Pioneering trans soul singer Jackie Shane honored with historical marker in Nashville

Jackie Shane's legacy is officially being solidified in Nashville history.

The musician is being honored with a historical marker in her birth home of Tennessee through the city's Metropolitan Historical Commission. The honor comes after local community organization Nashville Queer History partnered with Shane’s family to get approval for the marker.

“Nashville’s Metropolitan Historical Commission continues to help our city recognize and preserve important stories from our collective LGBTQ past,” NQH founder and director Sarah Calise said in a statement. “Jackie Shane’s life is an incredible tale of courage and living authentically in spite of oppression, and now her legacy will carry on for all Nashvillians, especially for Black and transgender people."

Shane was a soul and R&B singer in the 1950s and 1960s credited with helping to pioneer the Toronto Sound. Though she was not associated with specific gay or transgender liberation movements, her willingness to live openly as a transgender woman forever changed culture across the United States and Canada.

The mission of the Metropolitan Historical Commission is to "document history, save and reuse buildings, and make the public more aware of the necessity and advantages of preservation." Shane's marker is the fourth through the commission honoring the city’s LGBTQ+ history, with the others including Penny Campbell, The Jungle and Juanita’s (Nashville’s First Gay Bars), and Warehouse 28.

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A marker dedication ceremony will be held at 6:00 PM on Friday, September 20 at 2601 Jefferson Street. Speakers for the evening will include Mayor Freddie O’Connell, District 21 Council Member Brandon Taylor, Council Member-at-Large Olivia Hill, MHC commissioner Dr. Marisa Richmond, and Jackie Shane’s niece Andrenee Majors Douglas, who is also one of the managers of Shane's estate.

"We are truly blessed and honored that all these people care so much for our Aunt Jackie," Douglas said. "It is a pleasure to know that this marker will represent her and her musical talent forever.”