Becoming the Volunteer State exhibition opens at Delta Heritage Center December 19

The West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center, Brownsville, will host the Tennessee State Museum traveling exhibition "Becoming the Volunteer State: Tennessee in the War of 1812" Dec. 19 - Feb. 3, 2014. The exhibit commemorates the war's 200th anniversary and features artifacts, maps and an indepth exploration of the significant role of Tennessee and its people in this important chapter in history.  

Curator Myers Brown will lead a tour of the exhibition and answer questions at an opening reception Thursday, Dec. 19, beginning at 6 p.m. Brown is an Archivist with the Tennessee State Library and Chair of the Tennessee War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission.

After years of escalating tensions, the United States declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812, the war culminated with the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. By the time the war was over several Tennesseans were beginning to emerge as important American figures, including Andrew Jackson, David Crockett, Sam Houston, Edmund Gaines (Act of Congress Medal winner), and Sequoyah.

Portrait of Andrew Jackson
by Ralph E. W. Earl, ca. 1837

The war in the south was waged predominately by Tennessee militia, volunteers, or regular army units raised in the state. So many Tennesseans volunteered for service that the state was soon known by the nickname, the “Volunteer State.” The victory at the Battle of New Orleans propelled Andrew Jackson to the White House and established Tennessee at the forefront of American politics.

Two notable events from the War of 1812 are forever etched in the collective consciousness of America’s heritage: the British burning of Washington, D.C. when First Lady Dolly Madison saved the portrait of George Washington before she fled the capital, and the writing of the “Star Spangled Banner” by attorney Francis Scott Key during the British attack of Ft. McHenry at Baltimore.

The Tennessee State Museum collaborated with other organizations to develop and produce the exhibition, including The Hermitage: Home of President Andrew Jackson, the State Library & Archives, and the Tennessee War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee. Important art, portraits, uniforms, weapons and period artifacts from the era, as well as a broad variety of documentary art, maps and illustrations have been selected to recreate a flavor of the times.

“Becoming the Volunteer State: Tennessee in the War of 1812” is an exhibition of the Tennessee State Museum in collaboration with the American Association of State and Local History. The exhibit’s statewide tour is supported in part by a grant from Humanities Tennessee, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

New Exhibit Premiers at Center

Below is an article written by our local reporter, Calvin Carter, of the Brownsville States Graphic. Thanks Calvin, for letting us share it with our friends.

Photo by Calvin Carter, Brownsville States Graphic

By CALVIN CARTER ccarter@statesgraphic.com

Approximately 50 years ago, Nashville college students from Fish University, A&I, and American Baptist Theological Seminary began a sit-in campaign with religious leader Kelly Miller Smith and James Lawson during the Civil Rights fight against segregation.

The non-violent protest emerged in the form of massive sit-ins at downtown lunch counter.

The incident would serve as the spark and guide for many others throughout Tennessee, including those in the Knoxville, Chattanooga and Memphis areas.

Until January 22, 2012, residents will have the opportunity to learn much about the sit-ins at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center thanks to the traveling exhibit We Shall Not Be Moved: The 50th Anniversary of Tennessee’s Civil Rights Sit-Ins.

The free exhibit made its premiere at the center last Friday, December 9, pulling a pretty strong crowd.

Through its immense collection of pictures, signage, stories and even letters from protestors, the exhibit explains the thoughts and motivations of a generation forced to fight violent reactions to their protests with non-violence and steady resolve.

Brownsville States-Graphic Reporter Calvin Carter (second from right) speaks with Tennessee State Museum Curator of Social History Graham Perry (far right) and West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center Director Sonia Outlaw-Clark (far left) during the opening reception of "We Shall Not Be Moved" Friday, December 9, 2011.

What’s perhaps incredible about the exhibit is that while it offers a lot, it’s a significantly scaled down version of the original, noted Tennessee State Curator Graham Perry.

“We had a lot of visuals, for example like hundreds of photos. And there was also a replica lunch counter we couldn’t include for the mobile version,” Perry said. “We had to choose the most visual, or the ones that told the best parts of the story.”

While the exhibit has been “from one end of Tennessee to literally the other,” Perry said, it will conclude its journey in February 2013, before settling at the University Of Tennessee at Martin in 2014.

Perry stated that he learned so much while helping to put the exhibit together, including how the national sit-ins reflected locally.

“I learned a lot about the sit-ins. Despite the fact that the Civil Rights Movements was happening nationwide, it was really a thinly veiled version of what was happening locally. It was the spark,” Perry said.

The exhibit also received a new surprise in the form of a noteworthy addition.

