March 9, 2020, Susan Harber, The Daily News Journal I thoroughly enjoy researching living history as much as ancestral narratives. A favorite athlete is an African-American Olympian from MTSU, who forged everlasting history for the college in 1976. Thomas Zarlef Haynes was born July 14, 1952 in Nashville to parents…
February 1, 2020, Murfreesboro City TV Host John Hood interviews members of the African American Heritage Society of Rutherford County. The program was shot at the Bradley Academy Museum and Cultural Center.
February 14, 2020, Michael Linn White, Murfreesboro City TV MTSU’s first African American Athletes were honored at a special event on campus. These trailblazing former students discussed what it was like to be a minority in the 1960’s and how their time at MTSU impacted not only them, but the…
LA VERGNE SCHOOL BLACK 1920’s-l952 was on a dirt lane which ran south of La Vergne and was between and parallel to the present Buster Mason and Waldron Roads. The lane is no longer there. The school was a one-room weatherboarded building. Grades taught were one through eight. Teachers were…
SALEM SCHOOL BLACK 1940 was on the east side of Kimbro Road and about one mile south of the Salem Road. The schoolhouse was a frame building with two rooms. Among the teachers were Catherine Jackson, Ollie B. Officer, Lillian Hammons, and Willa Morton Kimbro Foster. Picola Smith taught sewing…
ROCKVALE SCHOOL BLACK 1870-1936 or 1937 was on the west side of Versailles Road about one hundred yards south of the Rockvale Store. On May 24, 1870, Francis Jackson gave one acre of land to the School for Colored People, Church of God, or African Branch of the M. E.…
BURNT HILL SCHOOL BLACK late 1800’s was one mile west of Eagleville and in the woods north of what is now Allisona. It was named BURNT HILL because the grounds had to be burned and cleared. That property in the 8th District was owned by Mr. Chesley Williams, “a wealthy…
MT. MORIAH SCHOOL BLACK -1936 was on the west side of the present Plainview Road between Epps Mill Road and Sledge Road. MT. MORIAH, because of its location, was sometimes referred to as PLAINVIEW BLACK. The school was a one-room frame building for grades 1-8. Teachers included Viola Mack Batts,…
TENNESSEE MANUAL LABOR UNIVERSITY BLACK 1872 was to have been located in District 13 on the old Nashville-Murfreesboro Road. The property was bounded by James M. Tompkins west of the Cemetery, by the river on the north, and by the railroad. On July 9, 1872, N. C. Collier, for consideration…
HAYNES SCHOOL BLACK 1909-1946 was on the north side of Shores Road and about two and one-half miles west of Beasley Road. It was on a lane that at one time led to the house and cemetery of the Blackman plantation. On August 28, 1909, Charles Haynes and wife Caroline…