Kingsport's African-American community has been through a lot since its uncertain beginnings. As word spread from black families already here in the 1910's and and 20's that there were jobs to be found at Eastman, Borden Mills, the glass plant, the cement plant, Kingsport Press and other industries, out-of-town relatives flocked to the neighborhood from near and far, because there was work in Kingsport.....
LOT 10, PAGE B1-63, ALLEY BETWEEN SULLIVAN STREET AND DALE (SIGN IN UPPER LEFT IS NEAR PRESENT-DAY KRISPY KREME)
When they needed a place to stay, houses sprung up on Sullivan Street, Dale Street, Oak Street, Maple Street, and Walnut Street (now East Sevier Avenue). When those filled up, shanties sprouded up in the alley's between the streets. Families were literally living on top of families. Running water was hard to find, with many people catching rainwater, some of it surely poisoned by the black smoke of nearby factories. When those conditions reached epidemic proportions, Kingsport's black citizens looked to the city for help.Although several sites for the "colored" community were offered around town, our families did not want to separate from each other. They resisted every site offered where white families were already living, except one......
FIRST RESIDENT OF RIVERVIEW -- FEDERAL CHEMICAL & DYESTUFF CORPORATION, LOOKING EAST FROM CLAY HILL TOWARDS EASTMAN, EXPLOSIVES ROUNDHOUSE IS ON RIGHT
AT RIGHT, A PICTURE OF RIVERVIEW, 1963
The chemical dumpsite just across the Clinchfield Railroad seemed ideal, or so the city thought. Even though all the industries surrounding used it to pile all of their industrial waste onto the ground, already saturated dozens of feet with discarded chemical waste from the Federal Chemical and Dyestuff Company, long since gone.Out of that petrified pollution, fill dirt was piled on, then clay, then more fill dirt, then cover soil. Dirt streets were marked off and lots were sold.
From that, Riverview was born.....
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When churches were needed in the African-American community, churches sprang up first as Baptist houses of worship, then branching off into Methodist, and then through the years, eventually multi-religious. Those wonderfully Christian cornerstones served, and are still serving as the gathering places for Riverview's descendants to Praise the Lord, both in Spirit and Song. The churches even offered nursery schools, giving 4 and 5 year olds, an early education filled with discipline, fellowship and tolerance, in a Christian atmosphere doled out by mothers of the church......OKLAHOMA GROVE SCHOOL, 1921 (MRS. GLADYS BLYE COLLECTION)
When education was needed, allowances were made by Kingsport, for its black children to attend the Oklahoma Grove School. To this day, no written evidence exists to verify why that name was chosen. "Oak Grove" as it became known, later evolved into the Frederick Douglass School, offering both primary and secondary education through the 12th grade. The school went through several transformations in its existance, and finally disappeared into the record books of Kingsport, only now, having the fruits of its labors recorded into history.....
The school spirit lives on in the historic Douglass High School Building, now the V.O. Dobbins Sr. Community Center. The building is a testimonial to the people of Riverview, their descendants, their neighbors and the alumni, who praised the instructors of Upper East Tennessee's largest Black High School, as being their early mentors into society.Not a lot of Riverview's history is publically documented in pictures, the written word, or the spoken word. Much as the residents took the community for granted, the togetherness and fellowships they shared, many of their thoughts of the community were not passed on to subsequent generations, leaving scholars to try and piece the remnants of a neighborhood filled with joy, family, and togetherness, with honor and dignity.....
We've come a long way, baby.Now, having survived these many years as a symbol of family, Riverview and the South Central Kingsport community stand on the brink of greatness, as the City of Kingsport invests millions of dollars into the sacred ground we call home. The HOPE VI homes promise an end to the violence-plagued atmosphere the community dissolved into. The renovations to the V.O. Dobbins Community Center into Kingsport's Non-Profit Center, ensure that every resident of Kingsport will get to know our community history, as we have known it.
Sad to say, never has anybody cared much about what folks thought over in Riverview. We were ignored on many of the basics that gave communities character, nobody ever asked our opinion about anything civic-minded. We existed, and co-existed with our fellow Kingsporters, but not really knowing very much about them as civic neighbors and vice versa. That's one of the footnotes to Kingsport's history..the chance to learn about each other's culture was sadly overlooked.....
Our community is long due for a makeover, for better or for worse, into an area, far removed from the chemical dumpsite it is built on, so that future generations can look at it and say, "my people are from there." Riverview is no longer in the background.. for the first time in 70 years, it is in the FOREGROUND.. our community will be on the lips of every person in Kingsport and Upper East Tennessee, not because somebody was killed here, but because somebody spent millions of dollars here.Celebrate the rebirth of our community, because..
"We've come a long way.. baby."
YOUR DOUGLASS WEBSITE PLANS EXTENSIVE COVERAGE OF WEDNESDAY'S EVENTS WITH LIVE WEBCASTS OF THE HOPE VI GROUNDBREAKING AT 2:30... THE STEEL BEAM RAISING AT 3 PM... AND THE RIVERVIEW-SOUTH CENTRAL COMMUNITY MEETING AT 5 PM. JUST CLICK THE "PLAY" BUTTON ON THE TV SCREEN ON YOUR WEBSITE MAIN PAGE, SHORTLY BEFORE THE EVENTS.