Jim Ruth drove the first group of Freedom Riders from Nashville to Jackson, Miss., in 1961. He was 21 years old and drove for Trailways. Mr. Ruth greeted visitors as they arrived to see the new exhibit.

In 1961, a Chester County resident by the name of Jim Ruth, served as a bus driver for Trailways.

At 21-years-old, and with the promise of $19 and half pay per day for the trip, Ruth would drive a group that many of his other co-workers had refused from either fear or hate of the group.

“One professor in that group told me that, ‘Mr. Ruth you don’t know what you’re doing. You could get hurt or worse from this,” Ruth recalled. “’I said, I’m doing something that I’m suppose to do. If I’m going to die, then my bags are packed.’”

But Ruth took the Nashville group to their destination in Jackson, Miss., and unknowingly would immerse himself as a part of history.

Ruth would drive a group that would become known as the Freedom Riders, and while there was potential opposition, he noted the group arrived safely to their destination.

“They were the best group of people I’ve ever hauled,” Ruth said. “This makes me feel good that I’ve done something for someone.”

Ruth, who was recently honored by the NAACP in Nashville, heard about the exhibit at the West Heritage Delta Center on the news, and decided to see if he could offer any items from the incident for display.

His items will be one display until the exhibit makes it exit. But along with Ruth’s addition, the hopes of what the exhibit will do for the latest generation remains the same.

“I hope that young people will come in and see that young people are capable of causing change,” Perry said.

Traveling Exhibit Commemorates 50th Anniversary of the Tennessee Sit-Ins

Student protesters sit-in at Walgreens on Fifth Avenue in Nashville, February 20, 1960.
Photo by Jimmy Ellis, courtesy of The Tennessean.

The landmark events that helped shape the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s are the focus of a traveling exhibition now open at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, Tenn.

The exhibit, entitled We Shall Not Be Moved: The 50^th Anniversary of Tennessee’s Civil Rights Sit-Ins continues through January 22, 2012, and is free to the public.

During the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans began mobilizing in a massive movement against segregation. This included non-violent, direct action campaigns, which culminated in sit-in demonstrations, economic boycotts, and marches.

Fifty years ago, a handful of Nashville college students from Fisk University, Tennessee A&I (later Tennessee State), and American Baptist Theological Seminary along with religious leaders Kelly Miller Smith and James Lawson, began a sit-in campaign targeting downtown lunch counters. These actions sparked the formation of a mass sit-in movement, which became the model used across Tennessee and the rest of the South.

These actions will be examined in this special exhibition, organized by the curatorial staff at the Tennessee State Museum.  The exhibit also looks at segregation in the state and how significant resistance developed in African American communities.

Although the sit-ins were organized as a non-violent action, occasionally students were met with violence from white bystanders, however it was usually the protesting students who were arrested and taken to jail. The exhibit examines why these students were willing to face possible violence and endure incarceration, and how their parents reacted.

The exhibit covers similar events which occurred in Chattanooga, Memphis and Knoxville and other locales.

Along with period photographs of these events, the exhibit includes such artifacts as signage, which has been preserved to show examples of segregation during this time.  Other important artifacts include a letter from a sit-in participant describing a protest and other items related to the sit-ins.

Bagels and Barbeque opening draws crowd



David Levy (left) and Fred Silverstein talk about their ancestors and how they came to Brownsville during the opening reception of “Bagels and Barbeque: The Jewish Experience in Tennessee” February 4, 2011. Levy is a descendant of the Felsenthal and Sternberger families. Silverstein is a descendent of the Tamm family. Both families operated businesses in Brownsville for many years.

“Bagels and Barbeque: The Jewish Experience in Tennessee” officially opened Friday, February 4, at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center with a reception hosted by First Friday Forum.

More than 60 attendees enjoyed sampling a combination of foods, including bagels and barbecue, while browsing the exhibit and learning more about the contributions the Jewish community has made to Tennessee since the early 1800s. The exhibit includes information and artifacts on loan from both the Brownsville and Jackson communities.

Dr. Candace Adelson, a senior curator with the Tennessee State Museum and coordinating curator of this exhibit, was on hand to share the purpose of the exhibit and some interesting facts of how the exhibit was put together.

David Levy and Fred Silverstein shared stories of their ancestors and how they came to settle in Brownsville. Jewish families such as the Tamms and Felsenthals owned many of Brownsville’s early businesses.

Dr. Pam Dennis, curator of the Jackson exhibit, shared the impact that the yellow fever epidemic had on both the Jackson and Brownsville Jewish community.

The exhibit will be on display until March 27 and is free to the public. First Friday Forum is a group of citizens who met on the first Friday of each month at Temple Adas Israel. The meeting includes a short service followed by a program and discussion of local interest.