Samuel Allen McElwee

Born enslaved in West Tennessee, McElwee attended Freedmen's Bureau schools, spent a year at Oberlin and won a Peabody scholarship to Fisk, graduating in 1883. He was elected to the legislature while still a student. In 1885 he drew thirty-two of ninety-three votes for Speaker of the House, and in 1887 he proposed a jury selection reform that the House tabled 41 to 36. He lost his 1888 race to fraud and intimidation, left Haywood County because of violence against Black residents, founded a newspaper and a law firm in Nashville, and died in Chicago in 1914.

What the plaque says

Samuel Allen McElwee Born a slave in Madison County, Samuel McElwee began teaching school in Haywood County at the age of 16. He graduated from Fisk University and was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1883. Samuel McElwee served three successive terms in the legislature, promoting uniform education and justice. In 1885, he led the state delegation at the Republican National Convention. Samuel McElwee moved to Nashville in 1888 after he was defeated for reelection by force of arms. Born a slave in Madison County, Samuel McElwee began teaching school in Haywood County at the age of 16. In 1882, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives and one year later was graduated from Fisk University. The only African American elected from Haywood County, Samuel McElwee served three successive terms in the legislature, promoting uniform education and justice. In 1884 and 1888, he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention. After he was defeated for reelection by force of arms in 1888, Samuel McElwee moved to Nashville.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fisk University and Jubilee Hall — steps away
  The 1866 school for freed people whose Jubilee Singers paid for Jubilee Hall, a National Historic Landmark, and whose students helped start Nashville's sit-ins.
• Tennessee State Capitol — 1.1 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 1.2 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.
• National Museum of African American Music — 1.4 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.

More markers nearby

• Ella Sheppard (Moore) — steps away
• Fisk Memorial Chapel — steps away
• Fisk University — steps away
• Arna Wendell Bontemps — steps away