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Natchez neighbors hope to preserve Williams home as gift for the future
The historic Natchez neighborhood in Franklin is filled with stories of the past, but a local group hopes to turn one home into a gift for the future.
and last updated 2021-07-07 21:58:16-04
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) â The historic Natchez neighborhood in Franklin is filled with stories of the past, but a local group hopes to turn one home into a gift for the future.
Members of the African American Heritage Society say they want to turn the old Williams home on 264 Natchez Street into a historic center where they can highlight what makes this street special.
John Willie Woods Jr. head and shoulders smiling (courtesy of the Woods family). Submitted
On a spectacular spring morning, a large American flag, a much smaller one and faux flowers adorn John Willie Woods Juniorâs gravestone at Toussaint LâOuverture Cemetery in Franklin. More than half a century after his death in Vietnam, Mattie Lee Kinnard surely would be touched that her son is so well remembered.Â
Woods was only 19 when the helicopter he was aboard plunged into the jungle in a fiery explosion, killing him and three of his crewmates on Oct. 30, 1966. He was one of 342 American military deaths that month during the Vietnam War, one ofâ¯6,350 that year, one of 58,220 for the United States in the lengthy conflict.Â
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There are two moments in the spring when the historic Natchez Street community in Franklin is just a little more crowded than usual. Moments when the historic, predominantly Black neighborhood comes together, drawing friends and extended family to honor its youth.
For more than a century now, following the end of the Civil War, Natchez Street and its surrounding neighborhood were home to many of Franklin s Black residents and businesses. Natchez High School, Williamson County s only Black high school, was also there until it closed in 1967 with the onset of school integration.
Today the neighborhood annually celebrates many of the youths who would ve gone to school there if they d been students 54 years ago as they go through rite-of-passage moments like prom and graduation.
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The Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen moved Tuesday night to name streets in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and local Black merchant A.N.C. Williams.
The resolution passed 6-1 with Vice Mayor Bev Burger voting no after she said she received complaints from constituents who told her they only wanted to see local streets named after local people.
The Third Avenue extension will be named in King s honor while the new street to the Hill Property will be called A.N.C. Williams Way. Williams was a prominent merchant who opened the first Black-owned business on the Franklin square: a shoe store.