RENOWNED CITIZENS
Nationally Known Black Maury Countians
Rufus Estes,
Cookbook Author
Andrew Benny Frierson
Opera Singer
Lyman T. Johnson, Educator and Civil Rights Activist
Lyman Johnson was born in Columbia in1906 and died in Louisville, Kentucky in 1997. In 1949, he successfully challenged Kentucky’s Day Law, which blocked black students and white students from attending the same school. His win in court made it possible for African American students to attend the University of Kentucky.
He continued to work for the desegregation and integration of neighborhoods, swimming pools, schools, and restaurants in Louisville and throughout Kentucky.
In 1980 Lyman T. Johnson Middle School was named after him. In 2015 Lyman T. Johnson Hall dormitory was named for him at the University of Kentucky.
Wade Hall, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the English Department of Bellarmine University, wrote a biography of Johnson titled The Rest of the Dream: The Black Odyssey of Lyman Johnson, which mentions Mrs. Melinda Frierson, Sam Howell, Miss Willie Harlem, Miss Norvella Brown, and Miss Beatrice Gordon.
Lyman T. Johnson
NBC News Story
Flournoy Eakin Miller, Entertainer, writer, and producer
Flournoy Eakin Miller, sometimes credited as F. E. Miller, was an American entertainer, actor, lyricist, producer and playwright. Between about 1905 and 1932 he performed as one half of a popular comic duo on vaudeville and was widely recognized for his work in bringing to the forefront African American musical theater on Broadway.
Best known for his work on the production Shuffle Along (1921), he went to write and perform in several all-black movies between the 1930s and 1950s.
Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen
The Underground Railroad King
Sandra Seaton
Playwright
Stephen D. Barnett
Rear Admiral, United States Navy
Rear Admiral Stephen D. Barnett is a native of Columbia and an alumnus of Tennessee State University, where he received a B.S in Mechanical Engineering, and Troy State University, where he earned his MBA in 1991.
At sea, Barnett reported to Patrol Squadron (VP) 46 stationed at Naval Air Station (NAS) Widbey Island, Washington, as a naval flight officer. He has also served as a department head for VP-5 stationed at NAS Jacksonville, Florida. As commanding officer of VP-47 stationed at Kaneohe, Hawaii, he led the squadron on a simultaneous deployment to Japan and Iraq, executing more than 250 missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During his tour, the squadron completed more than 950 sorties comprising 5,000 hours.
His assignments ashore include serving as a detailer at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, directing the assignments of more than 1,000 naval aviators; naval flight officer instructor for VP-30, NAS Jacksonville; assistant Joint Requirements Oversight Council Secretariat, assisting in the evaluation and development of joint force requirements on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Barnett served as senior program analyst for Chief of Naval Operations, monitored naval avation’s $137 billion annual budget, and served as deputy executive assistant to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations. Additional assignments include deputy director of the Resource Management Division for the Chief of Naval Operations; commanding officer of Naval Base Coronado, California, and later as chief of staff for Commander, Navy Region Southeast and Commander, Navy Installations Command. He assumed duties as Commander, Navy Region Northwest in March 2020.
Locally Prominent Black Maury Countians
Julius Blair
Black Business Leader
“There will be no more social lynchings, Sheriff.”
With those words, Julius Blair, Black business leader in Columbia, Tennessee, tossed down the gauntlet to the white racists of Columbia and the state of Tennessee. What had begun as a minor incident had become a major event due to the behavior of a racist white mob gathered at the Maury County Courthouse.
The Courthouse faced the Black business section of town. Within 24 hours more than a thousand armed members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol and National Guard faced the Bottom, as the area was called. Within hours the ragtag group of Black men on roofs armed with hunting rifles and revolvers were overcome and the Bottom was vandalized and looted. The Bottom was destroyed and its remains now stand as a sad monument to racism.
