Founded in honor of James and Ethel Beck, at what had been their retirement just east of downtown. The Becks were one of the most interesting couples in Knoxville history. Although many blacks struggled to make a living, especially during segregation, the Becks were exceptions. For many years they were a couple much admired and envied.
A star baseball player, Beck became Knoxville College’s first athletic director. After graduation he became a schoolteacher, principal of Lonsdale’s Mitchell Chapel School, then became head of the English department at Austin High, Knoxville’s black public school. He later became Tennessee’s first black postal clerk, working at the Custom House downtown. He helped organized the Knoxville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1919.
Ethel served as head of the Tennessee Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers and vigorously supported the local “Colored Orphanage,” in Mechanicsville.
The center serves as a museum of black history featuring an extensive collection of interpretive displays, artifacts, photographs, and archives
