East Tennessee

===Mid-20th century to present===
[[File:Green-McAdoo-ClintonTN-enhanced.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|A monument to 12 [[African Americans|African American]] students who integrated [[Clinton High School (Clinton, Tennessee)|Clinton High School]] in 1956]]
[[File:Sunsphere 02.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The [[1982 World's Fair]] was held in [[Knoxville, Tennessee|Knoxville]]]]
In 1955, [[Oak Ridge High School (Tennessee)|Oak Ridge High School]] became the first public school in Tennessee to be [[School integration in the United States|integrated]]. This occurred one year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled [[racial segregation]] to be unconstitutional in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]''. In 1956, judge [[Robert Love Taylor (judge)|Robert Love Taylor]] ordered nearby [[Clinton High School (Clinton, Tennessee)|Clinton High School]] to be integrated, and a crisis developed when pro-segregationists threatened violence, prompting Governor [[Frank G. Clement]] to send [[Tennessee National Guard]] troops to assist with the integration process.<ref>{{harvp|Lamon|1980|pp=100–101}}</ref>

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, federal investments into urbanized areas provided major cities of the East Tennessee region to establish [[urban renewal]] initiatives, often involving the demolition or [[redevelopment]] of blighted commercial areas or neighborhoods for new public buildings and [[Controlled-access highway|freeways]]. These projects would often involve the controversial removal and [[redlining]] of poverty-stricken and minority households.<ref name="Duncan">{{cite web |last1=Duncan |first1=Heather |title=Losing Home: When Urban Renewal Came to Knoxville |url=https://www.wuot.org/news/2021-05-13/losing-home-when-urban-renewal-came-to-knoxville |website=WUOT-FM |publisher=[[University of Tennessee]] |access-date=January 5, 2022 |date=May 13, 2021}}</ref><ref name="jonsson">{{cite web |last1=Jonsson |first1=Patrik |last2=Robertson |first2=Noah |title=How Chattanooga is working to right the wrongs of urban renewal |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2021/0928/How-Chattanooga-is-working-to-right-the-wrongs-of-urban-renewal |website=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |access-date=January 5, 2022 |date=September 28, 2021}}</ref>

In 1965, Congress created the [[Appalachian Regional Commission]] (ARC) to improve economic development and job opportunities in the Appalachian region. The program resulted in the construction of new and improved highways in East Tennessee through the [[Appalachian Development Highway System]] and brought new industries to rural, impoverished counties in the region that had previously been dependent on declining sectors such as coal mining and logging. With the investment of the ARC, several cities emerged as industrial hubs of the East Tennessee region, including Cleveland, Kingsport, Knoxville, and Morristown.<ref name="newman">{{cite journal |last1=Newman |first1=Anne |editor1-last=Kendrick |editor1-first=Elise |title=The Recruiters and the Recruited: How One Town Filled an Industrial Park |journal=Appalachia |date=1981 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=6–19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eJMHJyHZ6V8C&q=Morristown |access-date=September 14, 2020 |publisher=[[Appalachian Regional Commission]] |location=[[University of California, Berkeley]] |language=en}}</ref> Beginning around this time, East Tennessee, along with the rest of the state, began to benefit from the nationwide [[Sun Belt]] phenomenon, which brought additional economic growth to the region.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schulman |first=Bruce J. |date=June 1993 |title=Review: The Sunbelt South: Old Times Forgotten |jstor=2703223 |journal=Reviews in American History |volume=21 |issue=2 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |pages=340–345 |doi=10.2307/2703223}}</ref> The region saw its most rapid growth in the 1970s. Chattanooga, however, began to decline in the 1960s and was declared by the Federal government to be the most polluted city in the country in 1969.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Micheli |first1=Robin |title=Rebooting Chattanooga's fortunes |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2013/11/18/hattanoogas-fortunes.html |access-date=October 4, 2021 |work=CNBC |date=November 18, 2013}}</ref> In the mid-1980s, the city leaders launched a program called "[[Vision 2000 (Chattanooga)|Vision 2000]]" which worked to revitalize and reinvent the city's economy and eventually resulted in a reversal of Chattanooga's decline.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wotapka |first1=Dawn |title=Chattanooga Reinvents Itself, at Its Own Pace |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303624004577341932764696276 |access-date=October 7, 2021 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=April 17, 2012 |location=New York City}}</ref>

