Green McAdoo: the Civil Rights Movement in Clinton

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The Civil Rights Movement in Clinton and its relationship to the Green McAdoo School
Carroll Van West
MTSU Center for Historic Preservation
The Green McAdoo School stands on a very historic place to the Civil Rights movement in Tennessee. It has been a significant place within the townscape of Clinton since emancipation. After the Civil War about 600 slaves were liberated in Anderson County. Early education for blacks was conducted in the churches, such as Asbury United Methodist Church and the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church. During the era of Reconstruction the Freedman’s Bureau constructed a school for African American children in the middle of the newly established freedmen’s community, on a prominent hill overlooking the town square of Clinton. This hill north of town became identified as Freedmen’s Hill (and later took on the present name of Foley Hill). Local white residents torched the black school in the spring of 1869, prompting a citizens’ meeting, where residents adopted the following resolution: “Whereas on the morning of March 7, 1869, the church and school on Freedman’s Hill in Clinton belonging to the colored people, was destroyed by fire under circumstances which leave but little doubt that it was the work of an incendiary . . . The people of Clinton and vicinity, without distinction of party or political antecedent, denounce the act.”1
The Clinton citizens took up a collection for the purpose of rebuilding a church and school for the African American community. The local history records that a former slave holder and staunch Democrat, Colonel John Jarnigan, took the lead in the movement to rebuild the destroyed church and school. Less than two months later on May 1, 1869, a former slave, Andrew Freeman, of Anderson County donated one and a quarter acres of land for the building of what became known as the Whittier School for the African American community. School Superintendent, Charles D. McGuffey, nephew of the author of the famous McGuffey Readers, witnessed the execution of the deed.2
This town lot became the historic location for African American schools. In time, the Clinton Colored School, Asbury United Methodist Church, and Mt. Sinai Baptist Church became the nucleus of the black community. All three buildings, in close proximity to each other, provided the appropriate meeting places for the black citizens of the Clinton Community known to many as “The Hill.” The historical significance of both Asbury and Mt. Sinai churches are worthy of note. Asbury United Methodist Church was formed in May 1865 by its first minister, John C. Tate. According to church historical records, Tate, a former slave. came to Clinton with Dr. Milton Tate. The congregation of Asbury United Methodist built the present brick and concrete Gothic styled church building, which is immediately south of the school, in 1950. Five years later, just north of the school building, congregation members built a new, modern red brick Colonial Revival styled building for Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, which had been established in 1890. The Reverend O.W. Willis is perhaps one of the church’s most noted figures. Reverend Willis served as pastor of the congregation for more than 50 years. Local records also indicate that the
1David J. Brittain, “A Case Study of the Problems of Racial Integration in the Clinton Tennessee High School,” Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1960, Snyder E. Roberts, History of Clinton Senior High School 1806-1971.
2 Hoskins, Anderson County Historical Sketches, 263.