Chattanooga's Afro-American Heritage

(Most recently updated 15 November 2021)

This is a 2.0 version, if you will, of a previous article, “Chattanooga’s Black Community from the Civil War thru Jim Crow”, which can be found at https://notesfromtheninthcircle.blogspot.com/2012/06/chattanoogas-black-community-from-civil.html, or on chattanoogan.com.

The first Africans in the Americas

Contrary to the claims of Anglocentric history, the first Africans brought to the Americas did not arrive in Jamestown in 1619.  The Portugese, in fact, inaugurated that crime against humanity in 1526 in what would become the Empire of Brasil.

Further to the north, in what would grow into the Capitania-General de La Florida under the Virreinato (Viceroyalty) de Nueva España, one hundred Africans were brought to Sapelo Island, Georgia, in September 1526.  Here they were meant to be slaves of the 600 colonists of San Miguel de Guadalpe, led by Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon.  Things did not go as planned.

In addition to coming into conflict with the locals, almost certainly from one of the Guale tribes, disease also hit the colony, bypassing the would-be slaves.  Because the colonists arrived so late in the year, it was too late to plant crops.  Then in October, the slaves rebelled against the Spanish in the midst of infighting among the colonists. 

The entire contingent of Africans escaped, almost certainly to live among the Guale.  They were thus the first non-native settlers in North America above the Rio Grande since the Vikings of 1000 CE.  They also carried out the first slave revolt in the Americas against European oppressors.

The surviving colonists sailed out east in mid-November, only 150 of them making it back to Spain.

There were also Africans taken from Spanish colonies in Colombia (then known as Cartagena) landed at Roanoke by Francis Drake in 1586.

First Africans in Chattanooga Country

In some accounts of the Cherokee who moved into the area then known as the Chickamauga Towns (Hamilton County, roughly) in late 1776, the native militants found escaped slaves from British colonies.  Not a great number but some.

This being well before any of the Southeast natives began adopting bad habits of the “Virginians”, these maroons, as the Spanish called them, were assimilated into or at least accomodated by the dissidents Cherokee community.  Such refugees were common in northern Florida in large enough numbers to create their own settlements.

When the Chickamauga Cherokee moved to the Five Lower Towns area  (south Marion Co. in Tennessee, north Jackson Co. in Alabama, Dade Co. in Georgia) in 1782, maroons were already there also.

After the Cherokee-American Wars (1775-1795) concluded, Afro-Americans continued to live among the Cherokee in the vicinity, some slaves, some free.  Both could own property and free Afro-Americans could become citizens, until the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation East was adopted in 1827.

Of note in the local region, in Marion County but close to Hamilton County, was a landmark denoted as Negro Sugar Camp in the 8 July 1817 Treaty of Cherokee Agency and on Charles Royce’s 1883 map of the Cherokee Nation (the actual land that stood upon was not ceded until the 27 February 1819 Treaty of Washington City).  A settlement of free Afro-Americans, it lay on the right bank/north side of the Tennessee River in Bennett Hollow, across from the head of Oates Island.

Antebellum times

Until 1838, all of the Chattanooga Country south and east of the Tennessee River belonged to the Cherokee Nation.  Some Cherokee had slaves, but no large groups until Joseph Vann established a plantation at what became Harrison but was then known as Vann’s Town.

As illustrated by Courtney Elizabeth Knapp in her book Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie, the 1820 census the year after Hamilton County was established north of the Tennessee River in 1819 showed 16 free Afro-Americans and 39 who were enslaved in the new county.  The county then included just that north on the right bank/north side of the Tennessee River.  Whites in large numbers did not settle south of the river until after the Cherokee Removal in 1838, although some did.  The 1840 census two years after Removal 93 free Afro-Americans and 584 who were enslaved.

Although many whites in Hamilton County owned slaves in the antebellum period, few owned more than a couple or a handful.  Only ten owned twenty or more, the number required for one’s farm to be considered a plantation, no matter how large in acreage.

A number of free blacks also lived in Chattanooga, such as William Lewis, who earned enough money as a blacksmith to buy his freedom then that of his family.  Not all slave owners allowed slaves to do that.

Another feature of the Chattanooga Country’s antebellum history about which most Chattanoogans and Hamilton Countians are unaware is that one of the main stations on the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves fleeing to non-slave states in the North was on Joshua Beck’s farm in what became North Chattanooga.

The overwhelming majority of ancestors of Chattanooga’s Afro-American community came from points south after being liberated during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea.

During the War of the Rebellion

In 1861, Hamilton County voted quite decisively against secession and to remain in the Union twice.  On 9 February, the vote was 1445 against versus 445 for; on 8 June, the vote was 1260 against versus 854 for.  When the county’s 7th Tennessee Militia mustered in the summer of 1861, it did so for the Union.

Beginning 9 September 1863, Chattanooga served as headquarters for the Union Army’s Department of the Cumberland, and, later, beginning with the Atlanta Campaign, as rear base for its primary field component, the Army of the Cumberland, after serving as its bivouac in the winter of 1863-1864.

The Federal Military Occupation of Chattanooga lasted from 9 September 1863 through 30 April 1866, when the last two federal units mustered out of service, though the city remained headquarters for the Military District of East Tennessee until the end of the year.

From late 1863 through mid-spring 1864, five infantry regiments of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) were stationed in Chattanooga, which became their base.  Of these five, two were raised in Chattanooga while the other three were transferred here.  The five were assigned to the Dept. of the Cumberland’s District of the Etowah based in Chattanooga.  These regiments were:

14th U.S. Colored Troops

16th U.S. Colored Troops

18th U.S. Colored Troops

42nd U.S. Colored Troops

44th U.S. Colored Troops

Not long after they all arrived, the five regiments were gathered into the Department of the Cumberland’s First Colored Brigade.

Far from being used solely for “fatigue duty” (manual labor) and other routine garrison duty, all the units saw combat. 

The 14th USCT fought in the First Battle of Dalton, 14-15 August 1863.

The 44th USCT fought against the vanguard of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in the Second Battle of Dalton on 13 October 1864. 

The 14th USCT saw action again at the Battle of Decatur, 27-30 October 1864.

From November 1864 through January 1865, four regiments of the First Colored Brigade were in Middle Tennessee campaigning against the Confederate Army of Tennessee.  The 14th, 16th, 18th, and 44th USCTs all fought in the Battle of Nashville, 15-16 December 1864, which put the final nails in the coffin of the above-mentioned Army of Tennessee as an effective field unit.

During this time, they were temporarily replaced by the units of the Second Colored Brigade laying over here before its transfer to the department’s District of East Tennessee based in Knoxville.  While it was here, the 42nd USCT fell under this brigade, which was composed of the 12th USCT, the 13th USCT, and the 100th USCT, as well as the 1st Independent Battery of Kansas Heavy Artillery, a white unit.

The 42nd USCT served as primarily as garrison troops in Chattanooga, headquarters of the Department of the Cumberland, and a large part of their duties was to maintain fortifications there, build roads, construct Chattanooga’s first bridge (the Meigs Allee), etc.  After all, the regiment organized to provide an opportunity for men not up to the rigors of regular soldiering.  However, its soldiers were also one of primary anti-guerrilla forces for the immediate vicnity, particularly in North Georgia, though its sister regiments also provided such support.

In August 1865, the Department of the Cumberland ceased to be and the regiments of its First Colored Brigade became part of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, District of East Tennessee, Department of Tennessee, Military Division of the Tennessee. 

The 14th USCT soon transferred elsewhere in the district, but the other four remained to demobilize in Chattanooga on various dates in the spring of 1866.  There, most joined the large population of former slaves who had migrated there in the wake of Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea and concentrated at Camp Contraband north the Tennessee River.

(For more on Afro-American troops in the Chattanooga area during the Civil War, see Raymond Evans’ Contributions of United States Colored Troops in the local history section of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library.)

Emancipation and Abolition in Tennessee

The Emancipation Proclamation announced by President Abraham Lincoln on 22 September 1862 to go into effect 1 January 1863 did not cover all slaves in the U.S. but only those within Confederate-held territory at the time.  Thus, the states of Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee (yes, the entire state), Louisiana parishes east of the Mississippi River, and several counties in northern Virginia were exempt.

As a class, slaves in Tennessee did not gain legal freedom until military governor Andrew Johnson emancipated them by executive proclamation on 24 October 1864.  This order was followed by a referendum on the question on 22 February 1865, upon the overwhelming approval of which slavery in the State of Tennessee was abolished.  However, the electorate at the time was quite limited as neither Afro-Americans nor former Confederates and supporters had the right of franchise at the time.

Reconstruction postbellum

Chattanooga was very fortunate after the Civil War in that it experienced no outbreak of riots like that in Memphis 1-3 May 1866.  In that violence, 46 blacks and 2 whites were killed, 75 other persons were wounded, 5 black women were raped, over 100 people robbed, and 4 churches, 12 schools, and 91 houses were burned to the ground.  These “riots” were actually an invasion of the black shantytown near Fort Pickering by white policemen, firemen, laborers, and small businessmen.

With the Union occupation of the city at the beginning of the Chattanooga Campaign, two men, one a former slave who had earned enough money as a blacksmith to free both himself and his family and the other his free-born nephew, spearheaded the business development among Afro-Americans.  William “Uncle Bill” Lewis made himself wealthy by the end of the war, and his nephew, John S. Lovell, was well on his way.

Lewis’ primary business after the war was real estate, primarily for the former slaves who poured into the area in Sherman’s wake or migrated to Chattanooga afterwards. 

The postwar population of Chattanooga was two-thirds Afro-American, and so was its city police force and its fire department.  In addition to the former Camp Contraband, which eventually became Hill City, Chattanooga’s black citizens occupied primarily its Fourth Ward (the later Westside, Blue Goose Hollow, Tannery Flats) in the years after the war.

Lewis and Lovell’s commercial and real estate ventures helped spur the growth of the black neighborhood along East 9th Street past the Irish Hill area.  We can tell from the fact that the latter community sent a “regiment” to Canada with the Fenian invasion of 1867 that Irish and Irish-Americans, many of them Union vets, were still around

Along the north side of the street, the neighborhood that grew up came to be called Tadetown, while along its south side the neighborhood was known as Scruggstown.  Naturally, the avenue that ran betwixt the two, East 9th Street, became the focus of commercial and cultural life from an early stage.

Among Lovell’s other ventures, he owned a racetrack and stables east of Missionary Ridge along with real estate holdings that ultimately became the foundation of the Afro-American section of the later 19th century community of Hornville, which in 1909 became East Dale, and Johnsonville, the lost Afro-American community between Hornville and Sunnyside.  Pleasant Garden Cemetery dates back to this time, as do Mission Ridge Colored School (1868) and Mission Ridge Baptist Church (1874).

The main wartime refugee center for escaped and freed slaves during the Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea, Camp Contraband on the right bank/north side of the Tennessee River, eventually grew into the community of Hill City.

Reconstruction in the State of Tennessee lasted only as long as the Parson Brownlow administration in Nashville, which ended in 1869.  Brownlow’s successor, Dewitt Senter, immediately removed all the legal disabilities against former Confederates placed by the preceding administration and began rolling back rights won by the freedmen.  However, in Chattanooga Afro-Americans were two-thirds of the population and managed to maintain some power longer than in most places in the state.

That year, 1869, was the same in which Chattanooga expanded its southern boundaries from Baldwin Street to East End (now Central) Avenue and from Missionary Avenue (Twenty-third Street) to Chattanooga Avenue (now West Twenty-eighth Street).  The older boundaries dated from 1851, when the former Town of Chattanooga first expanded from its original limits with its incorporation as the City of Chattanooga. 

There were no further annexations in the 19th century except in 1886, when the city took in the area upon which to build Baroness Erlanger Hospital.

Howard Free School

In late 1866, local Freedmen’s Bureau chief and Congregational minister the Rev. Ewing O. Tade founded the first public school in Hamilton County and Chattanooga, Oliver O. Howard Free School, to serve the black community of Chattanooga, most of whom were recently freed slaves.  Classes were first held in the former Bragg Hospital at Sixth and Pine Streets.  

Maj. Gen. Howard was commander of XI Corps in the Union Army of the Cumberland during the Battles of Chattanooga in 1863.  At the time of the school’s foundation, Howard was commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, or Freedmen’s Bureau.

Rev. Tade became the county’s first Superintendent of Education as well as headmaster of Howard, where his wife was one of the teachers. In early 1869, Tade reported to the county that 82 public schools had been established in the county, 28 of them for black schoolchildren.

In 1871, Howard Free School moved into its own new building at Branham (East 9th) Street and A (Lyndsay) Street.  By 1883, Howard High School was holding classes in the top floors of its new building at Gilmer (East 8th) and D (Douglas) Streets, next to Shiloh (First) Baptist Church.  Gilmer Street School held classes in the lower floors.

Public schools for white children were finally established in Chattanooga in 1873, with the opening of three district primary schools.  Superintendent Tade was very soon summarily deposed.  Afterwards, his congregation sent him to California as pastor to the First Congregational Church of Ferndale.

In 1886, Bell Washington became the first female high school graduate and very first high school graduate of Howard School in a class of one.  The first male high school graduate, Augustus Wickliff, followed her the next year, also in a class of one.

Citico City

St. Elmo is often heralded as Chattanooga’s oldest suburb, but in reality it shares longevity with Sherman Heights (now called Glass Farm District and originally called Tunnel) and is surpassed in age by Boyce (later East Chattanooga, now Boyce Station).  Another neighborhood that began as a suburb for Afro-Americans can also claim greater age.

In 1882, the Roane Iron Company purchased a large tract of land at the mouth of Citico Creek on its left bank upon which to build the facility of its subsidiary, Citico Furnace Company, a venture headed by Hiram S. Chamberlain and Dwight P. Montague.  Citico Furnace began operations in 1884 and lasted longer than its sister plant, the Roane Iron and Steel Works west of Cameron Hill, producing until 1911.  The Citico Rail Yards came into being primarily to serve the plant’s needs.

All of the laborers at the furnace were Afro-American, and most of the original crew had also worked on the plant’s construction.  To house its workers, the company built Citico City, certainly by 1883 and possibly as early as the year before. 

The community, annexed in 1925, is now known as Lincoln Park, and was once two-thirds larger extending east for two blocks and north to the railroad tracks.  This extended area, covered by tracks of the Citico (DeButts) Yard since the 1930s, included the Citico Inn hotel for transient workers on Southern Railway, which was relocated to Scruggs Street after the railway annexed those lands.

Freedmen’s Bank in Chattanooga

Along with Howard School and the county school system, Tade established a branch of the National Freedmen’s Savings & Trust Bank in Chattanooga in 1867.  The institution flourished locally, only going under with the collapse of its parent body in 1871,

Steele Home for Needy Children

In 1884, Almira S. Steele, originally of Chelsea, Massachusetts, opened Steele Home for Needy Children in the Afro-American section of Fort Wood, at what is now the soccer field behind the Challenger Center.  At the time, it was on the north side of Straight (East 4th) Street next to the tracks of the East Tennessee, Virginia, & Georgia Railroad (later Southern Railway), next to the East Fifth Street School.

Initially, the Steele Home was a frame structure.  After arsonists burned it down, Steele built in its place a three-story brick structure with forty-four rooms.  The Steele Home, run with her daughter Mira, functioned as a boarding school for Afro-American orphan children, offering “Christian education combined with industrial training”.  Late adolescents were sent to trade schools or colleges.

From 1884 to 1925, the Steele Home housed and schooled more than one thousand six hundred children, only closing its doors with her death.

“Negro removal” in 19th century Chattanooga

According to a 5 December 1887 Chattanooga Times article “A City of Negroes”, the reason for the relocation of Afro-Americans to areas east of the Citico Yard from “the valuable hilltops” in the east side of the city was due to “the advance in real estate in the city” (i.e., the creation of the posh white suburbs of Fort Wood and Park Place). 

In other words, the mass outward relocation of Afro-Americans in the mid-1880s from the city to the suburbs was due to gentrification and what the opponents of “urban renewal” in the 1950s and ‘60s called by the more accurate name, “Negro Removal”, which was the title of a recent report on the current situation published by Chattanoogans Organized for Action (COA).  And that is very likely most of the story, but not all of it.

According to that same 1887 article, there were already 800 people in the area (all Afro-American except for one family) and that 110 houses had been built.  This lay the foundations for the “black hamlets” of Bushtown, Churchville, Stanleyville, and Rosstown and the suburb of Orchard Knob.

Afro-Americans in government

Several Afro-Americans served the region in various positions of city, county, state, and federal government, from the time the Federal Military Occupation’s provost marshal allowed the return of civilian government until the city’s adoption of the at-large commission government which shut Afro-Americans out of power completely.

Until 1900, the City of Chattanooga had a unicameral Board of Aldermen elected by ward, of which there were five. 

Afro-Americans who served as Aldermen during Reconstruction, Redemption, and early Jim Crow included the following:

Commodore P. Letcher, 1868

M. Shields, 1869

Clem Shaw, 1870 and 1873

David Medlow, 1871 and 1875-1876

George Sewell, 1871-1872

R.P. McCronklin, 1872

Robert Marsh, 1873-1875

Andrew F. Thompson, 1878

W.B. Kennedy, 1878-1879

William C. Hodge, 1878-1884

Hiram Tyree, 1888-1902

J.W. White, 1889

Eugene Reid, 1899

Sam W. Duncan, 1899

George Shaw, 1901

In 1900, Chattanooga adopted a bicameral form of government with the introduction of a City Council as its lower house.  Due to the way in which boundaries for elections were now drawn, it was nearly impossible for a black man to be elected as Alderman. 

