State fair

A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs.

State fairs began in the nineteenth century for the purpose of promoting state agriculture, through competitive exhibitions of livestock and display of farm products. As the U.S. evolved from a predominantly agrarian to an industrial society in the twentieth century, modern state fairs have expanded to include carnival amusement rides and games, display of industrial products, automobile racing, and entertainment such as musical concerts. Large fairs can admit more than a million visitors over the course of a week or two. The first U.S. state fair was that of New York, held in 1841 in Syracuse, and has been held annually to the present year. The second state fair was in Detroit, Michigan, which ran from 1849 to 2009.

State Fair

A state fair is a competitive and recreational gathering in the United States. It may also refer to:

Tennessee State University

Tennessee State University (TSU) is a land-grant university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. TSU is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee. The University is a member-school of Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

History

TSU was originally organized as the Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School for Negroes in 1909 and began serving students on June 19, 1912. Its status was raised to a four-year teachers' college in 1922, and two years later it was renamed the Agricultural and Industrial State Normal College. In 1927, "Normal" was dropped from its name.

It was elevated to university status in 1951, renamed the Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial University, and got full-fledged land-grant university status by the Tennessee State Board of Education in 1958. In 1968, the state legislature dropped the words "Agricultural and Industrial" in favor of "Tennessee State University." Since 1972, it has been operated under the auspices of the Tennessee Board of Regents.

Tennessee State Fair

The Tennessee State Fair is an annual state fair, held in Nashville, Tennessee. The fair is generally held in the second week of September, as well as the weekends surrounding it. The fair regularly hosts over 200,000 people per year The State Fairgrounds have been under scrutiny since Nashville Mayor Karl Dean announced the closure of the fairgrounds in 2009. After much controversy, a referendum on the city's ability to redevelop the fairgrounds for other uses was held, with the voters choosing to increase the required votes to make changes from a simple majority to two-thirds majority. The Tennessee State Fair and Exposition Commission has granted the Tennessee State Fair to the non-profit organization Tennessee State Fair Association through 2018.

History

The first Tennessee State Fair was held in 1869, but only lasted a few years. The property where the old fairs were held on was later used for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, and has since become known as Centennial Park. The current incarnation of the State Fair began in 1906, and has been held annually, except for four years during World War II, through the Great Depression, a 1965 fire that destroyed the majority of the fairgrounds, and a 1970 fire that ruined the fair's coliseum. Originally run by the State of Tennessee, the state relinquished control of the fair to Davidson County in 1923, who created The Metropolitan Board of Fair Commissioners to operate the fair. In 2011, the Metropolitan Board of Fair Commissioners leased the event to the Tennessee State Fair Association, a non-profit created to operate the State Fair.

Tennessee

Tennessee (ⁱ/tɛnᵻˈsiː/) (Cherokee: ᏔᎾᏏ, Tanasi) is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 601,222. Memphis is the state's largest city, with a population of 653,450.

The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861. Occupied by Union forces from 1862, it was the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.