The arrest of Black men, including Julius Blair, prompted the NAACP to send a young lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, to aid in their defense. Marshall was kidnapped by a mob but released. The incident now known as the Columbia Black Resistance of 1946, was reported through the country, and Blair’s words, “There will be no more social lynchings, Sheriff,” helped spark the Civil Rights Movement.
Julius Blair was born the son of slaves in a cabin in rural Maury County. To seek work to help his family, he made his way to Columbia at the age of 12 and became a shoeshine boy. He had little education, but he expanded his operation into a barber shop and soon opened his own barber shop, catering to white customers on the Columbia Square.
Blair later opened another shop in Mt. Pleasant when the phosphate industry brought jobs to Black men. His business continued to expand until he was known as an important businessman operating his own drugstore and poolroom. He was married to Louvenia Wilkins and had two sons, Saul and Charlie. He died in 1962 and is buried in Rosemount Cemetery.
Edmund Kelley
First Black Baptist Minister in Tennessee
Betty Booker Parks
Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, 2005
Hampshire Tennessee’s star basketball forward, 5 foot 5 inch Betty Booker Parks, made All-State in high school, and was the leading scorer during her time at Memphis State. She was the first woman to receive an athletic scholarship at the college, and in 1985 was inducted into the Memphis State University Hall of Fame. After college Betty went on to play for several professional teams, finishing her career working in education.
Eddie Pye
Major League Baseball Player
Major League Baseball Infielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers
Born in Columbia in 1967 and attended high school at Columbia Central, playing on the school’s football, basketball and baseball teams. Pye went on to play shortstop during his four years at Middle Tennessee University (MTSU).
At the age of 21, Pye was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988, playing 614 minor league games before walking on to the field to play his first professional game in June of 1994. Pye served as an infielder, manning the positions of second base, shortstop, and third base over two seasons. His major league career was short, playing his final game just a year later in May 1995.
Returning to Tennessee, Pye lives in Murfreesboro, serving as an umpire for the nonprofit Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association.
Moses McKissack
West African Ashanti Tribesman, a Slave in Maury County
Moses McKissack was born free, of the West African Ashanti tribe in 1790. Brought to America, he became the property of William McKissack of North Carolina, who moved to Maury County, Tennessee in 1830. While still in North Carolina, Moses McKissack married a Cherokee woman and together they had 14 children.
William McKissick operated kilns that produced the bricks used to build several of Maury County’s antebellum homes, including Rippavilla, a gift to his daughter.
Moses McKissack learned the brick trade working at the yard in Spring Hill. According to family records, at some point William McKissack gave Moses his freedom, and Moses was able to sell bricks to earn a living. Over the years, he grew in skill to become a builder much in demand. Moses died in 1865, and unfortunately was not able to experience the end of slavery for his people.
After the war, his ninth son, Gabriel Moses McKissack, moved south to Pulaski in Giles County, where he was able to find work using the skills he had learned from his father. The lineage continued, passing down those same abilities generation after generation.
In 1890, Moses McKissack, III worked in a Giles County shop where he learned to draw plans for construction. After many years of working for white firms in the area, in 1905 he moved to Nashville to start his own architect and construction company.
Within a few years, he was hired to design the dean’s residence at Vanderbilt University. A commission to design the Carnegie Library at Fisk University soon followed, a building now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Today the highly respected firm of McKissack and McKissack is based in Washington D.C., where it is still managed by the female descendants of the original Moses McKissack. The company website can be found at https://www.mckinc.com/.
Yollette Jones
Professor and Administrator, Vanderbilt University
Yollette Trigg Jones is a native of Columbia, Tennessee. She earned the A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University, with concentrations in African American history and 20th century United States history. Dr. Jones has taught classes in both areas since coming to Vanderbilt in 1991. She has served in several areas of university administration, including the Arts and Science Deans Office and the Provosts Office. She is married to William T. Donnell, Sr.; they have two children, Bill Donnell Jr., and Paige Donnell.
