A-Z

Phil Bredesen, the forty-eighth governor of Tennessee, built a reputation for effective leadership in business and government as a private businessman and as mayor of Nashville/Davidson County from 1991 to 1999. He campaigned for governor in 2002 on a platform…

Brentwood Academy v. TSSAA is a nationally significant court case that answers the question as to whether or not a high school athletic association can prohibit recruiting without violating a school’s First Amendment rights. Located just south of Nashville, Brentwood Academy,…

The village of Brentwood, situated between Nashville and Franklin on the Nashville & Decatur (also called the Tennessee & Alabama) Railroad, was a strategic supply depot and source of food and livestock for the Union army during its operations in…

Carson Brewer, journalist and conservationist, was born in Hancock County, the son of a rural postmaster. Brewer attended Maryville College (1939-41) before entering military service during World War II. He served in the European Theater and returned to college at…

Born July 2, 1897, on a farm near Somerville, William H. Brewster was the oldest of sharecroppers William and Callie Polk Brewster’s eight children. In 1915 Brewster entered Memphis’s Howe Collegiate Institute and studied under the Reverends T. O. Fuller…

Beverly Briley, first mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (1963-75), was born in Nashville in 1914. Briley grew up in East Nashville, attended Vanderbilt University and Cumberland Law School, and in 1932 became the youngest Tennessean…

A favorite track of NASCAR fans across the nation is the Bristol Motor Speedway. Its two annual Winston Cup events (currently the Food City 500 in April and the Goody's 500 in August) attract the largest crowds of any sporting…

The term Bristol Sessions is the common name now given one of the most famous events in American popular music history. In July 1927 producer Ralph Peer recorded the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers in a makeshift recording studio in…

The Brock Candy Company dates to 1906, when William Emerson Brock, a traveling sales representative with the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, purchased the Trigg Candy Company of Chattanooga. Three years later, he reincorporated the company as Brock Candy Company.…

Bill Brock, Chattanooga businessman, Republican congressman and senator, GOP National Party chairman, U.S. trade representative, and secretary of labor, was born in Chattanooga on November 23, 1930, to William E. Brock Jr. and Myra Kruesi Brock, heirs to a prosperous…

For over half a century, F. W. Brode ranked among the leading cottonseed products brokers in the United States. His skill in developing markets for cottonseed meal helped ensure the success of the infant cottonseed processing industry after the Civil…

One of the foremost literary critics of the twentieth century, Cleanth Brooks achieved the breadth of his influence through his collaboration with Robert Penn Warren on the collegiate texts that revolutionized the reading of literature in mid-century America. The two,…

A lawyer and clerk of court by profession, Knoxville native Harvey Broome spent the bulk of his time and energy in promoting an increased awareness of nature, in educating Americans on the damage that the modern industrialized world had caused…

Governor and legislator Aaron V. Brown was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, the son of Reverend Aaron and Elizabeth Melton Brown. Brown attended school at Westrayville Academy and graduated as valedictorian from the University of North Carolina in 1814. While…

Arthur Brown, virologist and head of the University of Tennessee Department of Microbiology (1969-88), was born in New York City, the son of Samuel S. and Ida Hoffman Brown. He received his B.A. in biology and chemistry from Brooklyn College…

Clarence Brown, film producer and director, was born May 10, 1890, in Clinton, Massachusetts. Brown took a double degree in mechanical and electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1910 and began his career as an automobile dealer in…

Dorothy Lavinia Brown, surgeon, legislator, and teacher, rose from humble beginnings in Troy, New York, to become the first female African American surgeon in the Southeast and the first African American woman to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly. She…

John Calvin Brown, Confederate general and governor, was born in Giles County on January 6, 1827, to Duncan and Margaret (Smith) Brown. He was the younger brother of former governor Neill S. Brown. After graduating from Jackson College in Columbia,…

Lizinka Campbell Brown, a founder of a prominent late nineteenth-century stock farm, was the daughter of former U.S. Senator George W. Campbell of Tennessee, who also served as secretary of the treasury in the administration of James Madison and Minister…

Milton Brown, chancellor, congressman, and railroad president, migrated to Nashville from his home in Ohio in 1823 and studied law in the office of Felix Grundy. Upon admission to the bar, he practiced law in Paris, Tennessee, and in 1832…