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Black Nashville in History & Memory

This guide covers the history of African Americans in Nashville from the founding of the territory to the end of the Modern Civil Rights Movement (HIST 4325).

Black Athens

Jefferson Street was once Nashville's prime thoroughfare for Black culture and commerce. On Fourth Avenue North, the Bijou Theater began hosting Black performers in the 1920s and later loomed over a hotspot of venues, just blocks away from Ryman Auditorium and the Grand Ole Opry (The Tennessean).

Adolphus Anthony “Doc” Cheatham

Born in Nashville, Tennessee

                     

Tennessee State University's very own The Spidels formed in the 1960s