Howard Jones III keeps coming back to one word: fulfillment. It’s a personal motivator for the owner and operator of Kingdom Cafe & Grill — a favorite soul-food spot on Jefferson Street — and a blessing on the corridor. Jefferson Street is the historic center of Black life in Nashville, which has struggled to recover commercial success after decades of structural obstacles, many the result of racist city planning.
Sandy lots and neglected storefronts have recently begun changing hands. “For Sale” signs advertise property along the street, from its border with Germantown all the way to Tennessee State University. The city opened Kossie Gardner Sr. Park in 2020 and is planning a comprehensive street infrastructure project to reengineer the roadway, map a new greenway next to the highway and boost retail with on-street parking. Two major churches launched big housing initiatives on and near Jefferson Street this year; big names and big money have gotten behind two more mixed-use projects that will bring retail, offices and residences to the street’s central intersection with Dr. D.B. Todd Jr. Boulevard. When construction is complete, one of these buildings will house the new headquarters for Citizens Bank, a Black-owned local lender since 1904.
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Like much of the street, Kingdom Cafe is under construction. Jones collaborated with the Civic Design Center, the Cumberland River Compact and prolific local contractor R.C. Mathews to depave his restaurant’s parking lot. A “parklet” will replace asphalt with soil, trees and a patio, helping Jones fulfill a vision for his restaurant as a community space. Its official unveiling is scheduled for Sept. 19.
“I want us to be an example — someone has to do it first, because Jefferson Street is going to flourish, and this is just the beginning,” says Jones, who is 39. “Right now, I call it the hidden corridor, but I give it five years to change. Maybe less. I see that as inevitable — just look at us on a map. We can’t stop individuals from buying the properties, but we can influence the culture, what Jefferson Street looks like, what it means for generations beyond us.”
Jones’ family history goes back generations in the neighborhood. He takes particular pride in owning Kingdom Cafe because his grandfather — Howard “B.O.” Jones, who saw Jefferson Street in its heyday — always wanted property here. The street thrived with Black-owned businesses supported by a middle-class neighborhood until I-40 construction bisected the area, expropriated property and decimated the fabric of North Nashville. While other commercial districts — including nearby Buchanan Street — rise with Nashville’s boom, Jefferson Street has not recovered.
“ I personally feel that any progress is good progress at this point,” Jones continues. “We could talk about it for another four years, or we can get started working and making decisions.”
Jefferson Street Sound Museum and the Museum of Christian and Gospel Music bring the total of Tennessee sites on the heritage trail to 17.
Legacies of Black ownership and Black history have long been a third rail for the street. Former Mayor John Cooper briefly pushed a highway overpass project, the Jefferson Street Cap, that failed after being met by residents’ wariness about being made the next real estate gold rush. Decision-makers diverted the National Museum of African American Music from Jefferson Street to Broadway, the kind of public spurning that left behind “what ifs” about bringing North Nashville into the city’s tourism economy. (For years, the Jefferson Street Sound Museum has told the street’s central role in music history more than capably.) In 2018, Bob Bernstein, the entrepreneur behind Bongo Java and Fido, was recruited by a Black investor to open Jefferson Street Cafe. The cafe was met with backlash after being renamed “The Sit-In” in a nod to the street’s civil rights history that some locals found tone-deaf.
Black-owned businesses, too, have struggled in the area, though ambitious concepts still bet on North Nashville. The fundamentals — a historic strip convenient to downtown with a residential base and three nearby universities — are just too strong. Black-owned pizza empire Slim & Husky’s helped bring commerce back to Buchanan Street, where new retail and offices have cultivated and served a vibrant community. Jefferson Street is just around the corner.
