I'll Take You There , livre ebook

I’LL TAKE YOU THEREiiCopyright 2021 Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First printing 2021
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Thurber, Amie, editor. | Williams, Learotha, Jr., editor.
Title: I’ll take you there : Nashville stories of place, power, and the
struggle for social justice / Amie Thurber, Learotha Williams Jr.
Description: Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, [2021] | Includes
bibliographical references.
Identifers: LCCN 2021000001 (print) | LCCN 2021000002 (ebook) | ISBN
9780826501530 (paperback) | ISBN 9780826501547 (epub) | ISBN
9780826501561 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Social justice—Tennessee—Nashville. | Nashville
(Tenn.)—Guidebooks. | LCGFT: Guidebooks.
Classifcation: LCC F444.N23 I44 2021 (print) | LCC F444.N23 (ebook) |
DDC 976.8/55—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000001
LC ebook recorlccn.loc.gov/2021000002
ivWe dedicate this work to the life and memory of Kwame Lillard.
When we frst began this project there was no doubt among those
that gathered that if we were going to attempt a work that explored
sites of social justice, we would have to include his voice. For much
of his adult life, Kwame fought for justice. Kwame was our
gladiator; our dashiki-clad champion, and the Music City was his coliseum.
He walked, he sat, he rode, he swam, he shouted, and he wrote
for the cause of freedom. He added to our understanding of the
past and how it informed the present, and he demonstrated how
his love for his community was the strongest weapon in his arsenal.
When Kwame raised his fst to the heavens, striking a pose that
those of us who knew him recognized and adored, he became a
symbol of power and a commitment to justice and equality. With
him on our side, anything seemed possible, and all enemies—
despite how formidable they appeared—could be vanquished.
We miss our dear friend and colleague and dedicate this book
to his memory as one of Nashville’s most outstanding and heroic
citizens.
Lea Williams and Amie Thurber
Spring 2021viCONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
introduction 1
1. Downtown
An IntroDuctIon to Downtown 23
1.1 Nunna-daul-Tsuny (Trail Where They Cried) 29
1.2 Public Square 31
1.3 Maxwell House Hotel 33
1.4 Juanita’s 34
1.5 Ryman Auditorium 36
1.6 Tara Cole M emorial Bench 38
1.7 Black Bottom ( Country Music Hall of Fame) 40
1.8 Downtown Incinerator / Ascend Amphitheatr e 42
1.9 Tent City / 2010 Flood 44
1.10 James Robertson Apartments 45
1.11 Nashville Public Library Civil Rights Room 47
1.12 Walgreens Lunch Counte r 49
1.13 Tennessee Stat e Capitol 52
1.14 The Hermitage H otel 54
1.15 Legislative Plaza 56
1.16 Music City Centr al Bus Station Bathroom 59
1.17 The Nashville Globe 60
1.18 Duncan Hotel 62
1.19 The Nashville F armers’ Market 63
1.20 First Baptist Church, Capit ol Hill 66viii I’LL TAKE YOU THERE
2. northwest
An IntroDuctIon to northwest nAshvIlle 73
2.1 Gateway to Heritage / I-40 77
2.2 American Baptist College 81
2.3 Clark Memorial M ethodist Church 82
2.4 Fisk University 84
2.5 Jubilee Hall 86
2.6 Tennessee Stat e University 88
2.7 Hadley Park 90
2.8 Meharry Medical College 93
2.9 Nashville Greenlands 94
2.10 Pearl High School 96
2.11 Planned Parenthood 98
2.12 The Tennessee Stat e Penitentiary 100
2.13 William Edmondson Park 102
2.14 John Henry Hale Apartments 104
2.15 Z. Alexander Looby’s home 105
2.16 Bordeaux Landfll 108
2.17 Southern Publishing A ssociation 109
2.18 Beaman Park / Bells Bend 111
3 . northeAst
An IntroDuctIon to northeAst nAshvIlle 119
3.1 John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge 122
3.2 Greenwood Cemetery 124
3.3 Edgefeld House 125
3.4 Sunday Night Soul at the 5 Spot 127
3.5 QDP 129
3.6 Hattie Cot on Elet mentary 130
3.7 First Baptist Church of East N ashville 132
3.8 Winfrey’s Barber Shop 134
3.9 Stratford High School 135
3.10 Cornelia Fort Park 137
3.11 Nashville National Cemetery / US Colored Troops National Monume nt 139
3.12 Mansker Station 141
3.13 Gass’s Store / Cinco de M ayo Mexican Restaurant 143C ontents ix
4 . southeAst
An IntroDuctIon to southeAst nAshvIlle 151
4.1 Nashville International Airport / Nashville Metro Taxi Drivers Alliance 154
4.2 The Camps of Saint Cloud Hill 156
4.3 Wilson Park 158
4.4 Nashville Fairgrounds 160
4.5 Casa Azafrán 163
4.6 Clairmont Apartments 165
