NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Establishments across Middle Tennessee are taking time to highlight their “complicated past” during Black History Month.
Explaining how there was a time in this country when white and Black people couldn’t even eat at the same restaurants or be in a classroom together.
Howard Gentry, 71, remembers living a pretty comfortable life growing up in his Black neighborhood. It was more difficult when he crossed into the “white” areas of town.
"As a kid, it was the way it was. When I got older and a teen, I realized it was the way it shouldn’t be," said Gentry, who is Nashville's Criminal Court Clerk.
Gentry was born in 1952, and it was just a law that Black and white people couldn't eat at the same restaurants in Nashville.
"Like all the other restaurants, we were a segregated restaurant back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s," said Jim Myers, communications director for Elliston Place Soda Shop.
One day when Gentry was about 8 or 9 years old, he wanted a chocolate ice cream cone from the soda shop, but they wouldn’t serve him.
Gentry returned the next day after his mom told him to pray about it and his dad told him to go back to the shop.
"I came and I stood out there. One of the ladies came out while I was standing there, and I told her I wanted an ice cream cone, and she asked if I had some money. I told her yes. She went in and got me one and brought it out to me," Gentry said.
It wasn't long after that moment, the Civil Rights Movement and the Nashville sit-ins started picking up. Gentry said people were scared to come near any white establishments.
After Gentry was served that ice cream cone, it would be years before he would return back to the soda shop. When he did return, he remembers being filled with so many emotions.
"Every time I start talking about this, I get a little emotional," Gentry said.
He remembers thinking about all the pain and suffering his fellow Black people went through to give him the right to sit at the counters, and it was from that moment on, he never stopped coming to the soda shop.
When he reflects back on that woman selling the young Gentry an ice cream during segregation, it awakened something in him. He grew up to be the city's first Black vice mayor. He also said that moment taught him about the importance of fighting for equal rights. He's been a local elected official since 1999.
"We have come a long way. We have a long way to go. Here at Elliston’s place, it is always going to be my positive story," Gentry said.
The soda shop said they choose to share this story of their complicated past because they want to promote a welcoming place for all sexual orientations, races, and backgrounds.
Gentry also said the soda shop has some of the best milkshakes in Nashville.
