[3] In the Antebellum era, the street was a footpath running "from the Hadley plantation on the west to the Cumberland River on the east".
[4] During the American Civil War, it was straddled by Fort Gilliam, a Union Army camp, and a "large campus of runaway slaves were opened in the area.
[5] After the war, Fisk University was established here and Fort Gilliam became the site of its main building, Jubilee Hall, constructed in 1872.
[5][6] The campus of Tennessee State University was built across Hadley Park, on the western tip of Jefferson Street.
"[12] In the late 1960s, Interstate 40 was built across Jefferson Street, which broke up the black community and contributed heavily to its economic decline.