A Gathering at the Clinch: Tradition and Transition in Anderson County Music

Years before permanent white settlement came to Anderson County, Tennessee, Native Americans inhabited the rolling, timbered hills and valleys surrounding the Clinch River. In 1796, the year that Tennessee became a state, Thomas Frost constructed a cabin in the county, and was soon joined by German immigrants in 1800. The following year, Anderson County became a separate entity, carved out of Knox and Grainger Counties. In the early years of its history, Anderson County was largely agricultural. With the introduction of railroads in the mid-nineteenth century, coal mining eclipsed agriculture as the leading economic venture. The railroads and mines brought outsiders to Anderson County. Oliver Springs became a fashionable tourist attraction for American and European visitors, and the coal mines at Briceville became the scene of violent labor unrest, known as the “Coal Creek War.”

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal created the Tennessee Valley Authority. Norris Dam, the first major project of TVA, brought cheap electricity, flood control, jobs, the model community of Norris, public parks, and a freeway to Anderson County.

A few years later, Anderson County experienced even greater change as one of the primary sites of the top secret Manhattan Project, whose task was to isolate the uranium isotope for the first atomic bomb. Physicists, construction and productions workers, and their families flocked to the “City behind a Fence”; nearly overnight, Oak Ridge became the fifth largest city in Tennessee.

In 1956, following the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, Clinton High School became the first school in the South to experience desegregation. The music of Anderson County reflects both the changes and continuity of its history. The Green McAdoo Cultural Center’s companion exhibit to the Smithsonian: “New Harmonies” exhibit is entitled: “A Gathering at the Clinch: Tradition and Transition in Anderson County Music.” The local exhibit and companion performances will spotlight the sacred and secular music of Clinton, focusing on:

• Traditional Appalachian music of the region
• Opera House at Briceville
• Jazz and Big Band sound that came to Anderson County during the Great Depression and World War II years
• Protest music influenced by the nearby Highlander School on the Civil Rights movement
• Traditions and transitions in Anderson County music today

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