Maury County Colored Hospital
A.J. Armstrong, founder and administrator
Albert Wright
J.H. Sanders
Charles E. Jones
J.H. Kelly
Rev. W.H. Lamphrey
W.L. Brown
Dr. D.B. Boud
Dr. B.F. Davis
Dr. C. O. Hunter
Bertha Secret, administrator
Mrs. W.A. Armstrong, trustee
J. Thomas Carruthers, trustee
Mrs. Wesley Taylor, trustee
G.A. Newbern, trustee
Mariah Glenn, trustee
Mrs. Scottie Brown, trustee
Friends and Neighbors
A.J. Morton & Sons Funeral Home
Cultural Contributions
The Arts
Mozella Brooks Browne, poet
Andrew Benny Frierson, opera singer and performer, educator
Cecil Gant, blues musician
Lorraine Hansberry, playwright
Etta Graham Haygood, visual artist
William Dempsey Kelly, author
Prof. John H. Kelley, author
Flournoy E. Miller, writer, performer, producer
Irvin C. Miller, writer, performer, producer
Quintard G. Miller, journalist, performer, producer
Roger Smith, artist, carver
Sandra Seaton, playwright, librettist
Councilmen
Ronald V. Ryan, elected to the Columbia City Council from 1984-1991
Educators
Amanda Arnell
Agnes Braden
Albert Sampson Browne, Jr.
Albert Sampson Browne, Sr. –Principal
Mozella Brooks Browne
Cyrus Jerome Browne
Annie Lee Bugg
Wanda Dunn
Ellen Evans
Emma Louise Evans
Andrew Benny Frierson, opera singer and performer, educator
Miss Malinda Frierson
Miss Bea Gordon
Celestine Griffin
Miss Willie Harlem
Hattye Evans Harris
Ruth Evelyn Harwell
Camille Evans Howell
Frederick Randolph Howell
Mariah Howell
Samuel Howell
Theodora Howell
Ethel Ivory
Prof. Will Johnson
Prof. Robert Johnson
Pett Mae Davis Jones
Prof. John H. Kelley
Edward H. Kimes–Principal
Samuella Trotter Kimes
Alene Mitchell
Pauline Mitchell
Miss Queenie Moore
Betty Booker Parks, Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, 2005, coach
Horace Oliver Porter–Principal
Mildred Sinsing Porter
Cyrus Webster
Bob White
Ruth Delores Whitaker
Susie Young
Funeral Homes and Morticians
A.J. Morton and Sons, East 8th Street, a historical marker
Baxter Brothers, 1105 East End St, Columbia, TN 38401
Roundtree, Napier and Oglivie, 115 Columbian Ave, Mt Pleasant, TN 38474
V.K. Ryan and Son, 300 E 7th St, Columbia, TN 38401
Historians
Willie Ann Harlan Armstrong
Cornelia Braden
JoAnn McClellan, Maury County Historian, Tennessee Tribune article
Sandra Seaton
The Maury County Historical Society
Journalists
Camille Evans Johnson
Media
Sarah Burroughs, president of the Burrell Communications Group
Military
Rear Admiral Stephen D. Barnett
Ministers and Churches
Charles O’Reilly Brown (Sandra Seaton’s great grandfather)
Edmond Kelly, Baptist Minister
George Perry (Lorraine Hansberry’s grandfather)
David Williams (Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church)
Physicians
Dr. Benjamin Franklin Davis (wife Pett Mae Davis Jones)
Dr. Donelson
Dr. Hawthorne
Dr. Ivory (wife Ethel Ivory)
Pop Culture
Sarina-Joi Crowe, musician and singer, two-time finalist on the popular TV show American Idol
Professional Sports
Betty Booker Parks, Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, 2005
Eddie Pye, MLB Los Angeles Dodgers, 1994
McDonald Odgen, NFL Cleveland Browns, 1980-82
Jim Kelly, NFL Chicago Bears, 1972
Shaquille Mason
John Pointer, NFL Green Bay Packers, 1987
Other
Will Evans, sportsman and guide
Rufus Estes, chef and cookbook author
Moses McKissack, first in a lineage of building and architecture