What was built
- Established or development period
- 1865–1919
- Peak period
- 1910s–1940s
- Who built the community
- Black residents of East Knoxville, including business owners along East Vine Avenue.
- Black population
- Roughly 11,000 Black residents in 1920.
- Businesses
- Black-owned groceries, pharmacies, restaurants and professional offices along East Vine Avenue.
- Financial institutions
- Not yet documented
- Churches
- Multiple Black congregations in the Bottom and Mechanicsville.
- Schools
- Knoxville College and Austin High School.
- Hospitals
- Not yet documented
- Newspapers
- Not yet documented
- Entertainment & cultural institutions
- Not yet documented
- Other community institutions
- Not yet documented
- Black land & property ownership
- Black home and business ownership in East Knoxville.
- Economic significance
- A concentrated Black commercial corridor in East Tennessee.
What happened
- What happened?
- On August 30–31, 1919, a white mob stormed the county jail seeking Maurice Mays, then attacked the Black business district on East Vine Avenue. Black residents returned fire; National Guard troops fired a machine gun into the district.
- Trigger or precipitating event
- The arrest of Maurice Mays for the murder of a white woman, a conviction widely disputed then and since.
- Underlying historical context
- Red Summer violence, wartime demographic change and hostility to Black economic standing in East Knoxville.
- Method of destruction / displacement
- Mob Violence · Political Violence
- Date or period of destruction
- August 30–31, 1919
- Confirmed / documented deaths
- 2 documented deaths.
- Estimated deaths
- Contemporary accounts and later research suggest additional uncounted Black deaths, with estimates up to 25 or more. SOURCES DIFFER.
- People displaced
- Not yet documented
- Homes destroyed
- Not yet documented
- Businesses destroyed
- Black businesses on East Vine Avenue were looted and damaged.
- Acres or property lost
- Not yet documented
Afterward
- What happened to the land?
- The district persisted into mid-century and was later cleared.
- Was compensation paid?
- None.
- Was the community rebuilt?
- Yes, temporarily.
- What was rebuilt?
- Not yet documented
- Destroyed or displaced again?
- Yes
- Second displacement date
- 1959–1974
- Second displacement cause
- Knoxville's Mountain View urban renewal project and highway construction demolished the East Vine Avenue business district and displaced thousands.
- What exists there today?
- The site of the former district holds civic buildings, the Civic Coliseum and James White Parkway.
- Descendant, reparation & restoration efforts
- The Knoxville 1919 Race Riot centennial project and Beck Cultural Exchange Center documentation.
- Historical significance
- A Red Summer episode followed by one of the most complete urban-renewal erasures of a Southern Black business district.
Destroyed / displaced again
This community experienced a second documented episode of destruction or displacement: Knoxville's Mountain View urban renewal project and highway construction demolished the East Vine Avenue business district and displaced thousands. (1959–1974).
Sources
- Source lookupFind
Beck Cultural Exchange Center, Knoxville
- Book or scholarly workFind
Matthew Lakin, 'A Dark Night: The Knoxville Race Riot of 1919,' Journal of East Tennessee History (2000)
- Primary recordFind
Tennessee State Library and Archives
- Source lookupFind
City of Knoxville urban renewal records
"Find" opens a focused search for legacy references that do not have a stable link; "Open" goes directly to the source.
Last verified: 2026-09-20. This is a living historical collection. Additional communities and documentation will be added as research and verification continue.