In the Antebellum era, the street was a footpath running "from the Hadley plantation on the west to the
Cumberland River on the east". It later was improved as a road for wagons and horses. The street was named in honor of U.S President
Thomas Jefferson. The campus of
Tennessee State University was built across Hadley Park, on the western tip of Jefferson Street. In the 1940s–1960s, the street's entertainment venues were a center for
rock'n'roll as well as
rhythm and blues. Artists including
Jimi Hendrix,
Etta James,
Ray Charles,
Little Richard,
Otis Redding and
Billy Cox played in clubs such as the Del Morocco, the New Era Club, Maceo's, Club Baron or Club Stealaway. During the
Civil Rights era, the street became a center for organizing the
Nashville sit-ins. While the protests took place elsewhere (including in Downtown Nashville), activists planned their protests on Jefferson Street, and they were supported by "Jefferson Street business owners and residents." In the 1950s, the Interstate had been projected to be built near the campus of
Vanderbilt University, then a whites-only university, but city officials changed their minds shortly thereafter. Judge
Frank Gray Jr. ruled against the committee on November 2, saying that there was no feasible alternate route. As a result, many African American residents were displaced and moved to the Bordeaux area in North Nashville. In 2017, it was decided that the music history of Jefferson Street would be chronicled in the
National Museum of African American Music due to open in 2019. In May 2019, media coverage suggested African-American property owners were being pressured into selling their buildings to developers, who reported them for coding violations if they refused to sell. ==References==