Haynes Middle School

Reverend William Haynes (1850-1933) was a visionary Black faith leader and community builder who helped develop the Haynes-Trinity area in North Nashville. A Murfreesboro native who was a son of a plantation owner and a slave, he is remembered for opening churches and schools and supporting the growth of institutions that strengthened Black life and leadership in Nashville.

Haynes, who led several Baptist churches during his career and also worked for the Sunday School Publishing Board, believed education should be accessible for Black children, even in a segregated system that denied communities the resources they deserved. That vision helped spark the founding of Haynes School, which opened in 1931 as an elementary school for Black children on land Haynes had sold to the Davidson County Board of Education. He later donated additional land as the school expanded.

The school evolved into the only high school for African Americans in rural Davidson County before the 1962 city-county merger that created Metro Government, and it became a critical pathway to education, opportunity, and pride for generations of students and families. The last senior class graduated in 1967, and Haynes ultimately became a middle school. A new Haynes Middle building opened in 2003 on the same site at 510 West Trinity Lane.