Zach Keith

Some more photos around Knoxville with my 1930s Kodak Brownie. St John's Episcopal, the main historic Lakeshore/Eastern State Hospital building, the old Knox County Courthouse, and Merchants of Beer.

Took these around downtown Knoxville with my Canon AE-1 on old and slightly deteriorated Kodak SAF 400 film. I really liked how these turned out.

Screenshot excerpt from the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” Executive Order [my highlighting is between asterisks below]: Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive. For example, the Smithsonian American Art Museum today features "The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture," an exhibit representing that "[slocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain sy@ems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement." ** The exhibit further claims that "sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism" and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, stating "Race is a human invention." ** The National Museum of African American History and Culture has proclaimed that "hard work," "individualism," and "the nuclear family" are aspects of "White culture." The forthcoming Smithsonian American Women's History Museum plans on celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women's sports. These are just a few examples.

The fascists are attempting to legitimize scientific racism and eugenics in the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” EO.

Mar. 15, 1901 | Black Woman Lynched By White Mob in TN After They Couldn’t Find Her Brother Learn more about our history of racial injustice.

On this day in 1901, after a Black man accused of stealing a white man’s wallet escaped lynching in Rome, TN, the mob of white men instead seized and lynched Ballie Crutchfield, his sister.

Confusingly there is a McClung Museum (part of UTK) and a McClung Historical Collection (part of the library system) here in Knoxville.

New book at the McClung Collection. @betsyphillips.bsky.social

He served until March 31, 1866, when he mustered out as a sergeant. After the war he farmed various plots of land in west Knox County. He died sometime between 1891 and 1900. He appears on the 1895 Map of Knox County as a landowner straddling the 10th and 11th Civil Districts.

King was born enslaved around 1829 in either Anderson or Knox County, TN. He was most likely enslaved by William Moorefield who lived near Concord. King enlisted in the US Army on January 26, 1864, joining Co. A, 1st USCT Heavy Artillery.

(It isn’t clear to me if this says Wm. Or Mr. O’Dell and I was unable to find a Black William O’Dell in Knox County, there was a white one from Maryland which would be intriguing.)

An interesting document included within the marriage records is a witness affidavit from First Presbyterian minister Rev. James Park, attesting to witnessing the marriage ceremony of King Moorefield and Jane O’Dell at the O’Dell home near Ebenezer.

The first marriage is that of Charles Moore and Mary Blackwell on June 10, 1865, just weeks following the end of the Civil War. These early marriages record what might be some of their first acts as citizens of the US, and it is telling that some chose to cement their partnerships under the law.

The Knox County Archives holds this unbound volume which documents newly emancipated African Americans’
matrimonial rites. The county clerk segregated the marriages for these years before recording them in the same volume starting in mid-1867.

In 1972, Samuel wrote to Congressman John Duncan Sr., lamenting his losses in the move and outlining the harassment and theft he sustained during the urban renewal period. It is not know if the missive was answered. Samuel died in 1982.

his residence and business, paying him $7,500 for the residence and barber shop, before ultimately tearing them down. Nothing has been built in that location in the intervening decades.

Following John Samuel's death in 1919, Beauford and Joseph's older brother Samuel took over the barbershop at 815 E. Vine, where he and his mother continued to reside. In 1966, the Knoxville Housing Authority, as part of the Mountain View Urban Renewal Project, forced Samuel to move…

Both Beauford and Joseph would move to New York City and become active in the artistic period known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Joseph remained in NYC until returning to Knoxville in 1986, while Beauford moved to Paris in 1953, where his abstract expressionist style blossomed.

While teenagers attending Austin High School, the pair of brothers worked at Post Sign Company, where local artist Lloyd Branson noticed their work. He would eventually mentor Beauford, as he did with a number of other burgeoning artists of the period including Catherine Wiley.

These photographs depict the childhood home of Beauford and Joseph Delaney, two of Knoxville's most famous and celebrated artists. The home and attached barber shop at 815 E. Vine Avenue was purchased by their parents, John Samuel and Delia Delaney in 1898.

..when the city forced them to sell their property and move east to Brooks Avenue. Their present building was built in 1970 and designed by renowned architectural firm McKissack and McKissack.

Founded in 1864 in the basement of First Presbyterian Church, Mt. Zion Baptist is Knoxville’s second oldest active Black Church. By 1866, they had moved to Patton Street where they would worship for the next 100 years. A fine brick building was built in 1898 and served the congregation until 1967…

We are at the point of the fascist autocoup where the interim US Attorney is replying to an anonymous pro-Nazi account who wants to see someone punished for simply sharing the names of Elon Musk's lackeys who have gotten access to extremely sensitive government data systems.

The old Knox County Jail which was attached to the Old County courthouse. Built in 1935-36 it was torn down to construct the City-County Building in 1978.

and includes the area surrounding the Coliseum that the Knoxville Housing Authority acquired and demolished. This house was bought by his parents in 1924, 3 years after his birth.

Today I scanned these photos of the childhood home of Avon Williams Jr, civil rights attorney and first African American Tennessee State Senator. This house was at 1204 E. Vine Avenue, part of the Mountain View Project which is just east of downtown Knoxville…

The Humanities Complex at University of Tennessee. Plan, model, under construction and completed.

The Knoxville Housing Authority included 205 E. Vine in their Riverfront-Willow Urban Renewal Project. They took the unusual step of photographing the interior of his home, one of just a handful. Smith died in 1956, just three months after KHA acquired his home and business.

Noah W. Smith owned this beautiful
Victorian home at 205 E. Vine Avenue. Built in 1893 by merchant and banker, William L.
Russell, Smith purchased it in 1913. Smith founded Gleaner Printing Company in 1896 and ran the print shop out of a building behind his home on Vine Avenue.

She played for the Muskegon Lassies and Kalamazoo Lassies. These photos and poster are from her collection. A poster, a photo of her and Dorothy “Mac” Maguire, Chattanoogan teammate Dorothy “Monty” Montgomery, and the team at 1947 Spring Training in Havana, Cuba.

Many of you are familiar with the movie or TV adaptation of A League of Their Own. One of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League’s players was Knoxville’s own Doris Sams. She excelled at both pitching and batting, winning two MVP awards and selected to 5 all-star teams in her 8 seasons.

Humes Hall and the rest of Presidential Court, followed by Clement Hall on University of Tennessee’s campus, taken from 1964-1969.