII

Stitching a Story: Learning from African American Quilts

This story originally appeared in the Fall 2022 print edition of the Tennessee State Museum Quarterly Newsletter. By Candice Roland Candeto and Julia Doyle Equally functional and artistic, quilts provide warmth and decoration in the home. A quilt can speak to the environment of its creator—what materials were available to them, what friends or family may have contributed, and elements of their surroundings that are represented in the quilt’s motifs. Three newly acquired quilts ... Read More
Posted by Stephanie Davis at 11-17-22
Black History Newsletter Quilts Tennessee History

8-8-22

A People's Guide to Social Justice History in Nashville

Note: Learotha Williams, Ph.D. will discuss I’ll Take You There: Exploring Nashville’s Social Justice Sites with Steve Haruch — journalist, writer, editor and producer on This is Nashville on WPLN — on Saturday, August 13 at 10:30 a.m. at the Museum as part of the TN Writers | TN Stories: Author Talks at the State Museum series. The reading will be preceded by a reception beginning at 10:00 a.m.... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta
Black History Native American History TN Writers | TN Stories

7-7-22

Exploring the Nashville Story of Hot Chicken

Note: Rachel Louise Martin will discuss Hot, Hot Chicken: A Nashville Story with Khalil Ekulona — host of This is Nashville on WPLN — on Saturday, July 9 at 10:30 a.m. at the Museum as part of the TN Writers | TN Stories: Author Talks at the State Museum series. The reading will be preceded by a reception beginning at 10:00 a.m. Reservations are requested here. The series is presented in partnership with Humanities T... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta
Black History Tennessee Foodways TN Writers | TN Stories

7-6-22

Collection Highlights: Spring 2022

This story originally appeared in the Spring 2022 print edition of the Tennessee State Museum Quarterly Newsletter. Ambrotype of Lucy The Museum recently acquired this ninth plate ambrotype of an enslaved girl, identified as Lucy. The ambrotype is accompanied by a manuscript document, detailing the sale of this nine-year-old girl. The document, authored by John W. Freeman, states, “Know all men by these presents that I John Freman (sic) of Robertson & state of Tenn have... Read More
Posted by Melina Ludwig
Black History Museum Collection Newsletter

6-2-22

Exploring the History of African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee

Note: Leigh Ann Gardner will read from To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee, and discuss the book with Natalie Bell — journalist, author and historian, and board member of the Nashville Chapter of the Afro-American Genealogical Society — on Saturday, June 11 at 11 a.m. at the Museum as part of the TN Writers | TN Stories: Author Talks at the State Museum series. The reading will be ... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta
Black History Reconstruction TN Writers | TN Stories

4-13-22

When Paying a Poll Tax in Tennessee Was the Norm

by Miranda Fraley-Rhodes, Ph. D. On August 2, 1894, a Black man named C.A. McCamey (also spelled McKamey) paid $2.00 in state and county poll taxes in Knox County and saved his tax receipt. It is now in the collection of the Tennessee State Museum. This document and others like it, though small and modest in appearance, help preserve the stories of African Americans and others who worked to maintain their right to vote despite the poll taxes implemented to disenfranchise them.  Poll... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta
Black History

2-17-22

A Smoky Mountain Home: The Story of Cabinetmaker Lewis Buckner

by Annabeth Dooley Lying on the border between East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, Sevier County is considered a scenic gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains. Its borders encompass Gatlinburg. It’s the birthplace of Dolly Parton. At the turn of the twentieth century, it was home to another important Tennessean, cabinetmaker Lewis Buckner (1856-1924). Arguably one of Tennessee’s premier craftspeople, much of Buckner’s finely carved furniture and architectural elements... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta
Black History

12-21-21

The Most Popular Museum Blog Posts of 2021

Best-of lists often sum up trends and themes for both writers and readers that are indicative of the year. Last year's "Most Popular Blog Posts" list revealed a clear interest in women's history and social justice. This year's list, much like the roller coaster of the year we've had, bounces a bit all over the place, with posts on the history of segregated schools, recording technology, sports, public art, the decorative arts and more rising to the top of reader (and... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta
Black History Music History Sports

8-27-21

The History of Emancipation Day in Tennessee

by Stephanie Davis The Emancipation Proclamation is widely known as the document that declared enslaved people free. Issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, the Proclamation declared that “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” However, it was preliminary in nature, meant to persuade the Confederate states... Read More
Posted by Joseph Pagetta
Black History

4-22-21

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

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
Black History

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
Black History

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

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

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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