Literary Collections

African Americans have heavily contributed to and shaped the unique and vibrant Rutherford County in middle Tennessee. Located 30 miles southeast of Nashville, Rutherford County is at the state's geographical center. This area is home to the Stones River National Battlefield, a national park that was the site of a major Civil War battle--the Battle of Stones River. Tourists come from all over the world to experience this rich cultural and historic venue that once served, although briefly, as the capital of Tennessee. African American men and women have lived, worked, and toiled here for generations.

Giles County was founded on November 14, 1809, and is known as the land of milk and honey. The county is home to over 30 National Register properties, Civil War skirmish sites, a varied cultural heritage, and intersecting Trail of Tears routes (Benge's and Bell's). It is also the beginning place for many well-known African Americans, such as noted architect Moses McKissack, founder of McKissack and McKissack. Giles County is a place where many ancestral lineages return home to their roots for research or to discover their rich African American history and heritage.

Memphis has been an important city for African Americans in the South since the Civil War. They migrated from within Tennessee and from surrounding states to the urban crossroads in large numbers after emancipation, seeking freedom from the oppressive race relations of the rural South. Images of America: African Americans in Memphis chronicles this regional experience from the 19th century to the 1950s. Historic black Memphians were railroad men, bricklayers, chauffeurs, dressmakers, headwaiters, and beauticians, as well as businessmen, teachers, principals, barbers, preachers, musicians, nurses, doctors, Republican leaders, and Pullman car porters. During the Jim Crow era, they established social, political, economic, and educational institutions that sustained their communities in one of the most rigidly segregated cities in America. The dynamic growth and change of the post-World War II South set the stage for a new, authentic, black urban culture defined by Memphis gospel, blues, and rhythm and blues music; black radio; black newspapers; and religious pageants.