Jefferson Street (Nashville)
[1]36°10′29.51″N 86°47′7.53″W / 36.1748639°N 86.7854250°W Jefferson Street is a street in
History
In the Antebellum era, the street was a footpath running "from the Hadley plantation on the west to the Cumberland River on the east".[4] It later was improved as a road for wagons and horses.[4] During the American Civil War, it was straddled by Fort Gilliam, a Union Army camp, and a "large campus of runaway slaves were opened in the area."[5] The street was named in honor of U.S President Thomas Jefferson.[5]
After the war, Fisk University was established here and Fort Gilliam became the site of its main building, Jubilee Hall, constructed in 1872.[5][6] The campus of Tennessee State University was built across Hadley Park, on the western tip of Jefferson Street.[6] By the 1930s, the Meharry Medical College was relocated west of Fisk University from its original location in South Nashville.[4] The street was surrounded by three historically black universities.[6]
By the 1920s–1930s, the street became a popular neighborhood among the black middle class,[5] and many churches, such as Mount Zion Baptist Church, Pleasant Green Baptist Missionary Church and Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church, were built here.[7]
In the 1940s–1960s, the street's entertainment venues were a center for
During the
In the late 1960s, Interstate 40 was built across Jefferson Street, which broke up the black community and contributed heavily to its economic decline.[5][13] In the 1950s, the interstate had been projected to be built near the campus of Vanderbilt University, then a whites-only university, but city officials changed their minds in the 1960s.[13] As a result, many African-American residents were displaced and moved to the Bordeaux area in North Nashville.[5]
By the 2000s, residents attempted to "revitalize" the Jefferson Street community.[14] In 2017, it was decided that the music history of Jefferson Street would be chronicled in the National Museum of African American Music due to open in 2019.[13] The museum will be located on 5th and Broadway, near the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, far from Jefferson Street.[13]
In March 2017, the Muslim American Cultural Center, a new mosque, opened on the street.[15]
In May 2019, media coverage suggested African-American property owners were being pressured into selling their buildings to developers, who reported them for coding violations if they refused to sell.[16][17]
References
- OCLC 1230249956.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link - ^ McKenna, Brittney (December 8, 2016). "Lorenzo Washington on Preserving Nashville's Blues and R&B Epicenter". Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-8265-0153-0.
- ^ a b c Mitchell, Reavis L. Jr. (1999). "Jefferson Street" (PDF). Leaders of Afro-American Nashville. Tennessee State University. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ Cooper, Daniel (December 12, 1996). "Scuffling: The Lost History of Nashville Rhythm & Blues". Nashville Scene. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
- ^ Paulson, Dave (November 13, 2017). "Nashville rock music was cemented on Jefferson Street and Elliston Place". The Tennessean. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
- ^ Hill, Lebron (February 8, 2018). "Jefferson Street Comes to Centennial Performing Arts Studio on Saturday". Nashville Scene. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
- ^ McKenna, Brittney (December 8, 2016). "Lorenzo Washington on Preserving Nashville's Blues and R&B Epicenter". Nashville Scene. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d Follett, Matt; Watson, Brady (December 18, 2017). "Reviving Nashville's Jefferson Street R&B Scene in Museums Small and Large". WMOT. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ Reicher, Mike (March 25, 2017). "Nashville's newest mosque opens on historic Jefferson Street". The Tennessean. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
- ^ Horan, Kyle (May 30, 2019). "Jefferson Street gentrification exposes racial fault lines". News Channel 5. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
- ^ Judge, Monique (May 31, 2019). "Greedy Developers Try to Bully 94-Year-Old Black Woman Out of Her Property in Nashville". The Root. Retrieved June 2, 2019.