The Boyd Family

The contributions made by the Boyd Family to Nashville and the nation are vast. Generations of innovators and entrepreneurs forged new paths for families to achieve educational, economic, and social mobility. From the mid-1800’s to today, the work continues to build upon the successes of the past to ensure a better future for the generations to come.

This historic home was owned by Dr. Henry Allen Boyd (1876-1959) and his wife Georgia Bradford Boyd (1884-1952) [Both pictured above].

Dr. Henry Allen Boyd worked diligently with his father, Dr. Richard Henry Boyd, to establish businesses relevant to the needs of freedmen in the late 19th to mid-20th century. He was the publisher of the Nashville Globe, an influential newspaper in the Black community, president of Citizen’s Bank (the nation’s oldest minority-owned bank) and founder of the National Baptist Publishing Board (NBPB) now known as R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation. He was a Fisk trustee and part of the group of influential Black men who convinced the Tennessee General Assembly to bring Tennessee State University to Nashville. His wife, Georgia Boyd, fought for both gender and racial equality in the city through her involvement in numerous civic organizations. She was a suffragist and a prominent figure in Nashville’s Colored Women’s Club movement who dedicated her life to serving Nashville’s poorest Black residents.

The Boyds were truly renaissance personalities and central figures in Nashville's Black community. Additional ventures included the Negro Doll Company, the National Baptist Congress, and the Union Transportation Company. When Tennessee segregated Nashville’s streetcars in 1905, R.H. Boyd helped organize a boycott, and along with James Napier and Preston Taylor, he started a bus company. The electricity for the vehicles was provided by a generator in the basement of the National Baptist Convention publishing house, so as to avoid having to buy power from a white owned utility.

The Historic Boyd House: Past & Present