Clinton, Tennessee, sits on the eastern slope of the Cumberland Plateau, a bedroom community north of Knoxville. It was originally named Burrville, but it changed after Aaron Burr was charged with Treason. It was renamed after Goerge Clinton, Burr's successor, who was Thomas Jeffersons Vice President. I have wanted to do this walk for a long time. Clinton is home of the Clinton 12. The first 12 blacks registered in a white segregated high school in 1957 in Tennessee. The school was bombed in 1958, but all Clinton Schools were integrated shortly after that. On a hill overlooking the town is the old colored school named after a Buffalo Soldier that worked in the courthouse, Green McAdoo.
The harsh reality of the Jim Crow is on full display in Clinton. If you look at both schools, it was the epidemy of hypocrisy; the fact was separate but completely unequal. This hypocrisy we live with today in some respects. There are a lot of people here in the south that would like to turn back the clock on this. It's not going to happen, and sadly, they will take this to their grave.
The hill you walk up to the school is called Freedman hill, which overlooks the town of Clinton; life seems to have stopped in Clinton. There seem to be two separate downtowns, my guess originally one black and one white. Antique shops fill the section off the town square.
After the 5K walk, we ate at Haskins Drug; it was like stepping into the 1950s. Terri got her quilt shop visit in a great example of an original soda shop and pharmacy. It was a great visit and a walk in a unique southern town.
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