Black population drops sharply in some Nashville neighborhoods
Some historic African-American neighborhoods in Nashville’s urban core have experienced declines of more than 20 percent in their black populations over the past decade, according to a Tennessean analysis of newly released census data.
The findings will ring true for anyone who has followed the urban core’s redevelopment and gentrification, but this may be the first time the dramatic racial shifts have been documented with data.
Nashville’s development boom has not only reshaped the physical landscape, but the data shows it upended the social and cultural landscape as well.
Like the rest of the nation, Davidson County’s socioeconomic divisions tend to fall along racial lines. Those who can afford the new and revamped housing surrounding downtown typically aren’t long-time black residents. Instead, they are leaving for more affordable outlying areas, while white buyers and renters are spreading throughout the core.
Janice Key lived in her Edgehill home for more than a quarter century before developers started knocking on her door. She bought the 1,000-square-foot house, perched on a hill and overlooking downtown, for $48,000 in 1992. It was a low-key and closeknit community with many older African-Americans, Key said. “I was comfortable,” she said. Then, about four years ago, her neighbors started selling. Builders tore down little homes and erected what Key and the other holdouts called “mansions.”
“It seemed like a big rush, like you were being pushed,” she said, while standing in front of her old home site, which is now vacant land.
Edgehill had one of the largest racial shifts in the county during the past decade. This historic African-American community was home to black lawyers, doctors and other professionals in the early 20th century. It remained predominantly black until this development boom.
From 2007 to 2011, AfricanAmericans made up 67 percent of the total population, on average, census data shows. But between 2012 and 2016, their average share was down to 50 percent. The white population, meanwhile, shifted from 26 percent to 45 percent in the same time frame.
Key’s new neighbors — the ones buying $700,000 homes — were mostly white. They walked tiny fluffy white dogs, she said, and rode bikes on streets that were until then dominated by cars. They weren’t as friendly as Key would have expected and acted like they lived there first.
“I don’t know if it was about color,” she said.
Over the last two years Key fielded the offers from investors, agents and developers. Her streets were clogged with more construction crews every day. Eventually, she said, she gave in to the pressure. She sold the lot in March — the house was an afterthought — for $640,000.
“I did not sell it because of the money,” she said as a black Range Rover passed on the street with a clipboard on its dashboard. “I sold it because of my health, because of the growth. The growth took away that comfort zone.”
Key, 65, bought a house on a 1-acre lot in northeast Nashville, near Madison, for a third of the sales price. With the windfall, she’s been able to support friends and family and to give to her church, she said.
Seeking affordability, many other black residents have moved to the county’s periphery. Some of the few areas with a growing black population, according to the data, were in Goodlettsville, Hermitage and Neely’s Bend.
The Tennessean analyzed American Community Survey data, which is based on responses from 3.5 million American households. Among other demographic information, it shows the average percentage of each race or ethnicity over the five-year time frames.
About half of the county’s 62 census tracts had statistically significant changes in their share of African-American residents, while it’s difficult to say what happened in the others.
The tract north of downtown encompassing Germantown, Salemtown, Buena Vista and Hope Gardens saw the largest drop in the county. The black population fell from 60 percent of the total population to 38 percent, while the white population climbed from 37 percent to 59 percent.
The larger share of whites can, in part, be explained by the area’s new infill construction. Formerly industrial or vacant property has been redeveloped into high-end condos, townhomes, lofts and apartments. Many of the new residents are young white professionals, said David Ewing, a local historian who has followed evolving neighborhoods.
While Germantown has been diverse for decades, Salemtown in particular was mostly black, Ewing said. African-Americans moved there during the “urban renewal” of the 1950s and 1960s, when entire neighborhoods around the state Capitol were razed. Residents fled north and to East Nashville. Today, after the latest wave of development infused more white residents, these are some of the city’s most diverse areas, he said.
“Most of these neighborhoods have very strong identities,” he said. “And it’s not just racial identities.”