Three Afro-Americans served on the City Council before the adoption of a commission form of government with members elected at-large prevented any more black men from being elected for decades.  These were:

Eugene Reid, 1901-1902

Hiram Tyree, 1904-1911

Charles Grigsby, 1901-1902, 1904-1911

In 1911, the city ordinance mandating the commission form of government went into effect, only being overturned by the case of Brown v. City of Chattanooga in 1989.

Five Afro-Americans served the Hamilton County Court before Jim Crow brought its hammer down, four as Justices of the Peace: 

Alexander P. Flowers (elected 1867)

George Sewell

G.L. Nelson

B.F. Whiteside, 1904-1910

One Afro-American served as Circuit Court Clerk:  John J. Irvine, who won election by 1400 votes over white candidates from both parties.

Two Afro-Americans were appointed to the Police Commission in 1880:  A.L. Thompson (Fourth Ward) and W.A. Henderson (Second Ward). 

In addition to his other offices, Hiram Tyree served the county as School Commissioner for 10 years, as did Dr. T. Edinburg from 1904 to 1908.

Hamilton County sent two Afro-Americans to the Tennessee General Assembly during the years before Jim Crow tightened its grip: 

William C. Hodge, 1885-1886

Styles Hutchins, 1887-1888

In addition to his stints as Alderman and Justice of the Peace, George Sewell was the Federal Court Cryer in Hamilton County for 20 years.  As such, he introduced judges, called witnesses to the stand, and announced opening and adjournment of court sessions.  In the federal court system, the cryer ranked above the bailiff and the marshal.

Another Afro-American, Henry C. Smith, served the county as its Federal Clerk, a Democrat where most Afro-Americans were Republicans.

Other Afro-Americans who served in various official capacities included Jim Hodge, Larkin Fralix, Marion Keith, Charles Bird, William Richardson, Isaac Allen, Woodson Weaver, Andy Thompson, and J.R. Franklin.

Of all these elected and appointed officials, Hiram Tyree, boss of the Fourth Ward until dethroned by Walter C. Robinson in 1928, was unquestionably the most influential and longest-lasting.  The Fourth Ward included the West Side, Blue Goose Hollow, and Tannery Flats.

Styles Hutchins was one of the last two Afro-Americans to serve in the Tennessee State Legislature (1887-1888) until the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.  The other was Monroe W. Gooden (D-Fayette County), who served in the same assembly as Hutchins.  Jesse M.H. Graham (Republican), was elected to serve 1897-1898, but a legal challenge to his eligibility to hold office was successful, so the seat lay vacant.

Afro-Americans in civil service

Civilian government returned to Chattanooga in October 1865 when the federal Provost Marshal allowed its reestablishment.  That government established a voluntary force to police the city until the state government passed an act established a Metropolitan Police force in the city with 24 officers, 2 sergeants, and one commissioner.  

In 1869, the office of city marshal was reestablished, with a lieutenant and a force of 10 officers, later increased to 12.  Under this design, the city police operated with one-third to one-half of its officers being Afro-American.  This changed with the new city charter in 1883, which changed the process by which police officers were appointed, placing that power in the hands of a three-person commission, after which there were no more black officers until the mid-20th century.

The Chattanooga Fire Department began as an all-volunteer service in 1871.  In 1882, two more volunteer companies were added, and the next year the city established a paid company, with another paid company added in 1885.  Afro-Americans may have served in all the companies, but at least one of these (probably one of the volunteer companies) was all Afro-Americans. 

Afro-American newspapers

In addition to his many other endeavors, Styles Hutchins established a newspaper for the black community, The Independent Age, in 1882, of which he was editor.

Other postbellum newspapers for Afro-Americans by Afro-Americans established during this time were Justice, published by Edward Horn and H.H. Wilson, and The Liberator, published by James P. Easley and W.H. Hasty.  Easley began publishing another paper, Chattanooga Herald, with Noah Parden in 1895.

The cream of the crop, however, was The Weekly Blade, published by Randolph Miller.  Miller had come to Chattanooga in 1864 when the city (and the county) were under federal occupation.  Eventually, he got a job as a pressman at the Chattanooga Gazette.  When the firm of Kirby & Gamble began publishing the Chattanooga Times in 1869, Miller moved there.

In 1898, Miller started The Blade, which eventually became nationally-syndicated.  It was very progressive, especially for its time, and Miller was far from submissive and accomodating when discussing Jim Crow.  In spite of that, The Blade had an audience of both blacks and whites.  The offices were located at East 9th and Houston Streets.

Penny Savings Bank

The failure of the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company in 1874 left the most recently freed slaves without access to any financial institution.  In Chattanooga, J.W. White and H.N. Willis joined in 1890 to form the Penny Savings Bank.  Their main problem was timing, for just three years later the Panic of 1893 caused the bank’s collapse.  Though short-lived, the bank’s existence bears witness to their enterprise.

The Invisible Empire Strikes Back

Not the invisible empire you’re probably thinking about upon seeing that headline.  The City of Chattanooga was lucky in having no activity whatsoever by the post-bellum Ku Klux Klan which ran rampant in other parts of the state.  Of course, two-thirds of the residents were Afro-American and the city was under federal military occupation until the end of summer 1866.  As a matter of fact, in 1868 ads appeared in the local newspapers and others in the north inviting northern carpetbaggers to come to the city and start businesses.

There may have been some pro-Confederate sentiment in the eastern part of the county, but according to contemporary legends desperado Joe Ritchey, a former lieutenant in Co. D, 4th Tennessee Cavalry, USA, cleaned out any serious threats by killing or driving out veterans of the bushwacking Snow’s Scouts based in Snow Hill.  That group’s leader was William Snow, who had been Sheriff of Hamilton County 1858-1862.

The northern parts of the county had been the location of the strongest pro-Union sentiment, home to men like William Clift, who built Fort Clift at Sale Creek Camp Ground and mustered the county’s militia as the 7th Tennessee Federal Militia after the state voted to secede.

Nope, the invisible empire I refer to is described thus:  “Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

During the Federal Military Occupation of Chattanooga, many Union officers who either were themselves or had ties to industrialists in the North noted many characteristics that offered opportunity for exploitation.  For example, plans for what later became the Cincinnati Southern Railway began as early as later 1865, in large part because of the many coal seams in the northern part of the county.

Chattanooga’s industrial boom did in fact begin after the war, led almost entirely by former Union officers.  Nearly all the members of the boards of their corporations were either in or from the North, along with management, supervisors, even many of the foremen.  Low-level laboring jobs were those alotted to local hires, though some few worked their way up.

These northern capitalists adopted two main methods of exploiting the most from their workers while compensating them the least. 

At former Brig. Gen. John T. Wilder’s Roane Iron Company, white and black laborers were paid the same low wages, with the both spoken and unspoken threat against the white workers that if they struck or tried to organize unions they would be replaced with black workers.

Former Maj. Gen. Hiram Chamberlain (also a partner in Roane) avoided the potential problem of white workers standing up for themselves by only hiring black workers at his factories, in particular Citico Furnace.

Open racial tensions flare up

Neither of these approaches endeared either set of workers to the other and laid some of the foundation for the blowback that began in the later 19th century as well as adding fuel to the flame of racial prejudice.

On the night of 24 September 1870, an Afro-American sharecropper named Dan Tucker was taken from his home on the Cummings farm in Wauhatchie (Lookout Valley), beaten, and shot to death by a band of 25 to 30 masked night riders in place of his cousin from Chattanooga, Solomon Crooks (by then back in town), accused of molesting a 14-year old white girl.  Another Afro-American living in the next cabin, Hiram Crockett, was dragged out, whipped, and forced to witness the lynching.

On 7 October 1873, Elridge Merrill, an Afro-American from the Gambletown section of St. Elmo in Hamilton County, then well outside the city limits of Chattanooga, was brutally beaten, whipped, tortured, and lynched from a corn crib in St. Elmo by a mob of white men angered over his cohabitation with a white woman named “Dink” Norris.  Norris herself was warned never again to do the same or receive the same treatment.

There was another incident in 1882 in which a mixed race couple, Amandy Copeland (white) and Charles Francis (black) were persecuted, but this time it only led to arrest rather than torture and murder.

Chattanooga attempted several times to enforce segregation in public transportation on its streetcars, at least as early as 1882, via municipal ordinances.  There was significant protest and resistance, sometimes violent.  Several Afro-Americans both male and female were arrested for refusing to leave or attempting to board whites-only cars or sections.

In early 1885, a minister in the East 9th Street area, one Rev. Susine, openly advocated for racial integration in housing, including mixed race marriage, calling anti-misegenation laws a barbaric heritage of slavery.  In response, whites became neighbors of those in the neighborhoods of Tadetown and Scruggstown on either side of East 9th.  When the police raided the area in March, they found more than thirty mixed race couples, whom they charged, naming Susine as an accessory in each case.

Charles William lynching and near armed conflict

The most vigorous case of resistance the city’s segregation ordinances occurred on 7 September 1885, when Charles Williams shot a street car driver who tried to enforce Chattanooga’s segregated seating ordinance.  The driver, Polk Mitchell, was also a former city constable, and partly because of this, Williams was lynched from the rafters of the third floor of the Hamilton County Jail the day after his arrest.

As related by Tim Ezell in Chattanooga, 1865-1900: A City Set Down in Dixie, Sheriff William C. Pyatt and his deputies attempted to protect Williams from the mob, to the extent of calling up the county militia, but Pyatt was unable to contact the governor to get authorization to arm them.

Meanwhile, a militia of black citizens armed themselves and proceeded to the jail, which at the time was on Walnut Street, many of its members being veterans of the Union army.  This Afro-American militia reached the jail just after the mob and broken in and was proceeding to hang Charles Williams, and a firefight broke out along with a huge riot.  Immediate threat of armed conflict faded when the black militia learned Williams was dead, but whites in the city were terrified and stockpiled arms and ammo for weeks.

Civil War veterans’ organizations

In the 1880s, interest in the War of the Rebellion returned to the fore, with organizations of veterans being organized or revived.

On the Confederate side, veterans were first brought together in 1885 by Joseph Shipp, former captain of Co. G, 60th Tennessee Mounted Infantry, as N.B. Forrest Camp No. 3, Confederate Veterans.  In 1889, this group became a charter member of the United Confederate Veterans Association, which Shipp spearheaded, as N.B. Forrest Camp No. 4.  This group was the sole organization for Confederate veterans in the county.

By contrast, Union veterans could support five chapters of their organization, the Grand Army of the Republic.  In Chattanooga, there were Lookout Post No. 2, Chickamauga Post No. 22, and Mission Ridge Post No. 45; in Soddy there was Robert L. McCook Post No. 36; and in Sale Creek there was Gordon Grainger Post No. 84.  Chickamauga Post No. 22 was composed of Afro-American veterans of the U.S. Colored Troops.

In addition to the five chapters of the G.A.R., the city hosted two chapters of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, a veterans’ group for former commissioned officers who served in that federal army.  These were the Moccasin Point Camp and the Lookout Mountain Camp, which combined in 1895 as the Mountain City Club.

More lynchings in Hamilton County

On 24 July 1889, Thomas Gailiff, a white man, was dragged out of his dwelling in East End, Tennessee, in Hamilton County by White Caps who then hung him from a tree in the yard for being a “traducer of women”.  He managed to escape, but was caught and hung again near Ross’ Gap.  His more likely “offense” was cohabitating with an Afro-American woman.  The White Caps were a forerunner of the 1915 Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

On 14 February 1893, Alfred Blount, an Afro-American migrant laborer living in a boarding house at the south end of Maple Street (at the mouth of the gully between Terrace Hill and College Hill) was accused of sexually assaulting a white woman.  He was dragged from the Hamilton County Jail and hanged from the southernmost (first) span of the County (Walnut Street) Bridge.  He had not even been formally charged because the victim repeatedly denied he was the perpetrator.

On 25 February 1897, Charles Brown, an Afro-American of Bakewell (aka Retro), Tennessee, was lynched from a bridge over North Chickamauga Creek near Soddy, Tennessee, after being accused of molesting a local white woman.

Chattanooga National Medical College

In 1898, Dr. Thomas W. Haigler founded Chattanooga National Medical College, the third medical school for Afro-Americans in the states and one of only seven such schools in the entire country during its existence.  Named after Haigler’s alma mater (Louisville National Medical College), the school was chartered 19 June 1899, the same year Chattanooga Medical College opened at the campus of Grant University in Chattanooga.

Haigler operated the school out of 602 East 8th Street, sharing space with his home and own medical office, though instruction was undoubtedly held at several locations.  At its peak, CNMC had 19 instructors on staff at least part-time, and 16 students graduated as medical professionals.  According to most sources, the school closed it doors in 1904, probably for lack of funding, though other sources report CNMC lasting until 1908, the same year one of its graduates (unnamed) passed the state board exams.

At the dawn of the 20th century

Afro-Americans in the City of Chattanooga – since 1869 bound by the Tennessee River, East End (Central) Avenue, and Chattanooga Avenue (West 28th Street) – concentrated in the West Side neighborhoods of Blue Goose Hollow, College Hill, Five Points, South Africa, Tannery Flats, Tenderloin, and Whiteside Flats; in the South Chattanooga neighborhoods of Happy Hollow, Hooterville, Washington Park, White’s Hill; and in the East Side neighborhoods of Cocaine Alley (more formally Douglas Street Alley), Darktown, Scruggstown, Tadetown, and Tincup Alley.

Suburbs of Chattanooga that were inhabited exclusively or mostly by Afro-Americans included Bushtown, Churchville (Stanleytown), Citico City, East End, Fort Cheatham, Little Egypt, Orchard Knob, Rosstown, and Park City.  Specifically Afro-American sections of suburbs included Bozentown in East Chattanooga, Chinch Row and Red Row in Murray’s Field extension south of Chattanooga Creek, and western Hill City.

Citico City is now better known as Lincoln Park.  Jasper was adjacent to the Hixson community.  Little Egypt lay in East Chattanooga, west of Dodson Avenue from the Southern Railway to the south side of Farleigh Street.

Rural exclusively or predominately Afro-American communities in Hamilton County included Antioch, Bird's Mill, Black Belt, Chickamauga, Hawkinsville, Jasper, Johnsonville, Magby Pond, Pankeytown, Shot Hollow, and Turkey Foot Hollow.

Antioch lay long what’s now Greenwood Road.  Black Belt lay along the Silverdale-Harrison Road.  Chickamauga was the original name of Shepherd.  Hawkinsville lay along Hickory Valley Road north of Chattanooga-Cleveland Pike and the village of Tyner.  Jasper was adjacent to the Hixson community.  Johnsonville lay between Hornville (now Eastdale) and Sunnyside, including nearly the entire length of Ridgeside/Rogers Road and Pleasant Gardens Cemetery (the eastern section survives as today’s Menlo Park).  Magby Pond lay where Murray Hills is now; the pond is still there but is more of a puddle.  Shot Hollow lay along Oakwood Drive, formerly Shot Hollow Road.  Turkey Foot was a village where Booker T. Washington State Park is now.

There were also enclaves of Afro-Americans in Bakewell, Coulterville, Daisy, Soddy, and Wauhatchie.

In James County to the east, now part of Hamilton again but separate 1871-1919, there were four all Afro-American communities.  The community of Black Ankle stood on the west side of the railroad across from the town and county seat of Ooltewah while that of (another) Little Egypt (also called East Ooltewah) lay on the east side of the town.  Summit City centered on the crossroads of Old Lee Highway, Apison Pike, and School Street, though it spread across a much broader area.  There were also enclaves in Apison and Georgetown.

Rail Transportation

The only known rail station in an Afro-American community on a long-haul railway at the turn of the century was Summit Station on the Southern Railway (formerly the line of the East Tennessee, Virginia, & Georgia Railroad).

The Chattanooga Belt Railway and later Chattanooga Rapid Transit had a station called Bald Knob then Orchard Knob (which was mostly Afro-American) and another first called Stanleyville then Churchville on their Orchard Knob Division.  On its Radcliff Division, this electric railway had a station called East End in the eponymous predominantly Afro-American suburb.  On its Ridgedale Division, this railway had a station in the almost entirely Afro-American community of Fort Cheatham.  On its Mountain Division, this railway had a station called Beulah serving the Afro-American community of Gambletown, nestled between St. Elmo and Mountain Junction.

The rival Chattanooga Electric Railway, meanwhile, had two lines which served entirely Afro-American communities, the East 9th Street Division (which turned north at East End Avenue to serve the Afro-American section of Fort Wood and Citico City, the later Lincoln Park) and the Carter Street Division, which served the communities of College Hill (Westside), Tannery Flats, and Blue Goose Hollow.  Its Sherman Heights-East Chattanooga (Boyce) Division served the mostly or entirely Afro-American communities of Citico City, Orchard Knob, Bushtown, Churchville, and Stanleyville.

Education under Jim Crow

Under segregation, white children and black children were required to attend separate schools.  In cases where the names of two schools, one for black children and one for white children, were the same, the descriptor “Colored” was added after the name of the school for Afro-American children, even if it was the elder in existence.

Chattanooga City Schools

By the 20th century, two other schools for Afro-American children had joined the pioneer Howard School.  Gilmer Street School (1-8) shared a building with Howard High School at Gilmer (East 8th) and D (Douglas) Streets.  Montgomery Avenue School met at its building at Montgomery Avenue (West Main Street) and College Street.

In 1904, Howard High School had moved  to Gillespie (East 11th) Street, while its building mate moved to the later East 5th Street and became Carolina Street School (soon to be East Fifth Street School).

In the 1913-1914 school year, Chattanooga Avenue School at West 28th and Williams Streets for black students was added to the system.

