thumb|Mule Day 2025

Columbia is a city in and the county seat of Maury County, Tennessee. The population was 48,885 as of the City of Columbia's 2024 Special Census conducted by the US Census Bureau. Columbia is included in the Nashville metropolitan area.

The self-proclaimed "mule capital of the world," Columbia celebrates the city-designated Mule Day each April. Columbia and Maury County are acknowledged as the "Antebellum Homes Capital of Tennessee"; the county has more antebellum houses than any other county in the state. The city is home to one of the last two surviving residences of James Knox Polk, the 11th President of the United States; the other is the White House.

History

thumb|The [[James K. Polk Home in Columbia is the last of President Polk's private homes that is still standing]]

A year after the organization of Maury County in 1807, Columbia was laid out in 1808 and lots were sold. The original town, on the south bank of the Duck River, consisted of four blocks. The town was incorporated in 1817.

Columbia was the site of Jackson College from 1837 until it was burned, along with most of Columbia, by Union troops during the American Civil War.

Columbia had five documented lynchings in the 20th century. In 1924 a black man was shot and killed in the courthouse after his sentence was commuted, by the brother of his victim. In 1927 and 1933, young black men were lynched in Maury County for alleged assaults against white women; the first, Henry Choate, was being held as a suspect when he was lynched, and was hanged from the courthouse. In 1933 Cordie Cheek, a black 17-year-old, was accused of raping a white girl. After a grand jury declined to indict him, he was abducted from Nashville by white men including law officials, and taken back to Columbia. There he was castrated and lynched by a white mob.

During World War II phosphate mining and the chemical industry expanded in Columbia to support the war effort. By the 1940 census, the total city population was 10,579; Master builder Nathan Vaught started construction in 1838, and the mansion and other buildings were completed in 1839, for Gideon Johnson Pillow (1806-1877) on land inherited from Gideon Pillow.

Columbia is the location of Tennessee's first two-year college, Columbia State Community College, established in 1966. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the new campus on March 15, 1967. On this visit, the President also visited the James K. Polk Home for a short time.

On June 26, 1977, 42 people, including 34 inmates, died in a fire at the Maury County Jail. Rescue efforts were complicated by the fact that each cell required a separate key, and the dispatcher reportedly had difficulty locating the keys. The fire was reportedly intentionally started by a juvenile inmate.

Columbia race riot of 1946

On February 25, 1946, a civil disturbance, dubbed "the Columbia Race Riot," broke out in the county seat. It was covered by the national press as the first "major racial confrontation" following World War II.

In a fight instigated by William "Billy" Fleming, a white repair apprentice, James Stephenson, a black Navy veteran, fought back and wounded him. Stephenson had been on the boxing team and refused to accept being hit. Stephenson had accompanied his mother to the repair store, which had mistakenly sold a radio which she had left for repair The State Guard was withdrawn on March 3.

Twenty-five black men were eventually charged with attempted murder of the four policemen. Another six were charged with lesser crimes, as were four white men.

Geography

thumb|The Old Columbia Dam is a concrete gravity dam constructed during the 1930s, before TVA.

Columbia is located at (35.615022, −87.044464). It developed along the banks of the Duck River at the southern edge of the Nashville Basin; the higher elevated ridges of the Highland Rim are located to the south and west of the city.

The Duck River is the longest river located entirely within the state of Tennessee. Free flowing for most of its length, the Duck River is home to over 50 species of freshwater mussels and 151 species of fish, making it the most biologically diverse river in North America. It enters the city of Manchester and meets its confluence with a major tributary, The Little Duck River, at Old Stone Fort State Park. The fort was named after an ancient Native American structure, between the two rivers, believed to be nearly 2,000 years old. The Duck River is sacred to most of the founding Native American tribes east of the Mississippi River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and 0.03% is water. Incorporated in 1817, the city is at an elevation of .

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Columbia has a humid subtropical climate.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, Columbia had a population of 41,690 and 9,855 families residing in the city. The median age was 36.9 years; 23.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 16.6% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 89.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 86.9 males age 18 and over.

97.1% of residents lived in urban areas, while 2.9% lived in rural areas.

There were 16,821 households in Columbia, of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 38.9% were married-couple households, 19.2% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 34.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 30.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

! Race !! Number !! Percent

|-

| White || 27,737 || 66.5%

|-

| Black or African American || 7,723 || 18.5%

|-

| American Indian and Alaska Native || 223 || 0.5%

|-

| Asian || 432 || 1.0%

|-

| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 21 || 0.1%

|-

| Some other race || 2,288 || 5.5%

|-

| Two or more races || 3,266 || 7.8%

|-

| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 4,447 || 10.7%

|}

2000 census

As of the census

  • Shaq Mason, NFL offensive guard and Super Bowl LI and LIII champion with the New England Patriots
  • Fran McKee, first female line officer to hold the rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Navy
  • Kameron Michaels, drag queen
  • Irvin C. Miller, pioneering Black actor
  • Lindsey Nelson, radio and television sportscaster
  • Andy Ogles, U.S. Congressman, former Mayor of Maury County
  • David Phelps, Christian vocalist
  • James K. Polk, Governor, Congressman, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and 11th President of the United States
  • Shane Profitt, country music singer
  • Sandra Seaton, playwright and librettist
  • Natalie Stovall, country music singer
  • Cowboy Troy, country music singer
  • Dan Uggla, professional baseball player
  • William Van Landingham, former MLB pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
  • Mary Jane Watkins, dentist and actress
  • Ben West, former Nashville mayor and supporter of civil rights movement, architect
  • John Harlan Willis, United States Navy sailor, recipient of Medal of Honor for actions during Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II
  • Merrill Moore, American poet
  • Samuel R. Watkins, author, Civil War soldier for the Confederacy

References

Further reading

  • Robert W. Ikard, No More Social Lynchings, Hillsboro Press, 1997
  • Janis Johnson. "A Tense Time in Tennessee", Humanities, March/ April 2004. Volume 2, Number 2. February 20, 2012.
  • Gilbert King, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, New York: HarperCollins, 2012
  • Gail W. O'Brien, The Color of the Law: Race, Violence, and Justice in the Post-World War II South, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
  • Sandra Seaton, The Bridge Party, East End Press, 2016.
  • City of Columbia
  • City charter
  • Columbia Daily Herald