Cameron-Trimble & Black Self- Emancipation / Education for Black Empowerment

Cameron-Trimble & Black Self-Emancipation - Known as Cameron-Trimble, this was among Nashville's early African American neighborhoods. When the Union Army occupied Nashville in 1862, many enslaved African American risked their safety to seek freedom here. Twenty-seven hundred men, women, and children endured terrible conditions to build Ft. Negley, a Union fort and a beacon of freedom for enslaved people across the South. Thousands joined the U. S. Colored Troops, who helped win the Battle of Nashville. After the war, many veterans stayed in the Cameron-Trimble area to develop area churches, businesses, and schools. Continued: Education For Black Empowerment - After gaining freedom during the Civil War, African Americans eagerly sought education denied them during enslavement. Established in an old Confederate gun factory 600 yards west of here, Central Tennessee College offered its first classes in 1867. Renamed Walden university in 1900, it closed in 1922. The medical department known as Meharry, became chartered as Meharry Medical College in 1915 and moved to North Nashville near Fisk University in 1931. Its law school trained early African American lawyers in the South, including Lutie Lytle, the first African American woman licensed to practice in Tennessee, and Noah Parden and George Vaughn, who won key civil rights cases in the U. S. Supreme Court.