Hamilton County Schools

Two of the earliest public schools established for Afro-American children in the county were Chickamauga School (1871) and Mission Ridge School (1868).  The first stood a half-mile south of Chickamauga Station depot on Chickamauga (now Airport) Road at the current site of Whispering Pines Mobile Homes is now, serving children of the Chickamauga (later Shepherd) community.  The second stood at 237 Shallowford Road on the west side of Mission Ridge Baptist Church for Afro-Americans, serving children of the Hornville (Eastdale) community.

The Hamilton County Schools were first organized into a system in 1873 after the State of Tennessee passed an act authorizing local entities to establish public schools and organize them into a system, along with providing financial support.  Initially, only primary schools were authorized and its was not until 1883 that public secondary grades were added to existing schools.  For Afro-American children, high school programs were added to Churchville School and Magby Pond School.

As the 20th century opened, Afro-American children attended the following schools:

Chickamauga School (Colored), Chickamauga/Shepherd

Churchville School

Coulterville School (Colored)

Fort Cheatham School, Grant and E. 24th Sts.

Hill City School (Colored), 1312 Spears Ave.

Hixson School (Colored), Jasper community

Magby Pond School

Mission Ridge School (Colored), 237 Shallowford Rd.

School No. 6, vicinity of Soddy

Orchard Knob School, E. 4th St. and Orchard Knob Ave.

Retro School (Colored), Bakewell

Sherman Heights School (Colored), 2410 Dodson Ave.

Soddy School (Colored)

St. Elmo School (Colored), W. 38th and Church Sts.

Turkey Foot School

Tyner School (Colored), Hawkinsville

Wauhatchie School (Colored)

After the 1905-1906 school year, Churchville merged into Orchard Knob School and Wauhatchie (Colored) merged into St. Elmo (Colored).

By the 1907-1908 school year, Daisy School (Colored) began classes, and after that year Coulterville (Colored) merged into Soddy (Colored).  But more importantly, the high school classes at Magby Pond were consolidated with those of Churchville  to create Orchard Knob High School.

By the 1911-1912 school year, East End School opened for classes on Rossville Avenue (Boulevard); Mission Ridge (Colored) moved to the corner of South and Line Streets and became East Dale (Colored); Sherman Heights (Colored) became East Chattanooga (Colored); and Hill City (Colored) became North Chattanooga (Colored).  Sometime shortly afterwards, Retro School (Colored) became Bakewell (Colored).

National Negro Business League, Chattanooga

In 1905, G.W. Franklin and others established a chapter of Booker T. Washington’s NNBL, with staunch support from Randolph Miller and the Chattanooga Weekly Blade.  The most influential chapter of NNBL nationally was the one in Nashville but Chattanooga’s was a close second, out of over 600 chapters in 34 states by 1915.

Though purportedly dedicated to promoting black businesses and keeping those in Afro-American hands, the Chattanooga chapter became involved in social justice and social welfare matters, though it almost always pushed the gradualist approach of the NNBL’s founder.

The Chattanooga Streetcar Boycott of 1905

The working-class citizens of Chattanooga boycotted streetcars in support of striking carmen in 1899, 1911, 1916, and 1917, but those boycotts were over labor issues.  This boycott was solely about human dignity.

In July 1905, the State of Tennessee, whose original constitution in 1796 guaranteed universal suffrage to all men, including free blacks, enacted a law segregating all public transportation in the state at all levels.  In response, Randolph Miller, publisher of nationally-syndicated The Weekly Blade, and Hiram Tyree, Alderman from the Fourth Ward, led a boycott of Chattanooga’s streetcars.  They were partially inspired by the similar boycott being conducted in Nashville.

As part of the boycott, Miller organized four horse-powered hack lines to the Afro-American communities of St. Elmo (Gambletown section), Fort Cheatham, Tannery Flats (along with Blue Goose Hollow), and Churchville (including Bushtown and Stanleyville). 

After some success with the hack lines, Miller and others set about forming the Transfer Omnibus Motor Car Company , patterned after a successful such venture in Nashville, an early version of a taxi service, but the effort never materialized due to lack of investors.

The boycott managed to hold out for three months before collapsing in the face of resistance from white political leaders, harassment by police, and opposition from a sizable number of Afro-American businessmen as wel as virtually all the black religious leaders.  This despite the fact that average Afro-Americans in Chattanooga supported it as did a large portion of the local NNBL chapter. 

In the last month of 1905, rumors of a “black crime wave” spread throughout the county, and a number of Afro-Americans were arrested for crimes against whites.  These included Floyd Westfield of Chickamauga (now Shepherd), who shot an armed white constable on Christmas Eve.

Chattanooga’s last public lynching

On 23 January 1906, a white woman named Nevada Taylor was walking from a streetcar stop to her home at Forest Hills Cemetery (where her father was caretaker) when she was attacked and raped.  Sheriff Joseph Shipp arrested two men based on Taylor’s vague description, James Broaden and Ed Johnson.  A grand jury indicted Johnson on 26 January.

The trial began on 6 February, with Johnson’s defense led by former judge Lewis Shepherd, who had been appointed by the court.  It ended three days later with Johnson’s conviction, even though Taylor refused to swear under oath that he was her assailant.  His execution was set for 13 March.

When Shepherd and his team did not appeal, Noah Parden and Styles Hutchins stepped in.  After their petitions to the state court of appeals and Tennessee supreme court were denied, Parden filed for a writ of habeus corpus with the federal district court in Knoxville.  The case was eventually approved to be heard at the U.S. Supreme Court, with a stay of execution granted by Justice John Marshall Harlan.  It was the first time in history that SCOTUS had ever intervened in a state criminal case.

Before that could happen, however, on the evening of 19 March 1906, a huge crowd stormed the jail, overwhelming the single guard present who tried to resist, dragged Johnson out to Walnut Street Bridge, and hanged him from the second span of the County Bridge.  After two minutes, they riddle him with fifty bullets.

Response by the Afro-American community usually goes unmentioned, but it was substantial.  In the aftermath, the black community held meetings, conducted marches, and engaged in various other forms of protest.  These included a one-day general strike by the entire Afro-American community; employers wisely chose not to penalize participants.

In the only case ever tried before the Supreme Court (United States v. Shipp et al, argued 4-5 December, decided 24 December 1906), Sheriff Shipp and others were convicted of contempt of court, with he and two others sentenced to 90 days and two others to 60 days.  Their defence was led by none other than Judge Lewis Shepherd.

Sheriff Shipp fought with the Army of Tennessee during the War of the Rebellion, rising to the rank of captain.  As commander of the N.B. Forrest Camp, Confederate Veterans (est. Sept. 1885), he was the driving force behind the organization of the United Confederate Veterans in 1889 and remained one of its national staff officers (Assistant Quartermaster General) until his death.  It was due to his leading role that the UCV held its first convention in Chattanooga in 1890.  Shipp served as Sheriff for two terms, 1904-1908.  After his death in 1925, he was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in his Confederate uniform.

Floyd Westfield case

On 24 December 1905, Floyd Westfield and his friends were celebrating Christmas Eve at his grandmother’s house in Chickamauga (Shepherd), including fireworks.  County constable Lon Rains, a denizen of Concord community, was attending another party at Chickamauga School. 

Rain’s party was at the Chickamauga School for white children, which at the time stood next to what was then Chickamauga Chapel Baptist Church (later Shepherd Baptist).  The older Chickamauga School (Colored) stood where Whispering Pines Mobile Homes is now.

Constable Rains was courting Miss Hattie Fox, the school’s teacher, and became enraged at what he deemed the rude disruption of the noisy, more lively party nearby.  Even with his friends trying to dissuade him, Rains invaded Westfield’s grandmother’s house, pistol drawn, so Westfield shot him, admitted he did when arrested and claiming self-defence.

It is important to note that a county constable was not merely a law enforcement officer but an elected official, like justice of the peace.  There were two constables elected for each of three districts in the county (and three justices of the peace each).

At his trials, Rains’ friends testified that Westfield had been justifiably in fear of his life.  The case ultimately ended with Westfield’s acquittal in 1907 after at least two overturned convictions.

Westfield’s lead defense attorney was Judge Lewis Shepherd.

Abraham Lincoln High School

The Hamilton County Schools opened its first separate high school buildings in 1907, for grades 7-12 (termed third-class high schools by the state); these later became second-class high schools (grades 9 thru 12).  As mentioned above, for Afro-American students, this meant Orchard Knob High School.

Abraham Lincoln High School opened its doors for the 1914-1915 school year.  Lincoln High grew out out of Orchard Knob High School, with the  principal of Orchard Knob HS, H.F. Taliaferro, becoming principal of the new Lincoln High. 

At the time, Lincoln was not only the first high school for Afro-Americans but the only county public high school (in terms of being in a separate building) for Afro-American children in the entire State of Tennessee.  For years it served as the county school system’s only high school for Afro-Americans (the city’d had Howard School since 1867).  The building stood at the corner of North Holly Street and Cleveland Avenue.

Tennessee Socialist Party platform, 1912

In its platform for state and national races in 1912, the Socialist Party of Tennessee declared that “the question of white supremacy is injected into white workers’ minds by the capitalist class to keep the workers divided on the economic field”.

Walden Hospital

Dr. Emma Rochelle Wheeler graduated from Walden University’s Meharry Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical College in Nashville in 1905.  Dr. Rochelle married her fiance, fellow graduate Dr. Joseph Wheeler, the same week, and the two moved to Chattanooga and set up a joint practice on East Main Street.

One thing that really bothered the female Dr. Wheeler was the lack of hospital facilities for Afro-Americans short of the basements of hospitals such as Erlanger Hospital and Newell Clinic.

After ten years, Dr. Emma Wheeler purchased two lots on the southwest corner of East 8th and Douglas Streets and built a three-story brick hospital using her own money.  There were three departments:  surgical, maternity, and nursing.  In-patient facilities included nine rooms with two beds each and a ward with twelve beds.

The hospital was staffed by two doctors, one of whom was herself, and three nurses; in addition, seventeen physicians and surgeons from Mountain City Medical Society serviced patients there.  Walden Hospital opened its doors for patients in July 1915.

Meanwhile, Dr. Joseph Wheeler moved his practice to the building where the Whole Note now stands.  His wife had an office there too.

Ten years later, frustrated by the lack of a nursing school for Afro-American women in the city, Dr. Wheeler established Walden Hospital Nurse Training School at her hospital.  The program lasted until 1945.

Also in 1925, Dr. Wheeler pioneered what may be considered the first managed care plan with the Nurse Service Club.  For a relatively small subscription each month (25¢), a client would be assured of an otherwise cost-free two-week stay in the hospital followed by at-home nursing care if needed for recovery.

For nearly forty years, Dr. Wheeler helmed Walden Hospital before being forced to step down by her own health issues, though she continued her own practice.  Walden Hospital shut its doors in June 1952.

Leo Frank case

In the summer of 1913, Leo Frank, a director of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta, Georgia, and president of the city’s B’nai Brith organization, was wrongly convicted of the murder of 14-year old worker Mary Phagan in the basement of the factory.  Frank’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed in April 1915.  The case connects to Chattanooga because the lawyers working on his appeal leaned on Judge Lewis Shepherd for advice and direction.

After reviewing the evidence and considering other information that had not been available at trial, Gov. John M. Slaton commuted Frank’s sentence from death to life imprisonment.  The Georgia National Guard had to be called out to protect Slaton from the outraged public. 

A secret society formed to take matters into its own hands called the Knights of Mary Phagan made up of some 28 men.  Thomas Watson, a Populist who once strongly advocated for poor whites and blacks working together but had since become one of the strongest advocates of segregation and white supremacy, openly called for Frank to be lynched.

On 16 August 1915, a mob broke into Milledgeville State Penitentiary where Frank was being held, kidnapped him, and hung him at Frey’s Gin, two miles east of Marietta, at 7 am the next morning.

Chattanooga Socialist Local, 1915

In this year, the Left Wing Local of the Socialist Party in Chattanooga voted unanimously to join the newly formed Socialist Propaganda League of America, a caucus within the bigger Socialist Party of America.  The SPLA would become the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party in 1919, the forerunner of the Communist Party USA.  As the Socialist Party was not segregated in Tennessee, this necessarily included a number of Chattanooga Afro-American radicals.

The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

The evening of Thanksgiving 1915 (November 25), Indiana-born William J. Simmons and seventeen other men who were almost all alumni of the Knights of Mary Phagan, founded the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Stone Mountain, Georgia. 

Despite claims to the contrary, the new organization had no connection to the postbellum terror organization.  Instead, it was based on Simmons’ interpretation of the highly romanticized fictional version he had seen in that year’s blockbuster movie, The Birth of a Nation.  Their fantasy roleplay combined with a subculture inherited from the White Caps movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the group’s actual antecedents.  For instance, individucal members of the earlier group were known as “Ghouls” rather than the more pretentious name of “Knights”.

The influence of D.W. Griffith’s movie should not be underestimated.  It was, for instance, the first motion picture ever to be shown in the White House, for a President Woodrow Wilson who sobbed at its conclusion.  Before the movie, the story had been the subject of a play in vaudeville houses across the South and the nation called The Clansman, based on Thomas Dixon’s novel of the same name.

In 1923, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan put forward full slates in the municipal elections of Chattanooga and Memphis.  Incredibly, they campaigned in the black communities of both cities.  This version of the Klan, they told them, wasn’t anti-black so much as anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, and anti-socialist.  In Memphis, at least, the local klavern even tried to persuade the Afro-American community to organize its own version of the Knights of the KKK.

The Town of North Chattanooga

By the second decade of the 20th century, the area immediately north of downtown Chattanooga across the Tennessee River had become widely known as North Chattanooga.  It was originally called Hill City.

In 1915, the almost exclusively white neighborhoods of eastern North Chattanooga incorporated themselves as a town.  In early November that year, Mayor J. Read Voight introduced an ordinance prohibiting Afro-Americans from settling inside its borders, with a grandfather clause allowing the two families already within the town to continue living there. 

It was also around this time that the name of Forest Avenue, which divided the Town of North Chattanooga from the unincorporated and mostly Afro-American section to the west, was changed to Forrest Avenue in honor of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first and perhaps only Grand Wizard of the postbellum Ku Klux Klan.

Within just a few years, however, the council of the town voted to annex the remaining unincorporated area of North Chattanooga, effectively cancelling out Voight’s racist ordinance.

Lincoln Park

In 1918, Chattanooga opened one of the first municipal public parks for Afro-Americans in the entire State of Tennessee.  It bordered the nearly forty-year old community of Citico City on the latter’s northwest.

At its height, Lincoln Park was three times or more the size that it is now, with not only a ballfield and picnic area but a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, other rides, tennis courts, a concession stand, a dance hall that doubled as a vaudeville and later movie theater, and the Links-o-Linc miniature golf course. 

In 1937, the park opened its olympic-sized swimming pool, built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), greatly enlarged from the original version first built.

The park attracted Afro-American visitors from all over the South, gave its name to the former Citico City, and in the 1929 season served as the home field for the Chattanooga Black Cats in the Negro Southern League.

Over 15,000 people came to Lincoln Park for the Fourth of July in 1947 from all over the South.

Despite its history and attractive features, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 barring segregation in public accommodations led to Lincoln Park’s decline once Warner Park was opened for Afro-Americans. 

Two-thirds of Lincoln Park are now occupied by peripheral facilities of Erlanger Hospital and the city has been trying to extend Central Avenue to Riverside Drive, which would greatly impact what is left.

Afro-American parks before Lincoln Park

The earliest park for Afro-Americans in Chattanooga, or at least in its suburbs, was Lovell’s Park in Bushtown, reachable by the Orchard Knob Division of the Chattanooga Union Railway (Belt Line), which opened in August 1889.  It was built and owned by John S. Lovell, nephew of noted community leader William Lewis, and included a race track for horses.  Privately owned, it lay on the site of today’s Carver Recreational Center, later becoming Washington Park, then Roosevelt Park, Magnolia Park, and Roosevelt Park again, under which name it became a public park of the City of Chattanooga a decade before.

At the turn of the century, there were three parks named Washington Park (probably for Booker T.), privately-owned and exclusively for the use of Afro-Americans, in the city and its near suburbs:  one west of Carter Street across from the end of Henry (West 19th) Street in South Chattanooga, one on Ruoh’s Crossing (Orchard Knob Avenue) in Bushtown, and one in Gambletown at the edge of Mountain Junction.  Nothing is available about the one in Gambletown, but the one in South Chattanooga was closed by order of the Chattanooga police chief due to several incidents of violent crime in September 1906.

The Washington Park shut down by the police chief was replaced shortly thereafter by Luna Park at the corner of Missionary Avenue (West 23rd Street) and Carter Street.  It served as home field in the 1909 and 1910 seasons for the barnstorming baseball club simply called Chattanooga.

About the same time, the Washington Park in Bushtown came into new ownership, which rechristened it Roosevelt Park.  In a few years, other new owners named it Magnolia Park, but that only lasted a year before it was reacquired by former owner Moses Stokes and the name reverted to Roosevelt Park.

Commissioner Joseph H. Warner of the then (1911) new Department of Public Utilities, Buildings, and Parks not only put his energy into renewing the current city-owned parks, all of which at the time were for whites-only, but purchasing existing private parks for both whites and for blacks in the community and making them city-funded public parks.

The parks for whites included Sam Houston Park in South Chattanooga, Boynton Park atop Cameron Hill, Montague Park near Oak Grove, the Chattanooga Electric Railway-owned Olympia Park at the edge of the city along East End (Central) Avenue, Jackson Park (circling the National Cemetery, then confined to the hill) and East Lake Park, with Olympia being turned into the crown jewel of the city park system as Warner Park.

For black residents, Warner pushed the city to purchase Luna Park and Roosevelt Park, the latter even though its community, Bushtown, was not yet in the city limits, and like his vision for Olympia Park, he planned Lincoln Park as the crown jewel for the city and the region’s Afro-American citizens.

