Steeped in history, Fisk University is Nashville’s oldest institution of higher learning. But a lesser-known fact about the historically Black, private liberal arts school is that it’s also why Nashville got its iconic „Music City“ nickname.
„If not for Fisk, there would be no Music City,“ Fisk President Agenia Walker Clark told city leaders in May 2024.
Clark, who recently marked 18 months at the helm of Fisk, said she’s tapped into the university’s history as she re-establishes its place in the community and lays out plans to sustain the 159-year-old school for years to come.
Here’s a look at how Fisk’s role in Music City unfolded.
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The story behind the the name „Music City“ starts well before country music came into existence, according to local lore. The Fisk Jubilee singers and Queen Victoria most often get the credit for the city’s nickname.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers formed in 1871, and the troupe is credited with saving Fisk University from financial ruin because of the profits it made while touring. The choral group traveled the world performing songs sung by enslaved people, often in front of famous audiences.
Queen Victoria, who ruled the United Kingdom at the time, traveled to hear them sing on their world tour. The group also drew praise from Mark Twain. They were even invited by President Ulysses S. Grant to perform at the White House. They put Nashville on the music map while breaking racial barriers after the Civil War.
As the story goes, Queen Victoria was so impressed with the Fisk Jubilee Singers that she said they must be from a „city of music.“
But it wasn’t until about 50 years later — as WSM’s Grand Ole Opry started to gain popularity in the 1920s — that the nickname began to take hold.
The station first broadcast on Oct. 5, 1925, from the fifth floor of the National Life and Accident Insurance company in Nashville, powered by a 1,000-watt transmitter, according to Tennessean archives.
The station’s power was increased to 5,000 watts in 1927 and to 50,000 watts in November 1932. That station, with the help of the Grand Ole Opry, helped solidify Nashville’s reputation as Music City.
Now-former Tennessee Gov. Frank Clement once told a New York radio and television audience that there were three things that were most important in Tennessee: politics, preaching and picking-and-signing.
„I dabble in the first two and leave the third two WSM,“ he said, according to Tennessean archives.
Of course, the Fisk Jubilee singers played a role here, too, beginning a series of appearances on WSM on that October night in 1925.
WSM would later launch a „Music City“ radio program in the early 1950s that galvanized Nashville’s nickname and reputation. The show was later known as „Music City USA.“ The phrase caught on. When Johnny Cash began airing his weekly variety show on ABC in 1969, he would tell viewers he was coming to them „live from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee.“