Cal Johnson (businessman)

Caldonia (or Calvin)[2] Fackler Johnson (October 14, 1844 – April 7, 1925) was an American businessman and philanthropist, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born into slavery, he rose to become a prominent Knoxville racetrack and saloon owner, and by the time of his death, was one of the wealthiest African-American businessmen in the state.

[5] Harriett, a domestic servant, could read and write, and after the Civil War, she operated a hotel and grocery store in East Knoxville.

[6] Following the war, Johnson helped exhume soldiers' bodies from temporary graves at battlefield sites for reinterment in cemeteries.

[7][9] By the turn of the 20th century, his saloon at the corner of Gay and Vine, known as the Poplar Log (later renamed the Lone Tree), was one of the most popular in the city.

[4] In 1910, as part of the Appalachian Exposition, Johnson cut down the lone tree in the middle of his racetrack to allow the first airplane to visit the city to land.