Chattanooga Negro League baseball

For a period of fifty years, Chattanooga hosted baseball teams that played in the Negro Southern League, that went barnstorming, or did both in different seasons.  Regarding what barnstorming was, think The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976).

The city’s Afro-American community fielded a team known simply as Chattanooga in the earliest of Negro League in the country, the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists, which lasted one season, 1886.

The Chattanooga Unions barnstormed during the 1901 season, home-based at Stanton Field.

Another team simply known as Chattanooga barnstormed during the 1909 and 1910 seasons, home-based at Luna Park in South Chattanooga on the West Side.

The Chattanooga Black Lookouts I played in the Negro Southern League in the 1920 season, based at Andrews Field.

The Chattanooga Tigers barnstormed during seasons 1921-1923, home-based at Andrews Field.

The Chattanooga White Sox played in the Negro Southern League in the first half of the 1926 season, home-based at Andrews Field.

The Chattanooga Black Lookouts II (White Sox renamed) played the second half of the 1926 season and all of the 1927 season in the Negro Southern League, home-based at Andrews Field.  In the 1927 season, they were league champions.

The Chattanooga Black Cats played in the Negro Southern League in the 1929 season, home-based at Lincoln Park Field.

The Chattanooga Black Lookouts III played in the Negro Southern League during the 1931 season, home-based at Engel Stadium, and barnstormed for seasons 1933-1936.

The Chattanooga Choo Choos barnstormed during seasons 1940-1944 and played in the Negro Southern League during seasons 1945-1948, home-based at Engel Stadium.

The Chattanooga All-Stars barnstormed during the 1949 season.

The Chattanooga Black Choo Choos played in the Negro Southern League during the 1950 season, home-based at Engel Stadium.

The Chattanooga Stars played in the Negro Southern League during the 1951 season, home-based at Engel Stadium.

Two of the greatest baseball players in the history of the Negro Leagues who later played Major League Baseball got their start in pro ball in Chattanooga:

Satchel Paige (widely regarded as the greatest pitcher of all time, black or white) got his start with the Chattanooga White Sox.

Willie Mays (who shares the record number of All-Star games with Hank Aaron and Stan Musial) got his start with the Chattanooga Choo Choos.

NAACP in Chattanooga

Two of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909 in NYC had strong ties to Tennessee.  W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells both attended Fisk University in Nashville.  Between the two, Mississippi-born Ida B. Wells had ties that were stronger as she had moved to Memphis early in her adult life.

Of all the civil rights leaders of that era, Ida B. Wells stands out, stands tall, and stands alone.  She was a fierce advocate for both her fellow Afro-Americans and her fellow women, especially rape victims.  She was the explicitly anointed successor of Frederick Douglas himself and the leading anti-lynching crusader of her time.

Not until 1918, however, was a chapter of the NAACP organized in Chattanooga, with M.W. Dent as its secretary.  For various reasons, the city chapter had difficulties in its early years and was later surpassed in popularity by Marcus Garvey’s organization here.  After that, it existed only on paper and had to be rechartered in 1940.

Hamilton County endorses white supremacy

In 1919, the A.P. Stewart camp of the United Daughers of the Confederacy joined with the local klavern of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to install an equestrian statue of former Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart, last general commanding of the Confederacy’s Army of Tennessee, on the front lawn of the county courthouse, in full Confederate uniform.  The groups ended up having to settle for a bust.

For eighteen years, Stewart was a commissioner of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.  Its board was composed of three members, one from the War Department, one from the Union army, and one from the Confederate army.  It was by mutual agreement of the first two that Stewart was chosen as the last.

Such an action could only have been taken with the support of the county judge and county court.  It also spit in the face of history, given that the vote on secession for Tennessee 8 June 1861 had been overwhelmingly against such action in Hamilton County, with a vote of 1260 against versus 854 in favor.  The prior vote in February that year had been even more lopsided against.

James County schools for Afro-Americans

In 1871, the eastern half of the county broke away as James County, with its seat at the Town of Ooltewah.  For the Town of Harrison, this was both snub and insult, since having the county seat moved from it to the Town of Chattanooga was what had caused it to initiate the separation.

In 1919, the county went bankrupt and folded, merging back into Hamilton County.  With this merger, three more schools for Afro-American children entered the Hamilton County school system.  These were Georgetown School (Colored), Ooltewah School (Colored), and Summit School. 

At one time there had also been an Apison School (Colored), but the families whose children attended it had relocated out of that area.

After James County’s schools had been absorbed by Hamilton, the newly-enlarged county system merged Ooltewah (Colored) into Summit School.

Booker T. Washington School

In 1924, Turkey Foot School, Magby Pond School, and Tyner School (Colored) consolidated to become Booker T. Washington School.  At first, the schools served grades one through eight, but it added a grade every year until a separate high school was formed in 1930.  The funds for the building were provided by the Rosenwald Fund and the curriculum was designed by the Tuskegee Institute.

According to C.B. Robinson, many of the parents in Bushtown, Churchville, Stanleyville, Orchard Knob, and Rosstown preferred to send their children to Booker T. Washington High once it developed rather than Howard.

The new school was located in the Shot Hollow community, centered on Shot Hollow Road from state Highway 58 to Hickory Valley Road, the surviving stretch of which became Oakwood Drive soon after the U.S. Army’s taking half the road and community for the TNT plant in 1940.

While its curriculum was largely determined by Tuskegee, Washington School was a public school that was part of the Hamilton County system until it was annexed by Chattanooga in 1975.  The city closed the high school when it annexed the area, as it had previously done with East Chattanooga School (Colored) in 1925 and East Dale School (Colored) in 1953, but continued Washington Elementary School until 1989, when it became one of the sixteen schools closed that year.

Other Rosenwald schools

The Rosenwald Fund had previously replaced the building of East Dale School (Colored) and established Harrison School (Colored) in 1923.  In 1926, it provided Chickamauga School (Colored) and Summit School with brand new buildings.

At the 1928-1929 school year, the foundation established Roland Hayes School at Crutchfield Street and Riverside Drive for the Afro-American children of Sherwood Forest and Bozentown between Riverside Drive and Amnicola Highway, and later Riverside Park and Roland Hayes Courts.

Bessie Smith was a badass

Now, I’ve heard two versions of this story about the Empress of the Blues, so I’m using poetic license to choose my favorite.

Bessie Smith had her great homecoming to Chattanooga after making it big in March 1925.  For it, she and her troupe scheduled shows seven nights in a row at the Liberty Theatre at 312 East 9th Street, an establishment that was white-owned but for blacks only as clientele.

After the show, she and her troupe went to a nearby juke joint which was supposed to have delicious pigs feet, collard greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread.  They ate their fill, then drink plenty, and danced on the makeshift dance floor.

One of the male customers, a local, kept messing with one of her troupe, and Bessie got in his face.  When he wanted to know who the hell she thought she was, she knocked him flat on his ass.

Around four in the morning, after the liquor was all gone, Bessie and her troupe were headed back to their hotel.  The rude dude from earlier that night appeared out of the dark and stuck a knife in Bessie’s side, then took off.  Bessie ran after him, chasing him for three blocks then stabbing him with the same knife before collapsing.

People took her to Erlanger Hospital, where she was treated for her injuries and recommended at least two days of bed rest.  She refused, going back to her hotel and performing for the matinee crowd at two in the afternoon.

Marcus Garvey’s UNIA in Chattanooga

Marcus Garvey visited Chattanooga in 1923 and spoke at meetings held here, but his ideas did not take off until 1925.  In that year, Milton Manyard, formerly of Chicago, organized the Chattanooga Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and along with it a unit of UNIA’s uniformed paramilitary arm, the African Legion. 

The division was fully organized by the end of the year, at which it began meeting in the former Steele Home for Needy Children at 865 East 4th Street, which the members rechristened Chattanooga Liberty Hall (after Liberty Hall in Harlem).  Chattanooga was the only major municipality in the state where Garvey’s ideas gained any traction, but by early 1927, weekly meetings at Chattanooga Liberty Hall were filled to capacity.

On Thursday, 4 August 1927, Chattanooga police attempted to raid a UNIA meeting at the hall, but found themselves blocked by uniformed and armed members of the African Legion.  The Legion members would not let the cops in because they did not have a warrant.

In the resulting melee, one policeman and two Legion members were wounded.  The two wounded, James Jackson and Ira Johnson, were charged with felonies along with fellow UNIA members Emery Bailey and Louis Moore.  They were acquitted of the felonies but found guilty of the misdemeanors, fined $50, and sentenced to 60 days.

For the next couple of years, the Chattanooga Division seems to have gone dark, but in 1929 it resurfaced, with the same liaison as before, Minerva Alexander, reporting to to UNIA’s national office.  However, this was just before the Great Depression and the arrival of a new player in town.

Red Chattanooga

In the late 19th century, Afro-Americans had their own local chapter of the Knights of Labor, with about 150 members.  The white local had twice that many members, but there were also more white workers.  Though separate by necessity, the two coordinated their actions as much as they could.

By the second decade of the 20th century, the Chattanooga local of the Socialist Party of America included both blacks and whites.  The city’s Left Wing Local of SPA voted unanimously in 1915 to join the radical Socialist Propaganda League within the party.  Allied to the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, the SPL was the primary antecedent of SPA’s Left Wing Section in 1919 that ultimately became the Communist Party USA (CPUSA).

CPUSA’s first inroad into the city of Chattanooga came in 1930 via the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL).  The TUUL was CPUSA’s arm for organizing labor at the time.  The local was staffed by Amy Shechter, Fred Totheroe, Red Hendrix, and an “unnamed Negro” (according to the Chattanooga Times).

Tom Johnson came to Chattanooga as chief organizer for the entire Southern region as well as chair of CPUSA’s District 17 (TN, GA, AL).  Regional and district headquarters were located here in Chattanooga.  Afro-American members of the party’s Central Committee Harry Haywood and Hosea Hudson took a special interest in the region and were heavily involved in both the Scottsboro case and the Share Croppers Union.

Sherman Bell, a resident of Chattanooga and major figure of the local black community, served as chair of the local branch of CPUSA’s recently founded League of Struggle for Negro Rights, whose national chair was poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes .

One of TUUL’s first organizing activities here was creating an Unemployed Council , the chair of which was Amy Licht.  Another was an anti-lynching conference in 1930.  The TUUL and local party also produced information forums, held conferences and conventions, organized demonstrations, and supported anti-eviction protests.

CPUSA’s regional newspaper, Southern Worker, began publishing in 1930, with issues printed in a Rossville, Georgia, shop that had the North Georgia kleagle (recruiter) of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan as one of its owners.

The Scottsboro Boys

On 25 March 1931, a Southern Railway freight train left Chattanooga bound for Memphis, carrying a number of hoboes which included nine young black men, am equal number of young white men, and two female mill workers who on occasion worked as prostitutes.  At the Stevenson, AL, station, a dispute broke out along racial lines, and the blacks disembarked.

The black men soon found themselves arrested for rape of the two white women, but escaped being lynched by the angry mob because they were fiercely protected by the sheriff to whose jail they were brought.  Tried by an all-white jury in the seat of Jackson County at Scottsboro, they were all convicted.  With the exception of the 13-year old defendant, they were sentenced on 9 April to be electrocuted on 10 July that same year.

Licht learned of their plight while she was in jail awaiting trial for sedition over a speech she never gave at a demonstration of the unemployed that never happened.  After the defendants were acquitted, Licht related the whole story to Joe Brodsky, their lawyer from the International Labor Defense, the party’s legal arm.

That was how the ILD became defender of the Scottsboro Nine for their appeals, which eventually reached the Supreme Court.  Brodsky was assisted by Irving Schwab and Allen Taub, with their base here in Chattanooga.  In fact, it was the ILD and Southern Worker which made the case a national and international issue.

Share Croppers Union

In 1931, recently arrived from his time training in Moscow, Mack Coad, a black CPUSA leader, ran for city judge.  He did not win.  He did, however, remain in the city to help organize the working class.

Another venture of District 17, one which had effects that lasted into the 1960’s, was the Share Croppers Union.  Originally based in Birmingham, it headquarters had to strategically redeploy to Chattanooga sometime after its founding.  The SCU gathered under one roof both black and white sharecroppers.  Mack Coad was the party’s main liaison to the SCU.

The TUUL closed its doors in 1935 when CPUSA supported the new Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).  In 1937, the SCU merged into the CIO’s United Cannery Agricultural Packers and Allied Workers of America.

Veterans of SCU became the most hardcore supporters of SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) in the 1960s.

Apex and collapse of Chattanooga’s CPUSA

In 1937, CPUSA held its regional convention and forum for the entire South at the city’s Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Auditorium.  Its keynote speaker was the CPUSA’s general secretary, Earl Browder. 

Not a single one of the city’s three newspapers—Chattanooga Times, Chattanooga Free Press, Chattanooga News—reported on the convention, not even its having taken place.

Shortly afterwards, a change in its marching orders from the Comintern shifting from “Third Period” tactics that were more confrontational to the “Popular Front” tactics of resisting fascism, forced the militancy of the CPUSA to decline, and with that its local support. 

The Southern Worker (always published from Chattanooga regardless of what its banner said) ceased publication after its September 1937 issue. 

Many of CPUSA’s most experienced cadre left to fight Francisco Franco’s fascist Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers for the Republican cause in the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the XV International Brigade.  Locals known to have done so include Harold George Forsha and at least four others, plus former SCU liaison Mack Coad.

Booker T. Washington State Park

Officially established as Harrison Bay Negro State Park in 1938, this park was one of the two first state parks in Tennessee for Afro-Americans; by 1940, its name had become Booker T. Washington State Park for Negroes.  The Tennessee Valley Authority had proposed putting one somewhere in East Tennessee and the Hamilton County Planning Commission lobbied hard for it to be located here as a counterpart to the Harrison Bay State Park.

Harrison Bay Park, established in 1937, was the first ever state park in Tennessee and included the outskirts of the town and former county seat of Harrison, the center of which would soon lay beneath Chickamauga Lake.  Under state segregation laws, it was for whites only.

Washington State Park was built by Afro-Americans units of the Civilian Conservation Corps and opened in 1938.  Though in two years it would be lake side, the gates of Chickamauga Dam were not closed until 1940.

The land the park was built on had previously been the Afro-American community of Turkey Foot, whose residents, like all those within a certain distance from the expected reservoir, had been evacuated.

While opened to the public in 1938, Washington State Park (like its counterpart) sat on land still owned by TVA, and further work on facilities was interrupted by the Second World War.  Not until 1948 did construction resume in earnest, finishing by the time the land became property of the State of Tennessee (along with that of  its neighbor) in 1950, when it was dedicated by the state.

Though this park declined somewhat after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolished segregation in public accomodations, it bounced back and is today equal to its larger neighbor in affinities if not in size.

Earl Campbell Clinic and Mrs. Elizabeth Tolliver

In 1939, Dr. Earl Campbell, a Kentucky native recently relocated to the city, open Campbell’s Clinic at 525 McCallie Avenue.  While Campbell was white, his establishment merits a notice because both his staff and its patients were integrated.

In the 1960s, Dr. Campbell expanded his operation into Campbell General Hospital, which fronted on Vine Street, though the two facilities were connected physically and otherwise.  Both ceased operation in 1987, but the buildings still remain, now serving as UTC’s Frist Hall.

Campbell was one of a few white surgeons that operated on Afro-Americans at Erlanger.  Those patients would then be taken to Walden to recover.  One day, a patient refused transfer, so Campbell placed him in a room behind the lab, with his Afro-American sterile technician, Elizabeth Tolliver, to watch over him.  This began her on-the-job training as a practical nurse.

In time, more and more Afro-American patients refused transfer to Walden for recovery and Erlanger established a recovery area in the basement of an attached building that became known as “Elizabeth’s Ward”. 

Mrs. Tolliver became the first Afro-American to graduate from Erlanger’s licensed practical nursing program after it desegregated and, along with a friend, the first Afro-American to eat in the hospital’s cafeteria.

Historic Afro-American churches

As reported by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in its Guide to Church Vital Statistics in Tennessee in 1942.  Many of these communities, even some of those predominantly Afro-American, had white residents who also had churches, but those aren’t part of this article.  The churches are divided by community, with the name of each as listed by WPA followed by the address and year of foundation.  This survey covers the entire county.

Entries are by the name of the church given in the report, followed by the address (usually), then the year of its founding.

Alton Park

Northern part of the area between Hawkins’ Ridge and Chattanooga Creek.

St. Peter’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, East 39th Street and Ohls Avenue, 1924

St. James Missionary Baptist Church, 130 West 45th Street, 1932

Antioch

Greenwood Road south of Greenwood Cemetery and the western halves of Plumwood Road and Hillwood Drive.

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, 1892

Blue Goose Hollow

West of Cameron Hill and north of West 6th Street, which came over the hill about where West MLK Boulevard does now.

Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 755 West 6th Street, 1923

Grace Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, 620 Cross Street, 1898

Bozentown

North of Fairleigh Street between Benton Avenue and Riverside Drive to Wood Avenue after it turns right and intersects Riverside Drive

Joseph Chapel, African Methodist Episcopal Church, Wood Avenue and Farleigh Street (was McChesney Avenue), 1921

First Baptist Church of Bozentown, Benton Avenue, 1931

Bushtown

Roughly, from the Holtzclaw Avenue to North Orchard Knob Avenue between East Third Street and Citico Avenue.

Good Hope Primitive Baptist Church, 1234 Garfield Street, 1912 (Monteagle Baptist from 1912 to 1920)

Bushtown Missionary Baptist Church, Hawthorne Street near Harrison Avenue (East 3rd Street), 1913

New Anointing Pure Holiness Church, 418 North Holly Street, 1927

Shiloh Primitive Baptist Church, 1615 Preston Street, 1933

House of Prayer Church of God, 421 North Hickory Street, 1936

East Third Street Church of God, 1252 East 3rd Street, 1938

Churchville

Roughly, from North Orchard Knob Avenue to Dodson Avenue between East 3rd Street and Citico Avenue, except for the part that is Stanleyville.

