AFRICAN AMERICAN SITES/RESOURCES
African American
Projects and Research
Projects and resources
For Tennessee's black population, the Civil War engendered both hope and hardship. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation, the defeat of the Confederacy, and the abolition of slavery
by the Thirteenth Amendment, African Americans faced the reality of widespread racism in both the political and social arenas. In part as a response to such discriminations, black Tennesseans created their own vibrant communities, where they could gather, learn, and embrace the opportunity of their new freedom. They established churches, businesses, schools, and cemeteries throughout the state during the postwar period. For resources to help preserve African American resources, download our booklet Preserving African American Historic Places: Suggestions and Sources
for suggestions and information on preserving and interpreting African American places.
African-American cemeteries are unique historical resources that contribute significantly to our understanding of African-American life and culture in the decades following the Civil War.
Many African-American cemeteries, because of their locale and encroaching development, face an uncertain future. For guidelines in basic cemetery cleaning and care, download a copy of our
Intro Guide to Cemetery Cleaning. To see examples of recommendations for interpretation and preservation, download our
West View Historic African American Cemetery District: Next Steps for Interpretation and Preservation.
Churches also served as the heart of many African American communities, the single most significant institution
in African-American life, from the late antebellum era to modern time. For guidelines on how to document these vitally important resources, download our Powerful Artifacts: A Guide to Surveying and Documenting Rural African American Churches in the South.
The landscape of Tennessee remains rich with the legacies of its African American communities. To learn more about these resources, visit our online searchable digital database collections. Trials, Triumphs, and Transformations: Tennesseans' Search for Citizenship, Community, and Opportunity documents Tennessee’s post-Civil War history, with special emphasis on the meaning of citizenship and how that meaning has changed over time. Landscape of Liberation: The African American Geography of Tennessee, our partnership with the Tennessee State Library and Archives, is an interactive map showing the landscape of emancipation as it unfolded from 1860 to 1890.
Interested in visiting some of Tennessee's most historic African American historic sites? Check out our self-guided driving tour brochures, including Historic African American Schools of West Tennessee, Tennessee's Reconstruction Past: A Driving Tour, and Communities and Legacies: Maury County's African American History Driving Tour.