TVA's construction of the [[Tellico Dam]] in Loudon County became the subject of national controversy in the 1970s when the endangered [[snail darter]] fish was reported to be affected by the project.<ref name="TellicoTVA">{{cite web |title=Telling the Story of Tellico: It's Complicated |url=https://www.tva.com/about-tva/our-history/built-for-the-people/telling-the-story-of-tellico-it-s-complicated |website=[[Tennessee Valley Authority]] |access-date=January 5, 2022}}</ref> After lawsuits by environmental groups, the debate was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court case ''[[Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill]]'' in 1978, leading to amendments of the [[Endangered Species Act of 1973|Endangered Species Act]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill|url=https://www.justice.gov/enrd/tennessee-valley-authority-v-hill|access-date=May 18, 2021|website=[[United States Department of Justice]]|date=April 13, 2015|archive-date=May 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519030038/https://www.justice.gov/enrd/tennessee-valley-authority-v-hill|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1982, a [[1982 World's Fair|World's Fair]] was held in Knoxville.<ref>{{cite news|last=Trieu|first=Cat|date=November 16, 2017|title=Remembering the 1982 World's Fair|url=https://www.utdailybeacon.com/arts_and_culture/lifestyle/remembering-the-1982-world-s-fair/article_7f68471c-ca7e-11e7-b14f-17dc38318998.html|work=The Daily Beacon|publisher=University of Tennessee|location=Knoxville|access-date=2021-04-25}}</ref> The fair was also known as the "Knoxville International Energy Exposition," and its theme was "Energy Turns the World." The fair attracted more than 11 million visitors during its six-month run and is the most recent world's fair to have been held in the United States.<ref>{{cite news|last=McCrary|first=Amy|date=May 28, 2016|title=The world came to Knoxville in May 1982|url=https://www.knoxnews.com/story/life/2016/05/28/the-world-came-to-knoxville-in-may-1982/90993100/|work=Knoxville News Sentinel|access-date=2021-04-24}}</ref> In 1996, the [[canoe slalom|whitewater slalom]] events of the [[Atlanta]] [[1996 Summer Olympics|Summer Olympic Games]] were held on the [[Ocoee River]] in Polk County. These are the only Olympic sporting events to have ever been held in Tennessee.<ref name="fontenay">{{cite web |last1=Fontenay |first1=Blake |title=Shooting the Rapids: How a Small East Tennessee Community Struck Olympic Gold |url=https://sos.tn.gov/tsla/tri-star-chronicles-shooting-rapids |website=[[Tennessee State Library]] |access-date=June 4, 2021 |date=April 22, 2016 |archive-date=June 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604183107/https://sos.tn.gov/tsla/tri-star-chronicles-shooting-rapids |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Construction on US 25E at SR 160, 1976.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Highway construction of [[U.S. Route 25E]], part of the [[Appalachian Development Highway System]] plan, in [[Morristown, Tennessee|Morristown]], 1976.]]

Several high profile disasters have occurred in East Tennessee since the latter 20th century. On May 13, 1972, the [[1972 Bean Station bus-truck collision|deadliest motor vehicle accident in state history]] occurred near [[Bean Station, Tennessee|Bean Station]] on [[U.S. Route 11W]] when a [[Semi-trailer truck|tractor-trailer]] and a [[Greyhound Lines|Greyhound bus]] [[Head-on collision|collided head-on]], killing 14 and injuring 15.<ref>{{cite web |title=Greyhound Bus/Malone Freight Line, Inc. Truck Collision, U.S. Route 11W, Bean Station, Tennessee, May 13, 1972 |url=https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HAR7305.pdf |publisher=National Transportation Safety Board |access-date=May 6, 2020 |date=October 25, 1973}}</ref> The accident prompted the rapid construction of additional four-lane arterial highways in the East Tennessee region throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, as well as placed a focus on the completion of Interstates 40, 75, and 81, which occurred in the mid-1970s.<ref name="blood">{{Cite news |last=Lakin |first=Matt |url=http://archive.knoxnews.com/news/local/blood-on-the-asphalt-11w-wreck-left-14-people-dead-ep-360225916-356724551.html/ |title=Blood on the asphalt: 11W wreck left 14 people dead |date=August 26, 2012 |work=Knoxville News Sentinel |access-date=May 6, 2020}}</ref> On December 11, 1990, a [[1990 Interstate 75 fog disaster|99-vehicle collision]] occurred in dense fog on [[Interstate 75 in Tennessee|Interstate 75]] near [[Calhoun, Tennessee|Calhoun]], killing 12 and injuring 42, and was reportedly the largest motor vehicle accident in U.S. history at the time, in terms of the number of vehicles.<ref>{{cite report |author = National Transportation Safety Board |title = Multiple-vehicle collisions and fire during limited visibility (fog) on Interstate 75 near Calhoun, Tennessee December 11, 1990 |url = https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HAR9202.pdf |date = September 28, 1992 |access-date = February 25, 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title = ''Forensic Files'': Killer Fog (Season 2, Episode 3) |url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1472364/ |website = IMDB |date = October 16, 1997 |access-date = January 12, 2019 }}</ref> On December 23, 2008, the [[Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill|largest industrial waste spill in United States history]] occurred at TVA's [[Kingston Fossil Plant]] when a [[levee|dike]] failed, releasing more than 1.1&nbsp;billion gallons of [[fly ash|coal ash]] slurry into the [[Emory River|Emory]] and [[Clinch River]]s.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.mensjournal.com/features/coal-disaster-killing-scores-rural-americans/ |title=A Lawyer, 40 Dead Americans, and a Billion Gallons of Coal Sludge |last=Sullivan |first=J.R .|date=September 2019 |work=Men's Journal |access-date=November 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102150952/https://www.mensjournal.com/features/coal-disaster-killing-scores-rural-americans/ |archive-date=2019-11-02 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Bourne |first=Joel K. |date=February 19, 2019 |title=Coal's other dark side: Toxic ash that can poison water, destroy life and toxify people |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/coal-other-dark-side-toxic-ash |work=National Geographic |access-date=2020-05-22}}</ref> The cleanup cost TVA more than $1&nbsp;billion and was completed in 2015.<ref>{{cite news |last=Flessner |first=Dave |date=May 29, 2015 |title=TVA to auction 62 parcels in Kingston after ash spill cleanup completed |url=https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2015/may/29/tvaucti62-parcels-kingstafter-ash-spill-clean/306796/ |work=Chattanooga Times Free Press |location=Chattanooga, TN |access-date=2019-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616180927/https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2015/may/29/tvaucti62-parcels-kingstafter-ash-spill-clean/306796/ |archive-date=June 16, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>