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2005 Walker Road, 1884

Mount Olivet Primitive Baptist Church, southeast corner of Walker Avenue (Road) and Lincoln Street (no longer extant), 1890s

The House of God, Which is the Church of the Living God, The Pillar and Ground of the Truth Without Controversy, 2020 Blackford Street, 1908

Rose of Sharon Missionary Baptist Church, 2001 Blackford Street, 1931

Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, 1900 Citico Avenue, 1934

Citico City (Lincoln Park)

Between Central Avenue and the tracks of the Citico, now DeButts, Rail Yards, this community was established as Citico City and has since become known as Lincoln Park.

Tucker’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, northeast corner of O’Neal and Garfield Streets, 1906

St. James Holiness Church, 1126 Lincoln Street

College Hill (Westside)

South of West 9th Street to West Main Street between Cameron Hill and the Union Rail Yards.

Second Missionary Baptist Church, 1324 Grove Street, 1866

Leonard Street Presbyterian Church, USA, 401 West 10th Street, 1888 (formerly in Tannery Flats)

Friendship Primitive Baptist Church, 831 West 11th Street, 1900

New Zion Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas, 1130 Grove Street, 1913

West Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, 410 West 14th Street, 1929

Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, 1401 Carter Street, 1932

Antioch Primitive Baptist Church No. 2, 927 West 14th Street, 1933

Downtown Chattanooga

Officially, Chattanooga’s downtown has always been south of the river to Ninth Street (now MLK Boulevard) between Georgia Avenue and Cameron Hill, or rather the westernmost street (Cypress, with Cedar, Popular, Pine, then Chestnut before Broad Street/Railroad Avenue/Mulberry Street).

Wiley Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church, 504 Lookout Street, 1867

Warren’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Chestnut and Sixth Street, 1871

Jehovah Missionary Baptist Church, 917 Poplar Street, 1933

East End

South of East 34th Street between Jerome Avenue, Workman (formerly Hamill) Road, and 3rd Avenue.  All but erased from the Chattanooga landscape now, it is usually counted as part of East Lake.

Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 4303 7th Avenue, 1904

East Lake

East of Missionary Ridge to 3rd Avenue between East 28th and East 36th Streets.

Union Congregational Church, 3204 14th Avenue, 1892

East Side

Includes everything north of the East End Rail Yards between Georgia Avenue and Central (formerly East End) Avenue to East 3rd Street.

First Baptist Church, 506 East 8th Street, 1866

*First Congregational Church, 901 Lindsay Street, 1867

Thompkins’ Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Palmetto and Flynn Streets, 1875

St. James Missionary Baptist Church, 823 Mabel Street, 1886

Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 938 Red Street, 1889

New Monumental Missionary Baptist Church, 715 East 8th Street, 1890

Allen’s Temple, African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1014 East 4th Street, 1892

New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, East 11th and Wall Streets, 1912

**St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church, 614 East 8th Street, 1915

Olivet Missionary Baptist Church, 921 University Place, 1921

Galatia Early Church of God in Christ, 746 East 10th Street, 1927

Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church, 828 East 5th Street, 1928

Springfield Missionary Baptist Church, 418 East 10th Street, 1932

Triumph, The Church and Kingdom of God in Christ No. 2, 400 Central Avenue, 1932

Church of the First Born of the Living God, 300 East 10th Street, 1938

* First Congregational was the first church in Chattanooga with both black and white congregants.

** In its early years, St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal held services at 8 am in the Lady Chapel of Christ Episcopal, and both congregations worshipped together at Solemn Evensong on Sunday evenings.  The two congregations also celebrated Mass together on major feast days, something which continued even after St. Mary’s moved into their place on East 8th Street.

Fort Cheatham

East of Missionary Ridge to 4th Avenue from I-24 south to East 28th Street.

New Enon Missionary Baptist Church, 2311 12th Avenue, 1930

Fort Negley

East of Market Street to Rossville Avenue and Washington Street between East Main and East 20th Streets.

New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 1809 Kerr Street, 1905

New Bethel Fire Baptized Holiness, 1800 Kerr Street, 1917

Thankful Missionary Baptist Church, 2125 Read Avenue, 1933

Fort Wood

The Afro-American section of this neighborhood was north of Carolina (East 5th) Street, spilling over Harrison Avenue (East 3rd Street) on boths sides of Baroness Erlanger Hospital, between East End (Central) Avenue and Southern Railway.

Fort Wood Missionary Baptist Church, corner of Harrison Avenue (East 3rd Street) and Wiehl Street

Foust Place

South Hickory Street to 4th Avenue between I-24 and East 28th Street.

Greater St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, 100 East 23rd Street, 1930

Harrison

Suburbs of the former town and former county seat of Harrison.

Mount Joy Missionary Baptist Church, Oakwood Drive (formerly Shot Hollow Road), 1898

Hawkinsville

Formerly just north of Tyner village across Bonny Oaks Drive (originally Chattanooga-Cleveland Pike).

Tyner Methodist Church, Central Jurisdiction, Tyner, 1888 (was Phillip’s Temple Methodist Episcopal until 1939, moved west to Jersey and became Washington Hills United Methodist in 1969)

Hawkinsville Missionary Baptist Church, Hickory Valley Road, 1907

Hill City

North of the river between Stringer’s Ridge and Forest Avenue.

Hurst Memorial Methodist Church, 901 Dallas Road, 1866

Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, 101 Lawn Street, 1884

Hixson (Jasper)

Centered around the crossing of Hixson Pike (formerly Dallas Pike) over the Cincinnati, New Orleans, & Texas Pacific Railway.  These churches were in the Afro-American section of the community known as Jasper.

Hixson Methodist Church (Col.), Mill Road

Hixson Missionary Baptist Church (Col.), Jasper Road, 1929

Hooterville

South of I-24 to Chattanooga Creek and west of Market Street.

St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2514 Williams Street, 1897

New Sardis Primitive Baptist Church, 1622 Carr Street, 1898

Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church, 50 West 24th Street, 1908

Greater Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, 2634 Williams Street, 1911

Emanuel Missionary Baptist Church, West 24th Street, 1915

Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church, 2740 Williams Street, 1921

St. Mary’s Missionary Baptist Church, 316 West 29th Street, 1922

Hamlett’s Mission Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, 2301 Long Street, 1932

Howard Mission African Methodist Episcopal, Chestnut and West 25th Streets, 1938

Jefferson Heights

East of Fort Negley, south of East Main Street between Madison Street and the railroad.

Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, 1616 Washington Street, 1913

Johnsonville

First Baptist Church of Brainerd, 333 North Germantown Road, 1917

Little Egypt (East Chattanooga)

West of Dodson Avenue and from the Southern Railway to include at least the south side of Farleigh Street, the area was majority Afro-American but with a substantial white, mostly poor minority.

Rock Island Missionary Baptist Church, 2104 Farleigh Street, 1873

Sholar Avenue Baptist Church, 1604 Sholar Avenue

Lookout Mountain

The town in Tennessee atop the eponymous mountain.

First Missionary Baptist Church, 203 North Bragg Avenue, 1904

Ooltewah

Former seat of of the former James County.

Ooltewah Methodist Church (Col.), Ooltewah, 1870

First Missionary Baptist Church (Col.), Black Ankle, 1908

Orchard Knob

North of McCallie Avenue to East 3rd Street between Holtzclaw Avenue and North Lyerly Street.

Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist Church, East 3rd and Hawthorne Streets, 1887

Clegg’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Methodist Zion Church, 356 North Holly Street, 1889

Park City

North of Doyle Street along Cannon Avenue between Chattanooga Creek and Rossville Boulevard.

Church of God and Saints in Christ, 2621 Cannon Street, 1910

Park City African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2722 Cannon Street, 1917

Beulah Missionary Baptist Church, 1301 Commerce Street, 1927

Rosstown

North Lyerly Street to Derby Street between McCallie Avenue and East 5th Street, this community has been obliterated by Parkridge Hospital.

St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church, Vine and North Watkins Streets, 1906

St. Elmo

Between Lookout Mountain and Hawkins Ridge.

Patten Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church, 3817 Church Street, 1886

St. Elmo Missionary Baptist Church (Col.), 810 West 37th Street, 1890

St. Cephas Primitive Baptist Church, 3411 George Street, 1918

Shepherd (Chickamauga)

The name of the community is actually Chickamauga but the post office adopted the name Shepherd in 1895.

Chickamauga Baptist Church (North Chickamauga and Chattanooga Association of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.; reported extant by WPA in 1940), 1867

Pilgrim Rock Missionary Baptist Church, 1726 Church Road, 1887

St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1724 Chickamauga Loop, 1898

Washington Park Baptist Church, 1823 Tuskegee Boulevard, 1941

Shot Hollow

Mount Joy Missionary Baptist Church, Shot Hollow Road, 1898

Soddy

The northern part of Soddy-Daisy.

Soddy African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1880

Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, 1926

South Chattanooga

South of Main Street between the river and Central Avenue, excepting here Hooterville, Fort Negley, and Jefferson Heights and including the area between East Main Street and the Terminal Station Rail Yards.

Mount Paran Missionary Baptist Church, 1920 Cowart Street, 1879

Union Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 2740 Williams Street, 1886

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, West Main and Cedar Streets, 1892

Carter Street Missionary Baptist Church, 1955 Carter Street, 1898

Triumph, The Church and Kingdom of God in Christ, 2415 Long Street, 1917

Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, 1708 South Market Street, 1926

St. Ruth’s Primitive Baptist Church, 1000 Elm Street, 1926

Williams Street Church of Christ, West 19th and Williams Streets, 1926

Fort Street Church of God in Christ, 2102 Fort Street, 1931

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, 1308 Slayton Street, 1934

Alleyne Memorial Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1601 Williams Street, 1936

Church of The Living God, Christian Workers for Fellowship, 2319 Chestnut Street, 1938

South Eastdale

This was the Afro-American section of Eastdale centered on Moss, South, and Line Streets in the southeast of the suburb.  Originally the church was at the west end of Johnsonville but was now cut off by the town of Ridgeside.

Mission Ridge Baptist Church, 239 Shallowford Road, 1868

Stanleytown (Stanleyville)

From North Willow Street to Arlington Avenue between Blackford Street and Citico Avenue.  For several decades most people have counted it as part of its neighbor Churchville.

Stanley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, Blackford Street and Dodson Avenue, 1886

Prospect Missionary Baptist Church, 1887

Mount Ollie Primitive Baptist Church, 1891

Zion Early Church of God in Christ, 666 Lincoln Street, 1933

Summit

Centered on the area between Chattanooga-Cleveland Pike and Old Lee Highway east of School Street, but includes a much larger area.

St. Peter’s Missionary Baptist Church, 1897

Field’s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1898

Mt. Olive Primitive Baptist Church, No. 2, 1908

Tannery Flats

West of Cameron Hill and south of West 6th Street to West Main Street.

St. James Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 911 West 14th Street, 1889

Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1218 Ross Street, 1895

Friendship Primitive Baptist Church,1353 Ross Street, 1912

Second Cumberland Presbyterian, 1022 Cross Street, 1934

Turkey Foot

The autonomous Afro-American community of Turkey Foot was located where Booker T. Washington State Park is now and adjacent areas now beneath Chickamauga Lake.

Turkey Foot Missionary Baptist Church (mentioned by C.B. Robinson and historians of Shepherd community), c. 1867

Mount Cavalry Missionary Baptist Church, 1932

Afro-American WACs at Fort Oglethorpe

During the Second World War, Fort Oglethorpe served once again as POW camp for captured Germans and detention center for German resident aliens and some German-Americans as it had in the First World War.  What is not as well known is that it also hosted the main training center for both white and black recruits to the Women’s Army Corps (WAC).

According to Raymond Evans, the black recruits into the WAC refused to abide by or even acknowledge the existence of Georgia’s segregation laws and customs.  They ate, entertained, and did business wherever and with whomever they chose.  No one tried to stop them, some because they were sympathetic, some because they were too polite, and the rest because they were too afraid. 

After the war, many of these Afro-American WAC vets became frontline leaders in the civil rights movement, not only in Chattanooga and the surrounding area but across the nation.

City and county schools later in Jim Crow

In 1921, Howard High School began classes in its new location at Carter and West 10th Streets, where it remained until it moved to its present location at 2500 South Market Street in 1954.

The City of Chattanooga annexed the communities of “East Chattanooga, Avondale, and Churchville” in 1925, the last including Bushtown and Stanleyville.  Rosstown and the remainder of Orchard Knob were annexed in 1923 along with Glendale. 

With this, East Chattanooga School (Colored) should have come into the Chattanooga City Schools; however, the city chose to close it and ship its students to Orchard Knob School, which was also in the annexation.  At first, the city attempted to redesignate the latter as 10th District School, but its original name held.

In addition, the city changed Lincoln High (also in the area annexed) into Lincoln Junior High, sending its 10th, 11th, and 12th grades to Howard High and moving the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades of Orchard Knob to Lincoln.

This same year, the city also annexed the suburbs of Fort Cheatham, Foust Place, East Lake, East End, White City, and Park City.  The city closed East End School, sending its students to Fort Cheatham School.

By the county’s 1927-1928 school year, Daisy School (Colored) had been merged into Soddy School (Colored).

Meanwhile, the city had turned over the formerly all-white Second District School in the Westside at West 11th and Cedar Streets for the use of the Afro-American children in the area.  It added grades to become Second District Elementary and Junior High School.

The city also replaced the East Eleventh Street School with Joseph E. Smith School at East 10th and Peeples Streets.

Lookout Mountain School (Colored) opened on North Bragg Street for the 1928-1929 school year.

When the city annexed the town of North Chattanooga in 1930, North Chattanooga School (Colored) became Spears Avenue School.  The same year, the city opened Calvin Donaldson School.

In the 1933-1934 school year, Park City School opened at 2608 Cannon Street, a belated replacement for East End School.

At the end of the 1935-1936 school year, the city closed Lincoln Junior High School, transferring its students to what became Orchard Knob Elementary and Junior High School.  Junior high school divisions were also established at Calvin Donaldson, East Fifth Street, and Second District Schools.

The county merged Harrison School (Colored) into Booker T. Washington School in 1938.

By the 1940-1941 school year, James A. Henry School opened at West 12th and Grove Streets, primarily serving the children of College Hill Courts.

By the 1950-1951 school year, Main Street School had been renamed West Main Street School and Second District Junior High School had dropped its lower elementary grades.

The city annexed the mixed community of East Dale in 1953 and closed East Dale Elementary School (Colored), transferring its students to the county’s Chickamauga Elementary School in the Shepherd community.

Carver Memorial Hospital

In 1945, the city and the county gave “the Negro citizens of Chattanooga” the former West Ellis Hospital on West 9th Street to refurbish into a modern facility.  Two years later, Carver Memorial Hospital opened it doors and began receiving patients.

Named for famed Afro-American agricutural scientist George Washington Carver, who among many things invented peanut butter, Carver Memorial was the only municipally-owned, publicly-supported hospital for Afro-Americans in the entire United States.

Interestingly, the local NAACP opposed the new hostpital on the grounds that it was a segregated facility.

Carver was fully accredited fully accredited by the American College of Surgeons and by the National Hospital Association. It had an operating room, laboratory, X-ray facilities, and a maternity and nursery suite.  There were 45 adult beds, 5 pediatric beds, and 11 natal bassinettes.

Its staff included 18 physicians, 11 nurses, one laboratory supervisor, one X-ray technician, one chef, and two office clerks.  Its only white member was the hospital administrator.  The hospital had a managed care plan based on that of Walden Hospital.

In 1948, Carver opened satellite outpatient clinics for charity patients.  The hospital had planned to open an in-house nursing school, but those plans never reached fruition.

Carver Memorial Hospital fell victim to the Golden Gateway urban renewal project and was demolished in 1962.

Afro-Americans back on the beat

In 1948, along with police forces in at least the larger cities across the state, Chattanooga once again saw black officers on its streets for the first time since Reconstruction, seven in all.  However, these officers were limited to foot patrols in Afro-American neighborhoods, and if they encountered white offenders had to radio for white officers to come to the scene.

Chattanooga City College

Despite widespread belief that Chattanooga never hosted a collegiate institution for Afro-Americans, that is not true.

In 1948, Lee Roberson, pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church, and Tennessee Temple College sponsored the organization of Zion Baptist Institute for Afro-American high school graduates.  The next year it became Zion College, offering a dual two-year degree with Tennessee Temple. 

The new school first held classes in New Monumental Baptist Church, which at the time was on East 9th Street (it’s now in Woodmore).

At first, Zion was a two-year junior college with a three-year seminary, then several departments were added in 1952.  Its first graduate was Horace Traylor in 1953, who later became president of the college.  It eventually grew to occupy three buildings on East 9th Street at numbers 1005, 1007, and 1014, the last of these being the original home of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church (and later Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity house).

After the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ordering desegregation of public schools, Roberson and Tennessee Temple severed their connection with Zion.

In 1958, Zion became a nonsectarian junior college.  In September 1963, the college moved temporarily into the former Park Place Junior High School until its new campus at the former Bright School on Fort Wood Street was finished remodeling.  In July 1964, it became Chattanooga City College with full SACS accreditation.

Horace Traylor became the first Afro-American to receive a degree from the University of Chattanooga when he got his master’s in 1965.

