Tennessee State University Avon Williams Campus

Tennessee State University’s alumni include a notable list of graduates. Among them are media icon and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, Olympic gold medalist Wilma Ruldolph, Civil Rights activist and aviator "Rip" Gooch, famed jazz musician Jimmy Blanton, microbiologist Dorothy McClendon, and NFL Hall of Famer Richard Dent. Tennessee State University is a public university and part of a system of historically Black colleges and universities, also known as HBCUs. The university boasts eight colleges and schools, forty-five undergraduate majors, and thirty-one graduate programs.

TSU opened in 1912 as the state’s first public institute of higher education for African Americans. This downtown campus dates back over forty years and actually began as a branch of the University of Tennessee, with a predominantly white student body. In 1972, a prominent African American lawyer and state senator named Avon Williams Jr. represented a group of plaintiffs in an important court case called Geier v. Blanton. The lead plaintiff was Rita Sanders Geier, a graduate of Fisk University and Vanderbilt University School of Law. The plaintiffs argued that two public universities in Nashville perpetuated a state of segregation in higher education. The court ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor, and in 1979, UT-Nashville merged with Tennessee State University.

The main TSU campus is located in North Nashville; however, the former UT-Nashville campus, located on the edge of downtown, was renamed in honor of Avon Williams Junior. Take our TSU main campus tour on Nashville Sites for more on this historically Black university.

Now walk back towards the YMCA building to the corner of Church Street and YMCA Way. Cross to the opposite side of YMCA Way to the metro historical marker for the Nashville School of Law.