Franklin: Tennessee's Handsomest Town, a Bicentennial History, 1799-1999

Rating:
Summary: The best history yet
Review: Some casual viewers of this site might wonder what the history of a small Southern town can offer readers across the nation. The answer lies in Franklin itself: for much of its history, it represented the ethos of much of the American nation, yet with noticeable differences that make its uniqueness compelling. Originally considered "the west," a wild and exotic frontier of Indians and game and forest and wild fields, Franklin became an outpost of civilization for the people at the end of the 18th Century who wished to move on to cheaper land and new business opportunities. From its earliest days, Franklinites were slaveholders, and this is another important thread in the complex story of the town, county and region. The town was the focus of the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, one of the Civil War's bloodiest and ultimately most futile battles. While the city maintained the Jim Crow segregation policies as did the rest of the South after the War, this book is one of the first to point out the important African-American leaders, like Rev. A.N.C. Williams, who owned a business on Main Street. The section of the book on the city's second century, written by Robert Holladay, is perhaps the most illuminating, addressing as it does for the first time Franklin's vital Black community and the civil rights movement in the town. Unlike the violence that stained many Southern cities and small towns, Franklin schools were easily and peacefully integrated. When an African-American asked the superintendent of schools about integrating the schools, he replied indignantly that he couldn't or he'd be lynched [by whites] on the Square. The citizen mildly replied that if he didn't he'd be lynched [by Blacks] anyway, so he might as well implement the law. The superintendent did so! The role of the interfaith, interracial Church Women in achieving racial equity is also an interesting and important note. Franklin is currently caught in the vise (and vice) of overdevelopment and urban sprawl, spawned by the arrival of I-65 in the 1960s and abetted by almost a century of pro-development ideology of local goverment. The book somewhat soft-pedals this last issue (a former mayor had his hands deep in development deals himself) and ends on a positive note. Perhaps most poignant of all, however, is the photograph by Holliday showing a shady old pioneer cemetery, bordered by the traditional Middle Tennessee mortarless stone wall, adjacent to and visually overwelmed by the new commercial development in the Cool Springs Mall area. Rural Williamson County is gone, replaced by the McAmerica of any suburb from Bangor to San Diego.

Rating:
Summary: The best history yet
Review: Some casual viewers of this site might wonder what the history of a small Southern town can offer readers across the nation. The answer lies in Franklin itself: for much of its history, it represented the ethos of much of the American nation, yet with noticeable differences that make its uniqueness compelling. Originally considered "the west," a wild and exotic frontier of Indians and game and forest and wild fields, Franklin became an outpost of civilization for the people at the end of the 18th Century who wished to move on to cheaper land and new business opportunities. From its earliest days, Franklinites were slaveholders, and this is another important thread in the complex story of the town, county and region. The town was the focus of the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, one of the Civil War's bloodiest and ultimately most futile battles. While the city maintained the Jim Crow segregation policies as did the rest of the South after the War, this book is one of the first to point out the important African-American leaders, like Rev. A.N.C. Williams, who owned a business on Main Street. The section of the book on the city's second century, written by Robert Holladay, is perhaps the most illuminating, addressing as it does for the first time Franklin's vital Black community and the civil rights movement in the town. Unlike the violence that stained many Southern cities and small towns, Franklin schools were easily and peacefully integrated. When an African-American asked the superintendent of schools about integrating the schools, he replied indignantly that he couldn't or he'd be lynched [by whites] on the Square. The citizen mildly replied that if he didn't he'd be lynched [by Blacks] anyway, so he might as well implement the law. The superintendent did so! The role of the interfaith, interracial Church Women in achieving racial equity is also an interesting and important note. Franklin is currently caught in the vise (and vice) of overdevelopment and urban sprawl, spawned by the arrival of I-65 in the 1960s and abetted by almost a century of pro-development ideology of local goverment. The book somewhat soft-pedals this last issue (a former mayor had his hands deep in development deals himself) and ends on a positive note. Perhaps most poignant of all, however, is the photograph by Holliday showing a shady old pioneer cemetery, bordered by the traditional Middle Tennessee mortarless stone wall, adjacent to and visually overwelmed by the new commercial development in the Cool Springs Mall area. Rural Williamson County is gone, replaced by the McAmerica of any suburb from Bangor to San Diego.