In July 1969, Traylor led Chattanooga City College into a merger with the University of Chattanooga as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

St. Francis Catholic Church and School

In 1949, the Chattanooga Deanery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville established the parish of St. Francis at the southeast corner of North Hickory Street and Carson Avenue, with Fr. John Balt as its founding (and only) pastor.  The deanery especially it as a home for the area’s Afro-American Catholics, though it was not formally segregated.  In fact, when St. Francis Catholic School opened next to it in 1950, it was explicitly integrated, though the majority of its student body were Afro-American.

The parish lasted until 1971.  The school closed in 1972 and merged with Sts. Peter and Paul Elementary School as All Saints’ Academy.

The Big Nine

Though he later joined his uncle business ventures, John S. Lovell’s wealth sprang initially from his grand Mahogany Hall, which occupied the block where Miller Park now sits.  Three stories tall, the establishment had a hotel, restaurants, saloons, casino, dancehall, and brothel.  Lovell chose that site specifically because it had previous been the site of the slave auction house, and his club drew many customers from as far away as the Deep South.

While the residential areas of Tadetown and Scruggstown grew up north and south, respectively, of East 9th Street, commercial and cultural development did not truly begin until the late 1890s.  This period of growth lasted until about the beginning of American participation in World War I.

Chattanooga’s nationally-recognized East Ninth Street Historic District covers not just East MLK Boulevard but adjacent and connected areas of East 8th, East 10th, and East 11th Streets with all their cross streets.  In its heyday, East 9th Street was to jazz what Beale Street in Memphis was to the blues.  As a mecca for Afro-American culture, East 9th Street compared to Memphis’ Beale Street and Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue.

Of those listed, most are taken from Chattanooga City Directory, 1952 edition.  Other information comes from Negro Motorist’s (Traveler’s) Green Book of various years.  Other info is gleaned from the transcript of Moses Freeman’s 1983 interview of C.B. Robinson.

In 1952, East 9th Street hosted at least twelve groceries, including a Red Food Store, plus a meat market and a fish market.

A tourist home was one in which a homeowner offered one or more rooms for temporary stay to travelers and tourists, sort of like a bed & breakfast.

A loan office was a pawnbroker.

Sales of liquor by the drink to the general public did not become legal again in Chattanooga until 1972, thus the reference to beer joints.  There was no such regulation of private clubs, however, so “social clubs” where you paid a nominal membership fee proliferated.  Some of these had liquor for sale to “members” while others allowed “members” to brown bag while they sold set ups and beer.

St. James Missionary Baptist Church, 825 Mabel St.

First Missionary Baptist Church, 506 East 8th St.

Walden Hospital, 528 E. 8th St.

Wilson’s Grocery Store, 601 E. 8th St.

St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church, 614 E. 8th St.

New Monumental Missionary Baptist Church, 715 E. 8th St.

Haney’s Nursery, 724 E. 8th St.

Thompkins’ Chapel AME Zion Church, 812 Palmetto St.

Mrs. J. Baker’s Tourist Home, 843 E. 8th St.

YWCA, 924 E. 8th St.

Eighth Street Seventh Day Adventist Church, 1005 E. 8th St.

J. Carter’s Tourist Home, 1022 E. 8th St.

Mrs. E. Brown’s Tourist Home, 1129 E. 8th St.

East Side Grill, 124-126 E. 9th St.

Chattanooga Observer, 3rd Floor, 124 1/2 E. 9th St.

First Congregational Church, 128 E. 9th St.

Volunteer Garage, E. 9th and Lindsay Sts.

Chattanooga Fisheries, 200 E. 9th St.

Grand Theater (vaudeville & movies), 201-203 E. 9th St.

L&G Co. Department Store, 202 E. 9th St.

Martin Hotel, 204 E. 9th St.

La Grand Eat Shop, 205 E. 9th St.

(Mrs. Annie Ruth) Conley’s Tavern, 2nd floor, 205 E. 9th St.

Dixie Cafeteria, 206 E. 9th St.

Rainbow Room (social club), 207 E. 9th St.

Largo Lounge (beer joint), 208A E. 9th St.

Tennessee Jewelers, 208B E. 9th St.

Lookout Shoe Shop, 209 E. 9th St.

        Previously: May’s Beauty Parlor

The Olympic Club (social club), 210 E. 9th St.

Mad Hatters, 210 1/2 E. 9th St.

The Anchor (beer joint), 211 E. 9th St.

Kelley’s Place (beer joint+), 212 E. 9th St.

Kelley’s Record Shop, 212 E. 9th St.

My Shine Parlor, 212 1/2 E. 9th St.

Walter Johnson’s Liquor Store, 213 E. 9th St.

Doo Drop Inn (food), 214 E. 9th St.

Surplus Salvage Store, 215-217 E. 9th St.

        Previously: Chief’s Restaurant (215 E. 9th)

May’s Liquors, 216 E. 9th St.

Brooks Barber Shop, 216A E. 9th St.

Mercury Cab Stand, 216 1/2 E. 9th St.

Peggy’s Beauty Box, 218 E. 9th St.

Green Light Barber Shop, 219 E. 9th St.

        Previously: Wright’s Barber Shop

Apex Beauty Shop, 220 E. 9th St.

        Previously: Harlem Theater (movies)

Julia’s Chili, 221 E. 9th St.

Right Way Pressing Club, 222 E. 9th St.

Hollywood Beauty Shop, 222 1/2 E. 9th St.

North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance, 223 E. 9th St.

Knox Barber Shop, 224 E. 9th St.

Bill Davis Shoe Shop, 225 E. 9th St.

Reece Millard Café No. 3, 226 E. 9th St.

Bon Ton Barber Shop, 227 E. 9th St.

Fox Furniture Compay, 229 E. 9th St.

Bon Ton Recreation Hall, 229 E. 9th St.

College Inn, 230-232 E. 9th St.

Dallas Hotel, 230 1/2 E. 9th St.

Harry’s Place (dry goods), 231 E. 9th St.

Gardenia Apartments, 231 1/2 E. 9th St.

Ace Loan Office, 233 E. 9th St.

Thomas Chicken Shack, 235 E. 9th St.

Cap’s Liquor Store, 237 E. 9th St.

Rose Drug Co., 239 E. 9th St.

Eskimo Jo Ice Cream, 300A E. 9th St.

Railway Salvage, 300B E. 9th St.

Bacon Grocery Co., 301 E. 9th St.

Rose Beauty Salon, 302A E. 9th St.

Rose Record Shop, 302B E. 9th St.

Bacon’s Market Meats, 303A E. 9th St.

City Dry Cleaners, 303B E. 9th St.

New Deal Barber Shop, 304 E. 9th St.

Factory Outlet Shoe Store, 305 E. 9th St.

Bill’s Shoe Shop, 306 E. 9th St.

Dallas Hotel Annex, 306 1/2 E. 9th St.

Grand Amusement Theater (movies), 307 E. 9th St.

Tatt’s Liquor, 309 E. 9th St.

Robert’s Lunch Room, 310 E. 9th St.

American Venetian Blind Co., 311A E. 9th St.

Perma-stone Construction Co., 311B E. 9th St.

Liberty Theatre (vaudeville & movies), 312 E. 9th St.

Kelley’s Meat Market, 313 E. 9th St.

Dayton Drug Store, 315 E. 9th St.

The Top Hat (beer joint), 317 E. 9th St.

Stephenson Transportation Co., 317 1/2 E. 9th St.

Watt’s Liquor, 320 E. 9th St.

        Previously: M-Y-B Package Shop

Manhattan Amusement Parlor & Billiards, 324 E. 9th St.

Lincoln Shoe Shop, 325 E. 9th St.

Kirk’s Super Market, 326 E. 9th St.

Mack’s Barber Shop, 327 E. 9th St.

Brown Derby Restaurant & Tavern, 329-331 E. 9th St.

Rowland Drugs, 330 E. 9th St.

Wood’s Café, 332 E. 9th St.

Rea’s Grocery, 334 E. 9th St.

400 Café, 400 E. 9th St.

Up-to-Date Grocery, 401 E. 9th St.

Charlie’s Restaurant, 402-404 E. 9th St.

Klein’s Quality Cleaners, 403-405 E. 9th St.

Linsey’s Barber Shop, 407 E. 9th St.

Dixon’s Apartments, 407 1/2 E. 9th St.

Acme Army Surplus Store, 409 E. 9th St.

Gene’s Place (food), 410 E. 9th St.

Curio Products (novelties), 411 E. 9th St.

        Previously: Reuben’s Place (food)

Phantom Barber Shop, 412 E. 9th St.

J.B. Campbell Grocery, 413 E. 9th St.

Pleasant Valley Baptist Church Mission, 415 E. 9th St.

East Ninth Street Hosiery Co., 417 E. 9th St.

Strange’s Beauty Salon & School of Cosmetology, 418 E. 9th St.

Helton Bros. Hatters, 419 E. 9th St.

Home Stores Grocery, 420 E. 9th St.

OK Laundry, 421 E. 9th St.

OK Photography Studio, 421 1/2 E. 9th St.

Kirby’s Book Store, 422 E. 9th St.

Venetian Inn (food), 423 E. 9th St.

Eidex Funriture Co., 425 E. 9th St.

Kelley’s Place (drug store+), 436 E. 9th St.

Cordie’s Beauty Salon, 427 E. 9th St.

Harrell’s Barber Shop, 429 E. 9th St.

American Legion Post No. 171, 429 1/2 E. 9th St.

Wigwam Tavern (beer joint), 430 E. 9th St.

Lookout Shine Parlor, 432 E. 9th St.

Barnes Radio Service, 434 E. 9th St.

Tip Top Liquors, 436 E. 9th St.

H&F Grocery, 437 E. 9th St.

Vinson Cleaners, 439-441 E. 9th St.

Red Food Store, 500 E. 9th St.

Good Luck Club (food), 501 E. 9th St.

Little Ann Beauty Shop, 503 E. 9th St.

Tuskegee Shoe Shop, 504 E. 9th St.

La Vogue Beauty Shop, 505 E. 9th St.

        Previously: Chandler’s Drug Co.

The Green Derby (food), 506 E. 9th St.

Jimmie’s Valet Service (dry cleaner), 507 E. 9th St.

Pete’s Casa Loma (food), 508 E. 9th St.

        Previously:  Dr. Joseph Wheeler

        Later:  Whole Note

Varner Brothers Shine Parlor, 509 1/2 E. 9th St.

East Side Notion Counter, 511 E. 9th St.

Roberts Furniture Co., 513 E. 9th St.

Midway Recreation (beer joint), 514 E. 9th St.

Universal Life Insurance, 515 E. 9th St.

Brazelton’s Photo Studio, 515 1/2 E. 9th St.

Blue Front Shine Parlor, 517 E. 9th St.

        Later: La Vogue Beauty Lounge

Puckett Bros. Tailoring Shop, 519 E. 9th St.

Pal Liquor Store, 520-522 E. 9th St.

Mann Bros. Service Station, 524-526 E. 9th St.

Eddie’s Place, 527 E. 9th St. (food)

Mattie Gray Lunch Room, 528 1/2 E. 9th St.

East Side Recreation Parlor (billiards), 530 E. 9th St.

Midway Radio Service, 531A E. 9th St.

Midway Shine Parlor, 531B E. 9th St.

Signal Manufacturing Co. (cabinets), 532 E. 9th St.

Early Bird Sandwich Shop, 533 E. 9th St.

Myrick’s Shine Parlor, 535 E. 9th St.

Sylvia’s Beauty Shop, 541 E. 9th St.

Simms’ Taxi, 915 University Pl.

Olivet Missionary Baptist Church, 921 University Pl.

Spur Distributing Co., 600-602 E. 9th St.

Solomon Grocery, 601 E. 9th St.

Union Protective Assurance, 603 E. 9th St.

Kendrick Radio & Electronic School, 609-611 E. 9th St.

Stephenson Motor Co., 613 E. 9th St.

Vandsco Posters, 615 E. 9th St.

Jackson’s Service Station, 618 E. 9th St.

Royal Electronic Co. (coin-operated machines), 619 E. 9th St.

Acme Coal Co., 622 E. 9th St.

Burger Distributing Co., 633-635 E. 9th St.

Red Top Brewing Co., 700 E. 9th St.

Cherokee Liquor Store, 706 E. 9th St.

        Previously: Pat’s Liquor

Bonam Shell Service Station, 716 E. 9th St.

T.T. Wilson Co. (building materials), 721 E. 9th St.

Your Florist, 730 E. 9th St.

Jos Trotz Grocery, 734 E. 9th St.

Walters Refrigeration Service, 738 E. 9th St.

Royal Paint Co., 742 E. 9th St.

Ada’s Beauty Lounge, 752 E. 9th St.

Astrapp’s Flower Shop, 753 E. 9th St.

Burnette’s Awning & Decorating Co., 754-756 E. 9th St.

Live and Let Live Barber Shop, 755 E. 9th St.

Right Way Lunch Room, 758 E. 9th St.

Pressman Grocery, 760 E. 9th St.

Torch’s Food Market, 763 E. 9th St.

Hardwick & Sons Funeral Home, 793 E. 9th St.

YMCA, 793 E. 9th St. (later 915 Park Ave.)

Trotz Grocery, 780 E. 9th St.

D.B. Food Store, 796 E. 9th St.

Pearlie’s Beauty Shop, 813 E. 9th St.

Ora’s Beauty Shop, 821 E. 9th St.

Ethel’s Beauty Salon, 823 E. 9th St.

Zion College, 1005-1007 & 1014 E. 9th St.

Church of the First Born of the Living God, 300 East 10th St.

Springfield Missionary Baptist Church, 418 East 10th St.

Ked’s Grocery, 501 E. 10th St.

Clark’s Grocery, 624 E. 10th St.

First Presbytrian Church Mission, 631 E. 10th St.

Samuel Monet Grocery, 737 E. 10th St.

Galatia Early Church of God in Christ, 746 East 10th St.

Fairview Baptist Chapel, 1006 Fairview Ave.

Vanity Beauty Mart, 934 E. 11th St.

New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, East 11th and Wall Sts.

Yes, there were two coexisting establishments called Kelley’s Place at mid-century, owned by brothers.  According to Moses Freeman’s conversation with C.B. Robinson, they were referred to as “upper” Kelley’s Place and “lower” Kelley’s Place.

Upper Kelley’s Place at 212 East 9th Street, owned by Herbert Kelley, was a combination restaurant, sundry store, and gathering place that also, per the city directory, was home to Kelley’s Record Shop.  A sundry store was kind of like a five-and-dime.  Lower Kelley’s Place at 436 East 9th Street, owned by T.L. Kelley, was a liquor store, sundry shop, and dance hall.  The Kelley’s Meat Market at 313 East 9th Street may have been jointly owned.

First Congregational Church is now a wedding chapel.

The entire length of Ninth Street was renamed in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1981, the year I graduated high school and started UTC.  Four clubs on MLK Boulevard that I can remember from the early 1980s are the Whole Note, the Half Note, Nightcaps, and Shirley’s Jazz Den. 

The Whole Note in particular had a diverse crowd in the evenings and some of the best dance music of any club in the city as well as one of the best lunch buffets in town. 

Shirley’s Jazz Den frequently had live jazz sessions, often with O.D. (Oliver Davis), owner of the 621 Club on Shallowford Road in East Dale, adding his vocals to the keyboards, drums, and other occasional instruments.

One of the only, if not the only, businesses still operating from the heyday of The Big Nine is Live and Let Live Barber Shop & Coin Laundry, which is now at 763 E. MLK Blvd., proprietor Virgil McGee.  It first opened its doors at its original address in 1931.

Memo’s Grill is another, but from the later days of The Big Nine, opening its doors at 430 E. 9th St. (now E. MLK Blvd.) in 1966, its specialty being its famous chopped weiner plate.  Now open Thursday through Saturday.

Commerce and culture of Chattanooga’s Afro-American community was not confined to East Ninth Street and its environs, by any means, even during the darkest days of Jim Crow.  But it was for Afro-Americans of that time what Gunbarrel Road is for all of us Chattanoogans in the 21st century.  In those days, it was comparable in stature to Beale Street in Memphis and Auburn Avenue in Atlanta.

Other downtown hotels for Afro-Americans in the days of Jim Crow included

Harris Hotel (110 1/1 Carter St.), Dent Hotel (W. 11th and Carter Sts.), Peoples’ Hotel (1104 Carter St.), and Quinn’s Hotel (227 E. Main St.).

Other theaters (vaudeville and/or movie) for Afro-Americans during Jim Crow included Grand Theater (W. 9th St.), Amusu Theater (106 E. Main St.),

Star Theater (133 E. Main St.), Lincoln Theater (Lincoln Park), and New Theater (location unknown).

“Negro removal” mid-20th century

As Commissioner or Public Works before becoming mayor, Rudy Olgiati managed to desegregate the public library, Memorial Auditorium, and Engel Stadium, and had worked with the Fire and Police Commissioner to begin integrating the police force. 

In the last case, black police were forbidden to arrest whites and had to call for white officers to do it.  That didn’t change until Ralph Kelley became mayor and Bookie Turner became fire and police commissioner in 1963.

From 1951 to 1963, Olgiati served as Mayor of Chattanooga.  The first attempt at urban renewal during his administration began in 1952.  The targeted area was that now called Southside, minus Cowart Place.  Some 234 structures were to be raised, with drive-in motels, suburban-style shopping centers, and large parking lots replacing what was gone. 

Due to opposition from both the residents and segments of the business community, the project fell through.

The next project proved more durable.  Initially called the Westside Renewal Project, the Golden Gateway Project worked in combination with the federal government’s interstate highway project and another local project targeting the railyards behind Union Station called Chattanooga Runaround.

Chattanooga Runaround aimed to recover as much ground as possible from the Union Railyards and side tracks spreading across downtown.  The highway project led to I-124 and the Olgiati Bridge over the Tennessee River to points north.  The Golden Gateway targeted mostly areas considered slums and predominately inhabited by Afro-Americans.

