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Surely you’ve heard there’s a lot of anxiety about the census, about Congressional redistricting, whether undocumented immigrants are likely to be counted, whether the coronavirus curtailed it in general. Usually the census is like the Coast Guard, not famous or […]

It might help to go back to a time when Knoxville existed without football. The last time was in the 1880s. Knoxville had a lot of things going for it. Even without any such thing as Tennessee football, the city […]

By now we all know the story of Rep. Harry T. Burn, the representative from Niota who changed his mind on women’s suffrage and enabled the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote. Google his name, and you’ll […]

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 […]

Police killing of unarmed suspects has a deep history in Knoxville, as nearly everything does. It’s impossible to say how many times it has happened. But one case stands out. It got more public attention than most. Will Lenoir was […]

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 […]

One hard disappointment of the spring is word that the Farmers’ Market won’t come to Market Square soon, or for the foreseeable future. Of course it’s just a 10-minute walk away, on Mary Costa Plaza. But it will, at least […]

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 […]