NASHVILLE, Tenn (WTVF) — In just under a month, the Nashville International Airport will welcome a new store.
The Tennessee Tribune is a Black-owned newspaper in Nashville. Rosetta Miller Perry started the paper in 1991 and soon it will have a store in the airport that will feature more than 40 Black vendors.
Perry says her mission was to always help her community, which she says she has been doing through her paper and other works.
"I felt like I when I wanted to take a newspaper home, after working, I wanted to read something positive. I knew there were positive things about our race," Perry said.
Her goal is to continue to change the narrative.
"I felt like young people in our community should know that we had doctors, lawyers, ministers, that they could inspire to be something other than a prostitute or a drug dealer," Perry said.
Even at 87 years old, Perry is still writing the words to a new chapter; this time by passing the torch.
"First it was frightening because I didn't know anything about a store, you know? And I just thought I was the right person to do it," she said.
Representatives with the Nashville International Airport came to Perry with the idea, they wanted the Tennessee Tribune to have a store in the airport.
"I'm really really grateful that they did come to me that I was the right person. Because I'm not in it for the money, I’m in to help these vendors, get their businesses going," Perry said.
Perry says the store will sell copies of the Tribune along with candles, coffees, teas, books and liquors created by Black vendors.
"I really really feel good about it. Because I have never ever thought about me period. And I think that's because that's why I'm blessed," she said.
The first store will open on November 17 and will be located between Terminal C and D in the Southwest Airlines Hub. A second store, which will offer cafe-style seating that will be located pre-security and will be open to the public, will open in the spring of 2022.