I-124 was originally supposed to be similar to I-285 around Atlanta, but the extension north of the river did not got very far, so instead it later tied into and became US Highway 27.  Until then, I-124 ended at the Signal Mountain Boulevard exit.

Chattanooga Runaround was the most successful in its stated goal, with nearly all of downtown now clear of railroad tracks.

The Golden Gateway project displaced 1400 families, destroyed over 1100 structures (many of them antebellum houses), and chopped 150 feet off the top of Cameron Hill to provide fill dirt for the interstate.  It eradicated the old Afro-American communities of College Hill, Blue Goose Hollow, and Tannery Flats, leaving only College Hill Courts and one short street of rowhouses that survived until Findley Stadium was built.  In addition, the project demolished Second District Junior High School, West Main Street School, and Carver Memorial Hospital, all of which benefited Afro-Americans, and either destroyed or forcibly relocated over 100 businesses.

Also lost were the white communities of Cameron Hill and Terrace Hill, the mixed community on Pine, Poplar, Cedar, and Cypress Streets west of Chestnut, and Stillhouse Hollow (uninhabited) between Cameron and Reservoir (Kirkman) Hills, not to mention the 10-acre Boynton Park at the apex of Cameron Hill.

The ultimate goal of the planners had been to turn downtown Chattanooga into a commercial center.  What happened instead was that it became an office park.  Suburban shopping centers and malls drew away business, made more attractive with their free parking.  All the luxury apartments built on what was once Terrace Hill eventually became public housing.

Though it was not part of the Golden Gateway project, also lost was Ross’ Towhead, which became part of the ground underneath I-24.

Roy Hamilton Show near riot, 1956

On 30 January 1956, the Roy Hamilton Show with LaVern Baker, Red Prysock, the Drifters, and the troupe’s namesake as performers played a concert and dance show at Memorial Auditorium before a racially mixed crowd.  The promoter billed it as a show for blacks, who were the only ones on the dance floor, but invited white youths to come and spectate. 

According to police estimates, the audience included 3500 black youth and 1750 white youth.

As Roy Hamilton played his last number that evening in January 1956, a fight broke out between the white spectators and the black participants that may have begun with a black roadie from the show sitting in the section reserved to white spectators. 

Bottles were thrown, and a knife hit one of the police, who rushed to break up the melee before anyone got seriously hurt.  Regarding who was to blame, the police at the scene placed that squarely with troublemakers among the white spectators.

As for the artists, most had played here before and happily did so again, so the near-riot may not have been as bad as local news indicated.

Chattanooga’s “Rosa Parks”

On 1 May 1956, Lawrence Curry was riding a bus of the city’s Southern Coach Lines when approached by a white passenger demanding he give up his seat and move back.  Curry refused to do so.  The other passenger assaulted Curry, resulting in his arrest and a fine of $50.

The incident helped persuade Southern Coach Lines to abolish segregated seating on its buses as a matter of company policy.  The City of Chattanooga followed suit in 1959 by abolishing segregation on all public transportation.

Also in the late 1950s, Curry was directly responsible to the desegregation of the main U.S. Post Office, now the Joel Solomon Federal Building.

Dixie Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

From the Great Depression through the later 1960s, East Chattanooga was the stronghold of the local Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. 

In 1957, Chattanooga Klavern No. 1 had gotten such a bad reputation for violence among their fellow Kluxers that the U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, at the same the largest such body in the South, expelled them.  By then, its members had committed sixteen floggings and one bombing. 

Upon their expulsion, its members organized as the Dixie Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.  Their klavern hall was the former Hamilton Trust & Savings Bank building (1922-1928) at 2507 Glass Street (probably the same they’d been using before).  The new group connected to the anti-Jewish National States Rights Party and eventually spread into Virginia, northwest Georgia, northern Alabama, and Mississippi.

Until klaverns in the last state organized themselves as the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Dixie Klans included the klavern in Neshoba County, Mississippi, whose members murdered civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwermer in 1964. 

Jack Brown, the Dixie Klans’ Imperial Wizard, was a suspect in the bombing of the 16th Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, on 15 September 1863 that killed Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Carol Denise McNair (11).

From 1957 to 1960, the Dixie Klans in Chattanooga committed seventeen bombings of homes, buses, an integrated YMCA, and Howard High School, two shootings, a beating, and an arson, a record more than ample to earn them the designation of domestic terrorist organization.  They were brazen enough to field a team in the local amateur baseball league with their organization’s name blazoned across their uniforms.

Overt violence ceased after 1960, largely over fear of penetration by special agents of the FBI.  The Dixie Klans continued at the Glass Street site at least through 1964.  That year someone in city government discovered the group had been given a tax exemption in 1960 and wanted to collect back taxes.

The Dixie Klans affiliated with the National Association of the Ku Klux Klan by 1965.  Its Chattanooga klavern had become defunct by the early 1970s, largely because a fraction led by William Church, Sr. broke away to form the Justice Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1968.

Chattanooga Police Department integrated

At the beginning of February 1960, Fire and Police Commissioner H.P. Dunlap and Chief of Police Ed Brown ended segregation of the department, assigning Afro-American officers to districts in patrol cars for the first time.  The desegregation began in two newly-created police districts before being spread to the older districts.

Chattanooga Lunch Counter Sit-ins, 1960

On 1 February 1960, students of historically black North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro and demanded to be served.  Service was refused.

Their action sparked movement targeting lunch counters at downtown department store and five-and-dimes that quickly spread throughout the South.  In almost all instances, the actions were planned and initiated by students from local historically black colleges and universities.  In Chattanooga, however, the impetus came from a different group.

In the third week of that February, a group of senior class students at Howard High School met and decided to initiate action themselves.  These high school students included:  Paul Walker (class president), Andrew Smith (class VP), Virgil Roberson (football team captain), Robert Parks (student council president), Robert Winston (class business manager), Leamon Pearce, Joanne Humphries (later Favors), and Gloria Underwood (later Jackson).  This discussion took place in trigonometry class.

Several department stores and five-and-dimes (what we now call dollar stores) had lunch counters serving their white customers.  These shops included S.H. Kress Five & Dime, Loveman’s Department Store, Woolworth’s Five & Dime, McClellan Store, W.T. Grant 25 Cent Store, Liggett-Rexall Drug Store, and Miller Brothers Department Store.

While Afro-Americans were allowed to shop and use bathrooms marked “Colored” in these establishments, they were forbidden from eating at the lunch counters there.  The exception was Kress, which had a separate lunch counter for Afro-Americans.  The fact that any of these stores actually had bathrooms for Afro-Americans was a rarity in the South, by the way, with most other localities under Jim Crow providing none at all.

After school that Friday 19 February, some forty to fifty Howard High students made their downtown and sat at the lunch counters of Woolworth’s then McClellan, and were refused service at both.

The next Monday, over two hundred Howard students converged on downtown after school, targeting four of the stores.  Again, the students were refused service, and while white counter demonstrators showed up, there was no violence.  The students sitting brought snacks to eat.

The demonstrations continued on Tuesday, targeting the two stores, Kress and Woolworth’s, which had no complied with the Chattanooga police request to shut down at 3:30 pm.  A riot nearly broke out, and police arrested eleven whites and one black student.

On Wednesday, over three thousand people, black and white, gathered downtown.  The crowds became so rowdy that the fire department was called in to use its hoses on both groups.  Twenty people were arrested, eleven black and nine white.

In the aftermath, downtown Chattanooga was virtually shut down entirely, and a strict curfew was instituted.  Mayor Rudy Olgiati made school principals at both black and white schools reponsible for their students.

Once the immediate threat of widespread violence had abated, Olgiati began negotiating matters with the downtown merchants aided by C.B. Robinson and others.

When nothing was done by Easter, the students, supported by the NAACP and the black ministers, resumed their actions. 

On 16 April, James Mapp and the local NAACP launched a boycott of several downtown businesses over their segregated lunch counters.  Two days later, students staged sit-ins at Woolworth’s, Grant’s, and Kress while a group of ministers held public prayer standing on a traffic island at Market and Ninth Streets.  On 30 April, fifteen students sat in at four stores.  The next day, 1 May, fifty students participated. 

On 12 May, students were first arrested merely for participating in a sit-in at Kress, largely due to their sizable number.  In court the next morning, the judge acknowledged their right to protest but ordered them to limit participants to six.  That afternoon, students sat-in at all seven of the store listed above, with no more than six at any one.

The demonstrations petered out after the end of the school year, but their persistence and discipline spurred negotiations among community leaders, government officials, and business owners.

On 5 August 1960, Afro-American students were invited to sit down at the lunch counters of the above-mentioned stores and were served for the first time.  Specifically invited were those students of Howard High School who had initiated the movement in Chattanooga.

In February 1961, Afro-American students and civil rights leaders began holding stand-in demonstrations at establishments such as Tivoli and Rogers theaters which had segregated seating.

The sit-ins of 1960 in Greensboro, Nashville, and Chattanooga and fifty-five other centers in twelve states led directly to the organization later that year of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).  SNCC was one of the leading civil rights organizations of the 1960s whose chairs included Marion Barry (1960-1961), Charles F. McDew (1961-1963), John Lewis (1963-1966), Kwame Ture (as Stokely Carmichael, 1966-1967), Jamil Abdullah al-Amin (as H. Rap Brown, 1967-1968), and Phil Hutchings (1968-1969).

City and county schools at the end of official Jim Crow

In the last years of official school segregation in Chattanooga, the following schools served Afro-American children:

Howard School (now grades 1-12)

Second District Junior High School

Chattanooga Avenue Elementary School

Calvin Donaldson Elementary School

East Fifth Street Elementary and Junior High School

Fort Cheatham Elementary School

James A. Henry Elementary School

Orchard Knob Elementary and Junior High School

Joseph E. Smith Elementary School

Spears Avenue Elementary School

West Main Street Elementary School

Those were the schools in the 1960-1961 school year.  The following school year, the city split off the top three grades of the parent school to establish a separate Orchard Knob Junior High School.  Given its history, Orchard Knob Junior High (now Middle) School is the direct heir of the county’s former Abraham Lincoln High School.

The schools for Afro-American children in Hamilton County included:

Washington High School

Bakewell Elementary School (Colored)

Chickamauga Elementary School

Roland Hays Elementary School

Lookout Mountain Elementary School (Colored)

Soddy Elementary School (Colored)

Summit Elementary School

Washington Elementary School

Washington High at this time took in grades seven through twelve, but this was the norm then, with the same range included in Central High, East Ridge High, and Hixson High.  Birchwood and Sale Creek Schools, by the way, took in grades one through twelve.  Bakewell and Lookout Mountain Elementary Schools took in grades one through eight while the rest took in just grades one through six.

Chattanooga City Schools opened its last segregated all-white school for the 1960-1961 school year.  Brainerd Senior High School on North Moore Road adopted the name “Rebels” for its sports teams, its mascot was a cartoon Confederate soldier, its fight song was “Dixie”, and its pennant was the standard of the Army of Tennessee (known as the Confederate flag).

In the fall of 1963, Chattanooga High School, also known as City High, began classes at its new North Chattanooga campus on Dallas Road, its student body still all-white.  Its former campus, Wyatt Hall and the two wings, became the last segregated all-black school established in the city school system as Riverside High School.

By the early 1980s, in the wake of official school desegregation, City High’s student body was almost all black.  Riverside High remained in existence until 1983.  Afterward, the building became for a time the city’s school for pregnant teens.  Finally, the campus became the Paidea-based Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, taking in grades K-12.  CSAS is the most racially balanced school in the entire county system.

Mapp et al v. Chattanooga Board of Education

Unware that the Howard students sit-ins begun on Friday, 19 February 1960, would be continuing that Monday, 22 February, James Mapp and a few other parents from the local NAACP conducted an attempt to integrate the still-segregated Glenwood Elementary School.  Their attempt was rebuffed.

On 6 April, Mapp and other parents and their children filed suit in federal court to force the City of Chattanooga to abide by the 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.  In October, the courts found that the city was indeed in violation of Brown and ordered it to file a plan of correction. 

The “First Plan” was rejected, as were several following.  Finally, in April 1962, the city offered a plan to desegregate all of its elementary schools by 1 September 1964, its junior high schools by 1 September 1967, its high schools by 1 September 1968, and Chattanooga Technical Institute (now Chattanooga State Community College) by 1 September 1969.  This schedule was accepted by the plaintiffs.

Even though the county system was not part of the lawsuit, the Hamilton County Schools adopted the city’s timetable.

Policies such as “school choice” and “local schools” along with “white flight” effectively nullified integration and stifled the plan’s execution.  This led to repeated returns back to court that left the case open until 1986, when the court, worn down and out by the integration opponents’ war of attrition, effectively conceded defeat and closed the case.

Chattanooga’s Catholic schools desegregated

In 1963, Notre Dame School, attached to the adjacent Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church downtown and then hosting grades 1-12, officially desegregated.  Meanwhile, St. Francis School in Bushtown had always operated as an integrated institution.

When grades 9-12 Notre Dame High School opened in Glenwood in 1965, it did so, of course, officially integrated, as did grades 1-8, which became Sts. Peter and Paul Elementary School.  In 1972, the elementary school merged with St. Francis School at the downtown location as All Saints Academy.

Erlanger Hospital desegregated

Despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 withholding federal funds from public facilities which chose to remain segregated, Baroness Erlanger Hospital remained so despite opposition from U.S. Navy veterans Dr. Minnie Vance and Dr. Eleanor Stafford, who were supported by Dr. Earl Campbell.  Drs. Vance and Stafford were partners in an integrated pediatric practice on lower McCallie Avenue near Glenwood, and as detailed above, Dr. Campbell operated his own clinic on an integrated basis on upper McCallie Avenue.

After the hospital’s board finally agreed in 1966 to desegregate when the federal government threatened to cut off government funding, its chairman resigned.

Chattanooga Black Power

The year 1966 was a big year for Black Power in Chattanooga and for Afro-Americans from Chattanooga.

Mukasa Dada (Willie Ricks at the time) in Chattanooga was one of the 127 founding members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960 and became one of its leading members.  Dada was one of SNCC’s best organizers and stump speakers.  After joining James Meredith in his “March Against Fear” in 1966 along with other SNCC members, Ricks spread the slogan of “Black Power” to mobilize youth and sharecroppers, many of latter being veterans of SCU in the 1930s.

In Oakland, California, Chattanooga-born Elbert “Big Man” Howard joined with Merrit College classmates Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in addition to “Li’l” Bobby Hutton, Reggie Forte, and Sherman Forte to found the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense this year.  Howard became the party’s Deputy Minister of Information and served on its Central Committee and as a member of its International Solidarity Committee.

In this same year, Viet Nam War army vet Ralph Moore returned home and founded an organization called the Black Knights.  The group became the foundation of the Chattanooga chapter of the Black Panthers, which published a newsletter called Black United Front from 1969 to 1971.

Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin

In 1960, Lorenzo joined the sit-in protests downtown.  When he was 16, he joined the local chapter of SNCC, then later the Black Panthers.  After being accused of attempting to kill a Klansman and in fear of his life, he fled to Atlanta from where he hijacked a plane to Cuba on 25 February 1969.  The Eastern Airlines Flight 955 was meant to stop in Miami.

After he served a short time in jail, the Cuban government flew him to Czechoslovakia.  During the short time he was there, Lorenzo became widely known and lionized among members of the European Left.  In fact, he still is today, across the whole continent but especially in Scotland.

In 1971, special agents of the FBI kidnapped Lorenzo and brought him back to the States to face charges for the 1969 hijacking.  He was convicted and sentenced to serve life at the maximum security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.  He was released after serving 15 years.

While in prison, Lorenzo converted from Marxism to anarchism due in large part to his disillusionment with state socialism.  He has written many books and pamphlets and is considered one of anarchism’s leading theorists.

Brainerd High, 1969

Brainerd Senior High School began to be integrated in 1966, at first with only a handful of black students.  By the 1969-1970 school year, the black portion of the student body had grown to a point where those students felt less unsafe expressing their dissent over the schools’s symbology.

At the Brainerd-Riverside football game on Friday, 3 October, black students flashed “black power” fists every time the band played “Dixie”.  Police had to intervene when the students tried to take the cheerleader’s stage, then when they tried to regain their seats.

Tension simmered through the first two days of the next week, and on Wednesday, several hundred students walked out briefly before returning to their classes.

Thursday, the local White Citizens Council marched around the campus until being ordered away by the principal.  That night, over a hundred cars drove through Brainerd honking their horns and waving rebel flags.

Saturday, five to six hundred white students gathered in Brainerd Village parking lot to parade and wave rebel flags, while black students gathered at the intersection of Brainerd and Germantown Roads.

The unrest eventually spread to the new and newly-integrated University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Mayor Chunk Bender instituted a strict curfew that lasted several days.

Once everything had quieted down, the school board adopted a policy banning the Confederate flag, whether as an actual flag or worn on clothing, the song “Dixie”, and the word “Rebel” from Chattanooga schools.

One student, Rudy Melton, was suspended for repeatedly violating the ban, over which he sued the school board.  The case is known as Melton v. Young, and the district judge ruled in favor of the board.  The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district’s ruling in 1972.

There was also serious racial tension at Central High School, which had just moved to its new campus in Harrison for the 1969-1970 school year, though not nearly as extensive as that at Brainerd High.

Brainerd High did not change the name of its sports teams until the 1981-1982 school year, when they became the Panthers.

