Odd Fellows Cemetery

Two of Knoxville's most prominent Black figures lie in this ground. William F. Yardley, the lawyer and newspaper founder who ran for governor in 1876, died in 1924 and was buried here. Cal Johnson, born enslaved and later one of the wealthiest Black businessmen in Tennessee, with an estate estimated at $300,000 to $500,000, was buried here in 1925. They died a year apart, a lawyer who spoke against segregation and a saloon owner whose racetrack became a street.

What the plaque says

Odd Fellows Cemetery This cemetery was established in 1880 by the Banner Lodge Chapter of the Odd Fellows Fraternal Order. The cemetery was enlarged by the Daughters of Zion in 1881, the Good Samaritans in 1884, and the Silver Moon Chapter of the Odd Fellows in 1885. It is the final resting place for many of Knoxville's early noted Black preachers, political figures, educators, business pioneers, and other outstanding community leaders.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — steps away
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Blount Mansion — 1.3 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 16 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.
• Museum of Appalachia — 17 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.

More markers nearby

• Confederate Cemetery — 0.2 mi
• First African American Church — 0.3 mi
• William Francis Yardley — 0.6 mi
• Colored (Negro) Department: Tennessee School for the Deaf (TSD) — 0.8 mi