Two Nashville museums curating musical history added to Civil Rights Trail

A sculpture depicting the “Clinton 12” at the Green McAdoo Cultural Center in Clinton, Tennessee. The site is listed on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

During the Civil Rights era, masses marched in the streets, had sit-ins and boycotted stores. Others challenged racism in ways more solitary but no less life-changing ways.

The U.S. Civil Rights Trail is an avenue that gives a voice to all that happened — the struggle for equal rights to bring an end to racial segregation and exclusion fought for by ordinary, brave citizens, without whom the movement would have failed. 

From bloody melees at public lunch counters to the music that carried the movement forward, the Civil Rights Trail makes the experience as real and immediate as its best histories and memories.

The trail comprises more than 130 stops nationwide across 14 states and Washington, D.C. — museums, churches, schools, motels and other sites of protest and history. Launched in 2018, the trail continues to add new sites yearly, with 17 sites of interest in Tennessee, with the latest additions in Nashville: the Jefferson Street Sound Museum and the Museum of Christian and Gospel Music. 

Located in a once-vibrant area of Black businesses, historically Black universities Fisk and Tennessee State University and home to well-known civil rights figures, including civil rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby, the Jefferson Street Sound Museum and its surrounding neighborhood became a central hub for activism. This period is documented by the museum, says its founder and curator, Lorenzo Washington.

“To be included as a stop along the Civil Rights Trail helps to guarantee the histories, the stories, the music, the songs and the civil rights events that happened on and near historic Jefferson Street will not be forgotten,” Washington said.

The Museum of Christian and Gospel Music in downtown Nashville maps and highlights the intersection between gospel music and the Civil Rights Movement, said museum executive director Steve Gilreath.

The trail, he says, “can help others understand yet another dimension of what fueled the movement and what helped keep it tied together during its most difficult challenges.”

Mark Ezell, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development and Chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, emphasizes the importance of Tennessee’s role in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Tennessee played a pivotal role,” he said. “We are honored to be home to 17 sites along the Civil Rights Trail. From Memphis to Nashville to Clinton, visitors can learn about the brave men and women who fought for their civil rights.”

In addition to the new sites along the trail, others in Tennessee include the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, both in Memphis.

“These destinations shine a light on the triumphant and impactful stories at historic places across the state that shaped our nation’s history,” Ezell said.

At the Green McAdoo Cultural Center in Clinton, visitors learn about the “Clinton 12,” the first students to desegregate a high school in Tennessee. At Woolworth Theatre on 5th in Nashville, visit the site of lunch counter sit-ins during the 1960s, where the late John Lewis, a giant of the Civil Rights Movement, first became active. Or just stroll along iconic Beale Street in Memphis and walk in the footsteps of giants of the movement.

Washington notes the strategic location of the Jefferson Street Sound Museum in an area that “had a front-row seat to civil rights activities. The house mural allows visitors to read about civil rights leaders and their activities, and the profound impact and changes they helped make on the movement.”

For many, music played an instrumental part in the fight for equal rights. Consider Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,’ both artists who performed on the “Chitlin Circuit – a nickname, now rarely used, for Black-owned clubs and venues that gave African-Americans performance opportunities during segregation – on Nashville’s Jefferson Street.

“It is interesting to learn about the impact various songs had on the Civil Rights Movement,” Washington said.

While some of those fighting for equality tuned into soul music, others reconnected with the roots of their faith through the gospel they heard in church, Gilreath said.

“Keeping focus on your faith and having a great soundtrack can make the worst of time yield to a great story down the road,” Gilreath added. 

The Christian and Gospel Music Museum’s collection includes artifacts from artists’ lives, their recordings, tours, publishings and life in general.

“These pave the way for an experience that allows visitors to learn, touch, try and dive more deeply into the music they love,” Gilreath said. “They will also find connectivity and learn that it’s a small world and how Aretha (Franklin), Mahalia (Jackson), Albertina (Walker) and many others shared mentors and moments that changed this world.”

The purpose of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail is to provide a way for families, travelers and educators to visit and experience history firsthand. For details about the sites and stories from civil rights pioneers, visit CivilRightsTrail.com.