The McLemore House, dating c. 1880,  in the Historic African American neighborhood of Hard Bargain, tells how freed African Americans helped to build a new Franklin after the Civil War.

New exhibits prepared with the support of the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area tell Harvey’s amazing journey from slavery to freedom along with the impact his family had on Franklin for generations.

The McLemore House is a crucial addition to Franklin’s heritage tourism as it addresses people and stories too long ignored.

Dating to 1919 the Allen-White School in Whiteville was the first brick Rosenwald school in Tennessee plus local African Americans in Hardeman County raised the most money for the school than any other similar community in the state during the Rosenwald school building campaign.

In 2012 vandals burned the school just as its restoration was not underway. This act of hatred did not stop the community. Last week at the historic ElCanaan Baptist Church local leaders and members of the Tennessee General Assembly met to celebrate the beginning of a new campaign to restore the school as a community cultural center, thus restoring this rural community too.