The Pioneer Staircase that leads to the second floor includes biographical information on extraordinary people from the area. Local greats like author, poet and activist Nikki Giovanni, first Black licensed veterinarian in Tennessee Dr. Howard Gray Senter, famed blues singer Ida B. Cox, and many others. Guest will enjoy getting to know these Pioneers.

The Research Lab is filled with rare, unique, and invaluable information available for scholarly research. Included in the Lab are old Black newspapers, handbills, booklets, newsletters, and the like. On exhibit in the Lab, “Traveling By Car During the Jim Crow Era,” by Kortney Williams, Department of Geography at the University of TN, a project conducted under the auspices of the RESET program (Race, Ethnicity, and Social Equity in Tourism). Along with photos of African Americans and their automobiles, there is a photo of Dr. William Wallace Derrick, the first Black man to own a car in Knoxville. Also available for viewing, a sampling of the Negro Green Motorist Books.

With over 5,000 square feet of open space, the Exhibit Hall is a great venue for banquets, receptions, retreats and gatherings. Along with feature exhibits, on exhibition in the Hall, are two permanent exhibits. The “Beck Cultural Exchange Center Pioneer’s Timeline,” features historical narratives on pioneers from East Tennessee beginning with Richard Payne, affectionately known as “Uncle Dick.” Payne was the first Black businessman who sold drinking water on city streets beginning in 1845. The “African American Pioneer’s Timeline” features African American greats beginning in Africa and stretches throughout history. The Timeline is an original rendering by local artist Alan Jones who was commissioned to design it for the brick frieze at the University of Tennessee Black Cultural Center, renamed the Frieson Black Cultural Center.