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The Overhill Cherokee village of Chota was located in the Little Tennessee River valley of eastern Tennessee in present-day Monroe County. Chota, or Itsa'sa, is also spelled Echota and Chote. The original meaning has been lost. Chota probably developed from…

In 1864 the Brothers of the Christian Schools applied to begin a school "of higher education" in Memphis, but yellow fever epidemics in Galveston and New Orleans killed several Brothers, and they canceled the project. Another attempt in 1871 succeeded,…

The earliest recognized Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) church in Tennessee is Capers Memorial CME Church in Nashville. It dates to 1866, and its leaders had a prominent role in the creation of the formal CME convention in 1870. In that…

Amos U. Christie, nationally known medical educator and pediatrician, was born August 13, 1902, the only child of Edna Davis and Frederick Absolom Christie, in Eureka, California. His father, a lumberman, died when Christie was only four years old; his…

Influential labor leader Paul Revere Christopher was born in Easley, South Carolina, the son of Clarence Christopher, a craft unionist. Christopher graduated from high school in 1930 and attended Clemson Agricultural College. In 1931 he returned to the textile mills,…

Chucalissa Village is an important Mississippian Period archaeological site located within T. O. Fuller State Park in Memphis. Workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) discovered the site during the park's initial development in 1939. According to the Memphis Press-Scimitar…

Chuqualataque, one of the lesser known Cherokee chiefs, was born into the Paint Clan as "Blue Hawk," probably in the early 1760s. This clan was the kin group of many noted Cherokee chiefs, including Dragging Canoe and Hanging Maw. Chuqualataque,…

Robert R. Church Jr., a prominent Republican, civil rights leader, and businessman, was born in Memphis on October 26, 1885. He was the son of millionaire Robert R. Church Sr. and his wife Anna Wright Church. Robert Church Jr. married…

With a current worldwide membership approaching three million, this denomination grew from humble beginnings in the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. The doctrines of the church combine traditional Protestant tenets with others that are Pentecostal. Believers must…

Estimated to be the second largest black religious denomination in the United States, the Church of God in Christ is characterized as a Pentecostal denomination. Followers of Pentecostal faiths embrace the spiritual gifts that early Christians first received on the…

Headquartered in Cleveland, Tennessee, the Church of God of Prophecy has more than three hundred thousand members worldwide. Its New Testament theology is evangelical in nature, and its worship style is Pentecostal. The early history of the denomination is entwined…

Robert R. Church Sr., noted Memphis businessman, philanthropist, community activist, and political leader, was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1839, the son of Charles B. Church of Memphis, who owned several Mississippi River steamboats. His mother, Emmeline, lived with…

The Churches of Christ are a primitivistic body of Christian believers, ideologically related to some extent to the German and Swiss Anabaptists. While they have an intellectual interest in doctrinal developments throughout the history of Christian thought, their purpose is…

Jay G. Cisco, distinguished journalist, historian, businessman, diplomat, and archaeologist, was born in New Orleans on April 25, 1844. After serving in the Confederate army during the Civil War, he traveled in Europe and worked briefly as a newspaperman. In…

In business since 1904, Citizens Bank is the oldest continuously operated African American bank in the United States. In 1902 Richard H. Boyd, James C. Napier, and other Nashville African American leaders formed a chapter of the National Negro Business…

Like other states of the American South, Tennessee has a history which includes both slavery and racial segregation. In some ways, however, the history of the relationship between the races in the Volunteer State more closely resembles that of a…

In 1861, as the nation divided, so did Tennessee. In the state's three grand divisions, Confederates and Unionists fought their own political war to determine which way Tennessee would go as the Confederate States of America took form in neighboring…

Reflecting the divided allegiances of Tennesseans during that great struggle, a number of memorials throughout the state, both Union and Confederate, honor participants in the Civil War. Despite some exceptions, most monuments are found in one of three localities: on…

Tennessee's strategic location made it a prime target of the Union armies during the Civil War. It was, in fact, the only Confederate state that came entirely under Union control before the war ended. The invasion of Tennessee began early…