"United Street Tours" Uncovers Black History in Nashville

Nashville, TN, February 26, 2020 --(PR.com)-- As tourists are flocking to Nashville for country music, Chakita Patterson is releasing her immersive storytelling project that aims to bring to life the history of black people in early colonial Nashville and beyond. The interactive tour called, the Nashville Black History Walking Tour is the first part of the narratives included in the series of walking tours created by United Street Tours. The Nashville Black History Walking Tour is a 2-hour walking tour that shines a light on Nashville as a historically rich city with strong ties to slavery, the underground railroad, and the civil war.

In 1787, the Nashville settlers had 105 enslaved, ages twelve to sixty years old. By 1800, the Fort Nashborough (Nashville) settlement consisted of 295 whites, 151 enslaved, and 3 Free Blacks. By 1820, Davidson County had 20,154 inhabitants, including 7,088 black people, who represented 35 percent of the people. The Nashville Black History Walking Tour tells the story about the enslaved population by spotlighting people such as Robert “Black Bob” Renfro. Renfro went from slave to quasi-independent slave in 1794 when he received a license to sell liquor. He opened a tavern called Black Bob’s Tavern and his commemorative pillar is a major highlight on the tour.

United Street Tours was born in 2018, and was created by former educator turned entrepreneur, Chakita Patterson. Patterson, then an educator at KIPP Nashville Collegiate High School, got the idea to start the project when she asked her students a question that they couldn't answer. She asked, are there any local black history leaders that they wanted to focus on for black history month. She quickly realized that the only black history leaders that the students could recall were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. So, she decided to be a part of the solution by creating United Street Tours, a Nashville tour company that aims to spotlight black excellence in the community.

“Our tours challenge everyone who visits Nashville to see the city beyond country music. Our tours enable you to see the Music City from a different perspective to get a fuller understanding of what communities of color experienced and are experiencing,” says founder Chakita Patterson. “Many visitors have a hard time uncovering and accessing cultural and historically significant sites related to African Americans. We make it easier to do so.”

It took an extraordinary amount of research and months pouring over historical texts and documentation, but the young storyteller created something profound. Tours that not only honors black Nashvillians of the past but also an opportunity to raise awareness and spark conversations about black history, equity, and inclusion.