“Negro removal”, later 20th century

Less well known and much smaller wholesale displacement than that which took place in the West Side under the Golden Gateway project was that which took place in 1969 involving the extension of Riverside Drive from its junction with Amnicola Highway (formerly Curtain Pole Road).  This was originally at a point parallel with Wilson Street east of the railroad tracks.  As part of a plan to connect downtown with State Route 153, Amnicola Highway was going to be extended east to that freeway and widened to four lanes, while Riverside Drive was also going to be widened and extended from the afore-mentioned junction along the river to meet Riverfront Parkway, part of the Golden Gateway project, at Broad Street.

To make way for the extension and widening, 170 buildings in the Old East Side, single family homes and several apartment buildings, had to be demolished, displacing some 250 families (not all of them Afro-American, though most of them were), along with beginning the progressive destruction of the Old East Side than has continued with the spread of UTC.

Breaching the color bar in government

The first Afro-American to win county office since the early 20th century was Rev. Robert Richards, who served as one of three justices of the peace for the county’s First District 1966-1968.  The county was then divided into three districts:  First District was the City of Chattanooga; Second District was everything else south of the river and east of the city; Third District was north of the river and west of Lookout Mountain.

In 1967, lawyer Bennie Harris became the first Afro-American assistant city attorney in Chattanooga history.  In January 1969, he was appointed judge pro tem on the Second Division of Chattanooga City Court.  Upon being recommended by a majority of the Chattanooga Bar Association, he was sworn in as a full judge on 1 July 1969.  In a special election that fall, he retained his seat on the bench, winning 30.7% of the white vote.

Lawrence Curry served as one of two county constables for the First District 1968-1970.  During his campaign, Curry heard that the Ku Klux Klan was opposing his candidacy, so he visited local Klan meetings to convince members to vote for him as the best person for the job.  He was the first Afro-American Hamilton County constable ever.

In March 1971, educator John P. Franklin became the first Afro-American to win election to the Chattanooga City Commission as it had been constituted since 1911.  The community had never before been able to elect one of their own to the city commission, whose members were elected at-large, because more than one candidate always ran, splitting the vote.

Led by Rev. Paul McDaniel of Second Missionary Baptist Church, business, civic, and religious leaders of the Afro-American community determined there should be a single candidate in 1971, and that the candidate should be the popular principal of Alton Park Junior High School.

Franklin was elected Commissioner of Education and Health.  After his election, the health department was stripped from his porfolio while the education department was placed under a white administrator. 

Franklin’s office was thus rendered effectively ceremonial other than functioning as a member of the city commission.  But Mr. Franklin, “Duke” to his friends, knew that representation matters, that while sometimes it was just a cheap token, other times it meant everything.

Franklin served five terms as Commissioner of Education, with four of those five also serving as vice mayor, a political career spanning twenty years.  In 2019, the Chattanooga City Council voted to name the building in which it meets in his honor.

In 1974, Franklin’s fellow educator C.B. Robinson became the first Afro-American elected to the Tennessee General Assembly from Hamilton County since Styles Hutchins in 1887.  He helped form the Black Caucus in the General Assembly.

Wilson Pickett riots 1971

In June of 1971, an abruptly cancelled concert led to four days of rioting and destruction in Chattanoooga.  Hugely popular soul artist Wilson Pickett was to headline a concert at the city’s Memorial Auditorium, following The Intruders and The Impressions.

The promoter of the show proved to be less than competent because The Intruders and The Impressions never showed up at all while Pickett showed up early only to learn that he wouldn’t be paid.  Thus, he refused to play.

Eager fans showed up expecting the concert only to learn what had occurred, and began to demand their money back.  When they didn’t get it, they vandalized the auditorium, then spread out into the inner city.

Racial tensions that had been long-simmering exploded into four days of rioting and destruction, at times by over 3000 Afro-American youths.

Mayor Robert Kirk Walker imposed a 7 pm to 8 am curfew, calling on the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and neighboring sheriffs for assistance.  Chattanooga police shot and killed Labron Anderson, 22.

After four days, Gov. Winfield Dunn called up 2000 Tennessee National Guard to restore order.  These split up into smaller teams to patrol neighborhoods.  Between 150 and 300 were arrested for breaking curfew.

Ooltewah High School, 1978

In the pep rally kicking off Homecoming Week at the rural Hamilton County high school in the fall of 1978, an altercation between a black student and a white student nearly led to a riot in the cafeteria as students filed out of the gymnasium after the rally ended.

Tensions remained high the entire week.  Pep rallies that had been planned for every afternoon were cancelled.  Students both black and white brought weapons, including firearms (pistols, shotguns), in their vehicles.  Several carried knives, clubs, and brass knuckles on their persons.

For the last day of Homecoming Week, Friday, the administration relented and allowed a pep rally that afternoon, but took the precaution of having several sheriff’s deputies on hand to avert any trouble.

Ninth Street shootings, 1980

By the late 1970s, William Church, Jr., son of the founder, was Imperial Wizard of the Justice Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.  The group’s resurgence in the public mind came when Church and his fellow Justice Knights collected donations at intersections in northern Hamilton County near Soddy-Daisy dressed in full regalia.

On 19 April 1980, Church and his crew decided they needed to take some direct action to raise their profile.  Copious amounts of beer reportedly contributed to that decision.  Dressed in camo gear decorated with patches of their faction, Church, Larry Payne, and Marshall Thrash headed south to the Ninth Street district along with others of their clique.

Upon arrival, they found a vacant lot where they constructed two large wooden crosses which they proceeded to plant upright and set afire in full view of the public.  Afterwards, they convoyed down East Ninth Street to see the crowds’ reactions. 

Apparently, they were unsatisfied, for upon reaching the intersection at East Ninth and Douglas Streets, Thrash fired three shells from a shotgun loaded with bird shot at four middle-aged women on a corner, hitting them in the legs.  These women were Viola Ellison, Lela Mae Evans, Katherine O. Johnson, and Opal Lee Jackson.

Further down the street, Thrash fired three more shells at a woman watering flowers in her front yard, Fannie Crumsey.  The shots missed her completely but shattered the windshield of the car belonging to her daughter, Mary Tyson (who was in the house), with Mrs. Crumsey injured by flying glass.  The trio was arrested shortly thereafter.

The acquittal that summer of Church Jr. and Payne by an all-white jury and the slap on the wrist given to Thrash (who’d turned state’s evidence) for the crimes he’d confessed to led to several nights of rioting and a 7 pm curfew that lasted at least a week.  The effects of that turmoil and the trauma inflicted on citizens lasted for years.

Having found no justice in the criminal courts, the five women sued their attackers, and in 1982 won a judgment of $535,000.  The case, Crumsey v. Justice Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, set a precedent that enabled civil rights attorneys to almost completely wipe out the KKK over the next years.

Renaming Ninth Street

In January 1981, led by Rev. Marvin T. Billingsley of Greater Tucker Missionary Baptist Church in Brainerd, the Chattanooga Baptist Ministers Union began a campaign to rename one of the city’s streets after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Accordingly, Billingsley and the Ministers Union petitioned the city commission to rename Ninth Street.  The commission agreed to carry out a public debate on the issue.

Opposition arose led by developer Tommy Lupton.  Lupton offered no opposition to renaming East 9th Street but protested, incorrectly, that West 9th Street had no connection with the Afro-American community.  For the past two decades that had indeed been the case, but prior to the destruction that took place under the Golden Gateway project, that section of Ninth Street had also been an Afro-American center.  In fact, Carver Memorial Hospital had been on that end of Ninth Street.

Under pressure from Lupton and his associates, the commission refused to rename the street, offering instead to name a plaza in King’s honor.  The proponents rejected this, organizing a march down East 9th Street of 300 people who plastered street signs and poles with green stickers that read “Dr ML King Jr. Blvd”. 

This protest and growing support for the renaming from black and white ministers led the commission to reverse its decision in July, setting January 1982 as the date for the new name to take effect.

Lupton responded by creating a private drive to provide a different address to the block upon which the two buildings he was developing, the Krystal Building and the Tallan Building, One Union Square.  That name derived from the fact that Chattanooga’s Union Station once stood there, and that name is the only remaining sign Union Station was ever there.

Concerned Citizens for Justice

After returning from the Philippines in the early 1990s, I became a member (or at least close associate) of CCJ.  I refer to Maxine, Lorenzo, and Annie by their first names because they are my friends.

On 6 December 1983, Wadie Suttles, Sr., a World War II veteran who had suffered from PTSD since the war, was beaten to death in the Chattanooga City Jail.  It was the same day that Lorenzo Ervin was release from Terre Haute prison in Indiana.

Wadie’s widow, Jessie Mae Suttles, filed suit against the City of Chattanooga and jail officers Mike Williams and Melvin Carson.  The district court found no fault with the city or either jail officer, and that finding was confirmed by the Sixth District Court in September 1988.

Meanwhile, Wadie’s daughter, Maxine Cousin, founded Concerned Citizens for Justice along with Annie Thomas, Annie’s daughters Lisa and Lydia, and the recently released Lorenzo Ervin to address police brutality in Chattanooga and surrounding communities by publicizing incidents such as the death of Wadie Suttles, holding protests, and organizing coalitions.

One of CCJ’s first actions was initiating the organization of the South-wide Ad Hoc Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality.  In 1985, they began a campaign to build a case against the at-large city commission which had so seriously disenfranchised the city’s Afro-American citizens.  This included a trip by Lorenzo, Maxine, and Annie down to Atlanta to meet with the ACLU chapter there.  The three also did all the hard, tedious research work to gather information.

1984 Democratic presidential primary

To the huge surprise of many, Jesse Jackson, former chair of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and founder of the National Rainbow Coalition (1984), topped the list in the presidential primary in Hamilton County.  In the wider national primary election, he came in third.

Jackson was the fourth Afro-American candidate for national executive office, the first being Frederick Douglass, who ran as running mate to Virginia Woodhull for the Equal Rights Party in 1872; the second as George Taylor, who ran for the presidency for the Liberty Party in 1904; third was Shirley Chisholm, who ran for the nomination of the Democratic Party in 1972 (a year in which Madelaine “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support each other” Albright campaigned for Ed Muskie).

Brown v. Chattanooga Board of Commissioners, 1989

The case was filed in federal district court on 12 November 1987.  In addition to Lorenzo, Maxine, and Annie, petitioners included Tommie Brown, Leamon Pearce, Herbert H. Wright, J.K. Brown, Johnny Holloway, George Key, Bobby Ward, Norma Crowder, and Buford McElrath. 

Laughlin McDonald of the ACLU served as lead counsel with Richard H. Dinkins as second chair.  The plaintiffs’ argument maintained that the form of city government violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

On 8 August 1989, U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and gave the city 75 days in which to come up with a plan to correct the wrongs of the then present system.  The solution was a change from commission to council, with members elected in nine districts. 

The election for the new council and mayor took place on 1 May 1990, with electees taking office at noon on Monday, 11 June.  Where before under the at-large five-person commission the Afro-American community had been lucky to elect one member, under the new, more representative form, four Afro-Americans made it onto the council.

As in the case with schools and the timetable for desegregation, Hamilton County at about this same time changed over from a council elected at-large to a commission elected by district.

1989 mass closure of schools

This action may or may not have been in retaliation for the decision or expected decision in Brown v. Commissioners.

In 1989, the school administration, with the support of the mayor and most of the city commission, closed sixteen schools in the city system.  The student bodies of thirteen of these schools were overwhelmingly or entirely black, the other three predominately white.

Fourteen of the principals at these schools were black, while two were white.  The two white principals were given lateral transfers while the black former principals were demoted to teacher.

The white schools closed were Elbert Long Junior High, Mountain Creek Elementary, and John A. Patten Elementary.

The black schools closed were Avondale Elementary, Charles A. Bell Elementary (in Alton Park), G. Russell Brown Elementary (in North Chattanooga), East Chattanooga Elementary, East Dale Elementary, James A. Henry Elementary (in College Hill), Highland Park Elementary, Oak Grove Elementary, Piney Woods Elementary, Ridgedale Elementary, St. Elmo Elementary, Sunnyside Elementary, and Washington Elementary.

Two years before in 1987, the city education department closed majority-black Chickamauga Elementary School, next to Howard the oldest existing historically black school in the city.  If the hypothesis that the 1989 mass closing was in retaliation for the decision in Brown v. Commissioners is correct, then Chickamauga’s closing the year the lawsuit was filed could have been a warning shot.

County Public Defender’s Office

Until 1989, Hamilton County did not have a public defender’s office.  All attorneys practicing in the county were required to do so many pro bono cases per year.  Some volunteered to do many more.  Gov. Ned McWherter appointed Atty. Ardena Garth to head the office.

When she ran for election as Public Defender and won in 1990, she became the first Afro-American elected to political office in a county-wide vote since John J. Irvine won election as Circuit Court Clerk in the 1880s.

Cousin v. McWherter, 1995

In this case, Maxine, Lorenzo, and Annie joined Ezra B. Harris, Johnny B. Holloway, George Key, Buford McElrath, Greg Walton, Bobby Ward, and Ella Bryant to challenge the at-large elections for the nine judges of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit and three judges of the Hamilton County General Sessions Court.  Attys. Laughlin McDonald and Richard H. Dinkins represented them once again.

The case was filed in 1990.  On 28 September 1995, the U.S. District Court handed down its decision in favor of the plaintiffs. However, rather than ordering the judgeships be selected on a single-district basis as the plaintiffs wanted, the court prescribed cumulative voting. 

It was the first case in which cumulative voting had been ordered by a court.  However, the State appealed and the Sixth Circuit overturned the district court’s decision in the 1998 case of Cousin v. Sundquist.

Even though two more judgeships were added to the county’s General Sessions Court, no Afro-American has ever won an election to it.  It was not until this year, 2019, that an Afro-American sat on the bench in the county’s General Sessions Court.  In March 2019, Atty. Gerald Webb was appointed to fill the seat of retiring Judge Clarence Shattuck.

October 22 Movement

When the October 22 Movement instigated by the RCP (Revolutionary Communist Party) began pushing that date as a day to protest police brutality and commemorate its many victims, CCJ quickly signed on.

From 1996, the first year the protest and commemoration was held, through the year Maxine stepped down from the helm well into the 21st century, CCJ held some kind of action on that date ranging in size from four or five people to nearly a hundred and all ranges in between.

Black Liberation Radio/Chattanooga

Nationally, Black Liberation Radio began in 1996, and in 1997, Lorenzo set up his own station with help from friends.  Broadcasting from his living room, the programs included news, black liberation ideology, anarchist thought, and jazz, blues, and both classical and avante-garde people’s music.  The station continued until the year 2000.

Though the radio station itself was not a project of CCJ, the fact that Lorenzo ran it connects it to the organization.

Tennessee ratifies the 15th Amendment

In a resolution proferred by Rep. Tommie Brown of Chattanooga, the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee finally ratified the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on 8 April 1997.

This amendment is plain, simply stating, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Only thirty-seven states have ratified the amendment, with Tennessee with the latest.  Initially, it rejected the amendment on 16 November 1869.

“Negro removal” in the 21st century

Chattanooga Housing Authority came into being to take advantage of the benefits of the Housing Act of 1937.  It still being the first half of the 20th century, the housing was strictly segregated. 

CHA’s first project, East Lake Courts in 1940, was for whites only.  Its second was College Hill Courts in 1941, for blacks only.  Boone-Hysinger Courts in East Chattanooga, for whites only, and Spencer McCallie Homes, for blacks only, followed in 1953.  Maurice Poss Homes and Emma Wheeler Homes, both exclusively for blacks, came in 1963 and 1964 respectively.

The primary reason for the construction of McCallie Homes was to provide housing for residents displace by the clearing of College Hill (Westside), Blue Goose Hollow, and Tannery Flats due to the Golden Gateway project.

The various housing projects of the CHA started to be integrated after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  By the 21st century, most sites were 98% Afro-American, with none less than 90%.

In the 21st century, the City of Chattanooga began a new phase of “urban renewal” with no plans whatsoever to replace what was destroyed.

Spencer McCallie Homes were the first to fall victim.  Originally containing 608 units, by 2003 that number had been reduced to 416, only 304 of which were inhabited.  Their destruction was carried out 2003-2005, with nothing offered to its 1000 residents to replace them. 

Spencer McCallie was not simply a public housing project, it was a neighborhood with a history going back to the days of the Golden Gateway removal project.  In its place arose The Villages at Alton Park, with its “affordable” rents starting at $1000 per month.

The 188 units of Maurice Poss Homes, with 500 occupants, were the next to be cleansed, in 2005.

In 1985, Boone Hy Courts was renamed Harriet Tubman Homes as a nod to the composition of its residents.  Sixty of its 500 units were demolished in 2005.  The remaining 440 units were demolished in 2014 with little provision for relocation of its residents. 

The only possible relocation officials offered Harriet Tubman residents was to Emma Wheeler Homes or East Lake Courts.  The problem with this was that East Chattanooga where Harriet Tubman was located is in Crips’ territory while East Lake and Piney Woods are in the territory of the Bloods.

As for what developers and city officials have planned for East Chattanooga, a friend posted to Facebook recently about her aunt on fixed income getting a notice from her landlord that her rent was going up from $615 per month to the outrageously more expensive $1100 per month.  Maybe the landlord thinks they are a Big Pharma company.

The remaining large public housing developments of the CHA are East Lake Courts (437 units), College Hill Courts (497 units), and Emma Wheeler Homes (340 units), all of which are slated to be destroyed.

Black Lives Matter

In 2013, with blessings from Maxine, Concerned Citizens for Justice revived under new leadership in the wake of the murder of 14-year old Trayvon Martin by self-appointed vigilante George Zimmerman.

On Saturday, 16 February 2016, cofounder of the Movement for Black Lives Alicia Garza, who coined the phrase “Black Lives Matter”, spoke at First Baptist Church. 

In her closing remarks, Alicia said that she came up with the phrase because in America, black lives don’t matter, but they should.

Maxine passed away on 4 February 2018.  Lorenzo gave her eulogy.