The building of Interstate 40 in 1968 through North Nashville divided the community with the impacts still being felt along the Jefferson Street corridor. African American leaders of that time, including Alexander Looby, a local lawyer and civil rights activist, and Councilman Harold Love, were among the North Nashville representatives who formed the 40-member I-40 Steering Committee fighting the construction of an interstate that they believed would divide their neighborhood. After losing their appeal of a lower-court decision at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the building of the interstate resumed in 1968.

 

“In the 1960s integration and the interstate came (to Jefferson Street), and it was a double blow for this community," said Sharon Hurt, a North Nashville leader. "It immediately wiped out about 50 percent of the business community and residents."Jefferson Street has important historic significance because it was the home to a vibrant and far-reaching music scene, and also is home to three historically black colleges located within just a short few blocks from each other: Tennessee State University, Fisk University, and Meharry Medical College. As a consequence of the division of Jefferson Street, North Nashville experienced “an alarming rate of out-migration” (North Nashville Community Development Plan, 2002, p. 5) with one in five residents leaving the area between 1980 and 1990, which resulted in a 22-percent decline in population. With this decline in population businesses began to fail and drugs became a problem. “It really knocked us down, but it didn’t knock us out," Hurt said.

 

In the mid-90s an organization called Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership (JUMP) was created "to make sure that there was a voice and some unity amongst the businesses that were still on Jefferson Street,” Sharon Hurt,who serves as executive director of JUMP, said. JUMP is an advocate for business owners and residents in the vicinity of Jefferson Street, and the organization is a key advocate for the Sulphur Dell ballpark and economic development in the Capitol District.