Nashville’s role in the Civil Rights Movement will be the subject of new research fueled by a $50,000 federal grant.
Metro’s Historical Commission is receiving the money from the African American Civil Rights grant program, which is overseen by the National Park Service. Local staffers and a consultant will work for the next two years to survey local historic sites and gather archival research related to the Civil Rights Movement from 1944 to 1966.
The grant is meant to create an authoritative repository for information that is currently scattered. And it will likely lead to sites being nominated as historic places and the addition of new historical markers. The research will include the lunch counter sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, school integration, bombings by the Ku Klux Klan and several other subjects.
Special attention will be paid to the role of Nashville’s four historically Black colleges and universities, where early training efforts prepared students to lead nonviolent direct actions against segregation.
The commission says Nashville’s role has at times been “minimized” compared to other cities in the South, but contends the local student movement was “just as significant” as efforts elsewhere, and propelled activists like John Lewis, Diane Nash and Bernard Lafayette to national leadership roles.
“Documentation produced by this study will address a historically unmet need to honor African American histories and tell a story that is important to our city, state, region and nation,” the commission says. “African American historic resources have long been neglected or endured damage or demolition with lasting negative impacts … these histories have been suppressed, or at very least de-prioritized.”
The grant will follow a framework for Civil Rights research that the park service created in 2008 and will lead to the creation of a “historical context document.” The commission notes the state of Tennessee does not have such a document, so part of the project is meant to inform state efforts or inspire similar local initiatives.
For more information on the project, the Metro Historical Commission can be reached at (615) 862-7970 or via email at [email protected].
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