4.7 The Buddhist Temple 167
4.8 La Hacienda Taque ria y SuperMercado 168
4.9 Workers’ Dignity 171
4.10 Global Mall at the Crossings 172
4.11 Hands On Nashville Urban Farm 174
4.12 Salahadeen Center 175
4.13 Nashville Zoo at Grassmere 177
5 . southwest
An IntroDuctIon to southwest nAshvIlle 185
5.1 Capers Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Chur ch 188
5.2 Local 257 American Fede ration of Musicians 190
5.3 Nashville Songwrit ers Association International 192
5.4 Music Row / Quonset Hut 194
5.5 Edgehill United M ethodist Church 196
5.6 Edgehill Village 198
5.7 Scarritt Bennet t Cente r 199
5.8 Roger Williams University 201
5.9 Vanderbilt D ivinity School 202
5.10 Confederate Memorial Hall 205
5.11 Memorial Gymnasium 207
5.12 Vanderbilt Kirkland Hall / O ccupy Vanderbilt 209
5.13 Centennial Park 211
5.14 The Parthenon 213
5.15 Fannie Mae Dees Park 215
5.16 International Market and Restaurant 217
5.17 Carver Food P ark 218
5.18 CCA/CoreCivic 220
5.19 Glendale Baptist Church 222
5.20 Radnor Lake 224
5.21 Gordon Jewish Community Center 226
5.22 Aaittafama’ Archeological P ark 228x I’LL TAKE YOU THERE
6. on the roAD
IntroDuctIon 235
6.1 Promise Land 237
6.2 Wessyngton Plantation 239
6.3 Coal Creek Mine rs Museum 241
6.4 Highlander R esearch and Education Cent er 243
6.5 Islamic Center of Murfreesbor o 245
6.6 The Town of O ld Jeferson 247
6.7 The Farm 249
6.8 Giles County Trail of T ears Interpretive Cent er 251
6.9 Walnut Street Bridge, Chat tanooga 253
6.10 Mound Bottom 254
6.11 Fayette County Courthouse 256
7. themAtIc tours
7.1 “I t City” 264
7.2 Athens of the South 270
7.3 Music City 276
7.4 Southern Hospitality 280
Recommended Reading 283ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We set out to create an alternative guide to Nashville, written by
those who intimately know the city, and we have incredible
appreciation for the more than one hundred people who co-authored this guide.
We are indebted to the contributions from our students, thankful
for the participation of our academic colleagues, and are particularly
grateful to the ffty-nine community members—community
organizers, small-business owners, neighborhood leaders, civil servants, and
more—who shared histories of Nashville that might not otherwise be
documented, in their own words. In the course of collecting and
editing these stories, three contributing authors were laid to rest,
underscoring the signifcance of this project.
This project was inspired by the People’s Guide to Los Angeles, and
we are honored to have had coaching and support from its authors:
Laura Barraclough, Laura Pulido, and Wendy Cheng. Your work
elevates the importance of counter-stories in animating more just
relationships with our past, present, and future. We are indebted to the
Advisory Committee members who helped envision this book,
including Joe Bandy, Tristan Call, Daniel B. Cornfeld, K. T. Ewing, Kelly
Frances Fenelon, Jyoti Gupta, Rogers Hall, Mike Hodge, Elizabeth
Meadows, Reavis Mitchell, Hasina Mohyuddin, Wayne Moore, David Padgett,
Sarah Passino, Doug Perkins, Leah Roberts, Sharon Shields, Loraine
Segovia-Paz, Paul Speer, Kimberly Tripplett, Janet Walsh, and Linda
Wynn. You collectively held us to our commitment to democratize
the telling of place-stories and helped operationalize that intention
by recruiting prospective authors and submitting entries yourselves.
Tristan deserves particular credit for ofering a guiding vision at one of
our frst meetings: “Once this comes out, I want a hundred people in
Nashville to be able to pick up this guide and say, ‘Yeah, I helped write
that.’ ” Eight years late, that vision is nor w realized.
xixii I’LL TAKE YOU THERE
In many ways, the engine for collect- thankful to the Nashville Public Library
ing entries for this guide became a gradu-for becoming an early partner, and we
ate course in Vanderbilt University’s extend our appreciation to Andrea
BlackCommunity Development and Action man, who opened the archives to our
program. Over two years, students were authors, and to the many archivists who
charged with building relationships with saw us through the life of the project. We
community partners to collectively docu- received editorial assistance from Dr.
ment sites of signifcance in Nashville’s Reavis L. Mitchell Jr. and are particularly
struggle for social justice. We are grate- indebted to Davidson County Historian
fu