Matthew Burnette, Staff Writer

When Coffee County Mayor Dennis Hunt announced in Sept. of 2025 that he had submitted the old Riverview school for a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation grant to preserve the building, curiosity was sparked in the community.

Those who are fairly new to Manchester only know the building as the “eye-sore” over on Emerson Street that they have to pass to go down to Mayor Lonnie J. Norman Memorial Park at the bottom of the hill.

Others in town are more familiar with the school building from its tenure as an alternative school where countless students spent short stints as a disciplinary action for whatever infractions they had committed.

Prior to its tenure as an alternative school, the building housed a preschool for special needs students as well.

But before all that, Riverview was a school for black students in Manchester opened in the late 1950s during the time of segregation.

In honor of Black History Month, we decided to take a glimpse into the school’s history through the eyes of a pair of students who were enrolled at the school during this time.

Carl Norman, the younger brother of late Manchester Mayor Lonnie Norman, went to Riverview for only one year in the eighth grade.

“I enjoyed it; it was something new,” he recalled. “Being young, I didn’t really understand some of the things that were going on.”

Norman says he remembers the school being “just ordinary.” One particularly fond memory that he has is spending time with a lady named Mrs. Camilla who worked as a cook at Riverview.

“I used to go in when she was cooking, and she would always give me some extra food, and I enjoyed that,” he remembered.

After Riverview, Norman went to Davidson Academy, the high school for black students in Coffee County, in Tullahoma for the first three years before transferring to Coffee County Central High School when the schools integrated.

He became the first black student to score a touchdown for Coffee County and remembers his brother Lonnie coming to every game he played in.

Before his high school football career, though, Norman also played football at Riverview under a man named Jesse Nevill.

“He had wanted to start a football team there, and we went and practiced with our football team after classes were over and in the evening time,” he recollected. “I enjoyed that.”

Robert “Tiny” Sotherland, another Riverview student, remembers being the first first grader at the school.

He says that there were about 60 or so students. The school had two classrooms and only two teachers at the time. During Sotherland’s third grade year, the teaching staff grew by one.

“A lady that had lived here retired from a school in Kentucky and came back and finished out the rest of the time that the school was open,” he recalled.

Sotherland recalls that the teachers did the best that they could despite the many challenges that they faced which still to this day gets him emotional.

“They had a lot of obstacles with books and things,” he lamented. “I can remember the whole time I was there, I never got a new book. We got books used and some of them would have pages missing, and there were times that we didn’t have enough to go around. Somebody would have to carry the book home one night and then somebody else would carry it home the next night, but then after integrating schools, I can never remember getting a used book.”

While there was a lot of turmoil involved with the integration of schools, Sotherland remembers it as a turning point in his life.

“I can’t say I was excited,” he explained. “You’re going to a different situation and a different world almost, but I know it was the best thing that ever happened to me when they integrated schools. Back then it seemed like the teachers didn’t have as many students, but there you had teachers teaching five or six different classes. It was a big, big difference.”

Manchester fully integrated schools in 1964, but a year earlier, three students from Riverview, Theodore Johnson, Travis Walker and Sotherland’s uncle Julius Sotherland, were actually transferred to Westwood Elementary.

In an Aug. 28 1964 edition of the Manchester Times, it was reported that there was some tense debate regarding whether the county would keep Riverview open after a drop in attendance due to integration.

The decision was to open the school to see how many students still preferred attending Riverview. The school eventually closed for regular classes.

With the possibility of the Riverview building being preserved, many shared their opinion about what should be done with the school.

Norman said that he would like to see the building turned into a museum of sorts so that everyone can see what students and teachers there experienced.

“I think it would be wonderful if they did something for the kids to remember what we went through,” he said. “I also think it would be nice if all people could come and see what other people had went through.”

Sotherland noted that he is in favor of refurbishing the school and making it useful again.

“I would love to see it remodeled or renovated and make something out of it or whatever it needs to do. Something needs to happen,” he said. “They do have a park down there now, and it’s a beautiful little park and a beautiful area down behind the school, so I’d like to see something done with that area there.”

“Back in the day, that was the only playground for me then,” he added about the park. “I know I’ve got a lot more sentimental feelings for the school than most people.”

He also expressed a desire to see the building turn into something along the lines of a community center.

“That might be asking for more than we can do because I know there’s going to be upkeep after you get the building going,” he said. “I would like to see a community center where we could have some type of birthday parties or reunions. Since the park is there we could have some type of reunions or a place to eat and things of that nature.”

Back during the statewide Homecoming ’86 celebration, Riverview was the site of what was referred to as the “Black Peoples Celebration” where they had food and other activities. It was an event chaired by Mildred Norman that everyone in the community was invited to, regardless of race.

Sotherland says that whatever is done with the building, he hopes the focus is on Manchester.

“Manchester is the greatest little city that I’ve ever been. I love it to death,” he enthused. “It was always a very loveable place to me. I can remember when I was growing up, some of the kids hated to be in a small town and couldn’t wait until they were big enough to leave Manchester. In my mind, how could you want to leave Manchester? You’ve got the best living you could ever have right here, and I’m proud I stayed.”