Streets That Still Sing: Preserving Black Music History in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Across Tennessee, some of the most important streets in Black music history are being remembered in two ways at the same time — through new revitalization projects and through museums working to preserve what development and urban renewal nearly erased.

From Beale Street in Memphis, to Jefferson Street in Nashville, to Vine Avenue in Knoxville, and the Big 9 in Chattanooga— each place tells a different story of culture, community and music.

Watch WSMV4’s special report on the preservation of Black music at the top of this story.

Beale Street in Memphis – Beale Street is one of the most recognizable music corridors in America— an international landmark rooted in Black culture and the blues. And now, Beale is getting a major investment focused on what leaders say will help secure its future.

The State of Tennessee awarded the Downtown Memphis Commission a $74 million safety grant for public safety and infrastructure improvements in the Beale Street Historic District— work meant to strengthen the district and support the crowds that come here from all over the world.

Jefferson Street in Nashville – Nashville— like many cities —saw urban renewal projects that disrupted Black neighborhoods that once held the culture, the businesses and the music. Jefferson Street’s story includes what was lost. For decades, this corridor was a Black cultural epicenter, packed with clubs and talent, a place where musicians came to compete, collaborate and break through.

Now Jefferson Street is getting a major makeover. Nashville’s “Choose How You Move” initiative is expected to improve pedestrian infrastructure like sidewalks and street crossings and add more green space, efforts aimed at bringing the corridor closer to what longtime residents remember.

Lorenzo Washington is the owner of the Jefferson Street Sound Museum. He said the museum is built on the idea that history is often protected first in ordinary places, like through families saving photos, posters and memories long before anyone called it a collection. Inside, he’s preserving proof that Jefferson Street helped shape music history far beyond Nashville.

Vine Street in Knoxville – Knoxville’s Beck Cultural Corridor is aimed at putting Vine Street’s history back on the streets through signs and historical markers that highlight what used to exist there.

Rev. Renee Kesler is the president of Beck Cultural Exchange Center. It traces its roots to the community response after federal urban renewal reshaped this part of the city.

“It went in three phases here in Knoxville. And as a result of that, the people got together and in 1975, they began to bring all their artifacts, their history, their memorabilia to this place,” Rev. Kessler said.

Kesler says the preservation now happening at the Beck Cultural Exchange Center is also a form of economic development because cultural experiences change how people travel.

9th Street in Chattanooga – In Chattanooga, the story centers on a street that once lived and breathed music: 9th Street, known as The Big 9.

Today, that history is kept alive through the Bessie Smith Cultural Center and the annual Big 9 Music Fest.

Bessie Smith Cultural Center – It was created in 1983 in a one-room building down the street. It was once known Chattanooga African American Museum. Elijah Cameron is the VP or Operations at the center. He says the Big 9 pulled people from across the South—because music wasn’t just entertainment. It was the center of Black business and community life.

Each city’s approach looks different— investment, infrastructure, preservation and public storytelling— but the mission is shared: protecting the cultural corridors where Black music history was made and acknowledging the communities that were disrupted along the way.