Historical Marker
Speedway Circle
Knoxville, Knox County · Tennessee
Cal Johnson, born enslaved in 1844 at Gay Street and Church Avenue, leased a saloon at Gay and Vine in 1879 and later bought it, then added two more, including the Poplar Log. He served as an alderman from 1883 to 1885. One of his racehorses set a world speed record at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. After Knoxville's 1907 prohibition ordinance closed his saloons, he opened a movie house that failed. In 1922 the city named Cal Johnson Park for him. He died in 1925 and lies in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
What the plaque says
Speedway Circle Speedway Circle traces the route of Cal Johnson's Racetrack, a half-mile oval famous for horse racing, from ca. 1897 to 1915. Born enslaved, Calvin F. Johnson (1844-1925) became one of Knoxville's most creative businessmen, owning real estate and a chain of saloons. A horseman and ultimately one of the state's wealthiest African American businessmen, he developed this track. In 1910, Johnson's Racetrack accommodated Knoxville's first airplane landing. Later, it saw early automobile races. The track was redeveloped in 1926 for houses.
Where it stands
36.00016, -83.87410 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 2.3 miKnoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
- Blount Mansion — 3.5 miThe 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 miThe 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 miJohn 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.