Juno Frankie Pierce was an early Black suffragette, leader, and visionary who worked with white women in order to secure all women the right to vote. Pierce was a founder of the Tennessee Vocational School for Colored Girls, president of the Negro Women’s Reconstruction League, founder of the Nashville Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, and served on the first Committee of Management of the Blue Triangle League of the YWCA. She was a tireless advocate for civil rights and women’s rights.
This 1940s-era Meharry Boulevard house is one of four places Pierce lived in Nashville. It is the only one still standing. The home was converted into multi-family housing in the way of Nashville twenty years ago—evident in a series of strange additions and precarious exterior stairs. It has a large corner lot, and there are many new homes replacing tear-downs in the neighborhood. There’s currently nothing to indicate the significance of the house and it could easily be lost.
