African Americans of Chattanooga

Beginning in 1541 with Hernando De Soto's Spanish expedition for gold, African Americans have held a prominent place in Chattanooga's history. Author Rita Lorraine Hubbard chronicles the ways African Americans have shaped Chattanooga, and presents inspirational achievements that have gone largely unheralded over the years. Did you know that Chattanooga is:

the hometown of the first African American appointed to lead counsel on a Supreme Court case

the home of the nation's oldest student, who learned to read at age 116

the home of the African American blacksmith who put shackles on the "Andrew's Raiders" after the Great Locomotive Chase

the site of one of the first integrated police departments in the South and so much more "