The Jefferson Street Sound Museum introduces visitors to one of Nashville’s most powerful cultural corridors. This is where music, community and the Civil Rights Movement came together – and where the sound of change shaped the nation.
From the 1940s through the 1970s, Jefferson Street was a center of Black creativity and activism. Clubs and churches along the street carried the music that energized the movement, including “We Shall Overcome,” “Oh Freedom,” “Respect” and “A Change Is Gonna Come.” These songs supported sit-ins, marches and daily acts of courage during the fight for desegregation.
Jefferson Street also witnessed key moments in Nashville’s civil rights history. After the bombing of attorney Z. Alexander Looby’s home in 1960, more than 3,000 protesters marched down this street to City Hall, leading to a commitment to desegregate lunch counters. Students trained in nonviolence nearby, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Fisk University just blocks from the museum.
Founded by Lorenzo Washington, the museum sits in a historic 1909 building that once housed an ice cream parlor, family residence, grocery and beauty shop. Today it celebrates the musicians, businesses and community leaders who shaped Jefferson Street’s legacy, including Citizens Bank across the street, the oldest continuously operating African American-owned bank in the country.
A visit to the Jefferson Street Sound Museum offers an intimate look at the music and moments that helped define Nashville’s role in the Civil Rights Movement.
