ca. 1875 – May 1, 1935

Born into poverty, Ben Carr grew up working on farms in Trousdale County, Tennessee, saving his meager earnings (50¢ per day) to purchase his own farm. While also attending school, he was able to pay off his mortgage with income from his tobacco crop. Shortly before 1900, Carr came to Nashville, where he was elected porter for the state Supreme Court and became an unexpected friend and ally of Governor Malcolm Patterson (1907-1911), who sent Carr on a lecture tour throughout the region to educate and encourage black farmers. Carr headed the citizens’ organization that brought the Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State Normal School (now Tennessee State University) to Nashville, and he was the school’s first agriculture teacher. He was also the driving force behind the city’s purchase of 34 acres near the college for use as a park. When Mayor Hilary Howse dedicated Hadley Park in 1912, it became the first public park for African Americans in the nation.

First published on the Greenwood Project Facebook page 11-28-2014

In 1912, Nashville officials purchased 34 acres of land to provide a public park for Negro citizens. Originally a part of the John L. Hadley plantation, Hadley Park was dedicated on July 4th (four decades after, freed Nashville slaves gathered to listen to another man, Frederick Douglass, the noted abolitionist lecturer). It is considered the first public park in the United States for African Americans. Named for either the pioneer African-American physician Dr. W. A. Hadley or John L. Hadley, supporter of freedmen after the Civil War, Hadley Park continues as a benchmark in the community's cultural heritage. Since the park was not named after Ben Carr, who was responsible for the park's existence, the black community only felt it right that a statue of Carr should be erected in his honor within the park (Nashville Globe, 12 Jul 1912). 

On July 12, 1912, the Nashville Globe — a black-owned and operated publication launched in 1906 — ran a front-page story about the park's dedication. The park, the newspaper reported, "is part of the plantation of a slave owner who was a conspicuous figure around Nashville in the antebellum days." The slave owner's name was John L. Hadley.

Another namesake?

A 2005 article published in The Tennessean quotes Nashville parks historian Leland R. Johnson, who said the park also could have been named after Dr. W.A. Hadley, a black Nashville physician — though, Johnson said, it was not as likely. Dr. Hadley helped with the planning of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial. He worked alongside Maj. E.C. Lewis, the event's "director general." Lewis later became head of the parks board. He conceived the idea for Nashville's Parthenon and named Hadley Park.

Taken from the Tennessean

Credit: The Nashville Globe, 1912

Credit: The Nashville Globe, 1912