In the late 1940s, Knoxville's black community faced various
challenges and experiences. They ranged from a Ku Klux Klan
cross-burning on Lay Avenue to student demonstrations at
Knoxville College for the firing of a popular professor. There
were discussions about closing the Ethel Beck Home for Colored
Orphans. And there were sometimes controversial efforts to
improve Carl Cowan Park in West Knox County. The News Sentinel
of June 18, 1946, reported that city detectives believed that
the KKK was responsible for the burning of a cross in the 2600
block of Lay Avenue the night before. "Detectives Floyd Raley
and Henry Morris investigated, and the former said he was told
that the demonstration was the result of a Negro's planning to
build a group of houses in the vicinity. The cross, about 10
feet tall and wrapped in soaked flammable rags, was burned near
the former Booker T. Washington Park," the item stated. At the
time, it was reported that the Knoxville Klavern of the KKK had
a membership of 500 to 600. A for