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By Jack Neely – October 2019 Some holidays haven’t changed much. Beginning in the 1790s, Fourth of July was always noisy, public, and hot. Easter was always centered around church. Thanksgiving has always involved a family meal. Christmas has changed […]

By Jack Neely – September 2019   Perhaps like you, I watched the Ken Burns series about Country Music with both interest and trepidation. As many of us observed almost 30 years ago, Burns told the story of the Civil […]

By Jack Neely – July 2019 Some dramatic days you might almost wish there was some kind of monument to the weather, to the meteorological moments worth remembering. There is, in fact. It’s the elegant old weather kiosk, restored in […]

Was a Knoxvillian one of the first black elected representatives in the nation? By Jack Neely   When we talk about Knoxville history, we’re modest about our presumptions. When we think about the first time something progressive happened here in […]

Knoxville’s first Earth Day started out with a bang, 50 years ago today — even if not many of us noticed it. UT had just unveiled its Graduate School of Ecology, with well-known zoologist Jim Tanner leading it. Tanner was […]

PANDEMIC: THE SPANISH FLU: HOW 1918 WAS THE SAME, BUT VERY DIFFERENT by Jack Neely These are strange days. You don’t need me to tell you that. What we’re going through now may be “unprecedented” in some ways, as dozens […]

This bit of relevant literature appeared in the Knoxville Journal & Tribune, in mid-October of 1918, during the worst of Knoxville’s experience with the “Spanish Flu” pandemic. The poet is a local black man of whom we know little except […]

You’ve seen the posters all around downtown this winter, a happy, round-faced, exuberant-looking fellow in a black beret. That face might be a nice touch for any city. But Beauford Delaney, the actual person, is the perfect antidote to Knoxville […]

Earlier this month we enjoyed a summer evening in Burlington. The East Tennessee Community Design Center invited us to an educational soiree among the tall trees and historic downtown-style buildings clustered around the eastern end of the avenue we know […]