Vivian Lee Battle Sims, age 94, was born and educated in New York City, and came to Fisk University in Nashville in 1946. In 1950, she became the first black art teacher in the Nashville City Schools, in Cameron School. She was honored to serve as a Fulbright Exchange Teacher on the Caribbean island of Antigua for two years. After returning to Nashville, Vivian was an Art Supervisor until she married Henry Sims, the only Black administrator out of the 26 Vo-Tech schools in Tennessee.

-Photo by The Tennessean

During the Civil War, many African-American men escaped slavery to become soldiers in the U.S. Army. Here in Giles County, the U.S. Army organized the 110th & 111th Regiment U.S. Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) in late 1863 and early 1864. Most of the soldiers who joined these units had lived their entire lives in slavery. Most of them lived in Giles County, though some came from neighboring Tennessee counties or from the northern counties of Alabama and Mississippi.

In the midst of nationwide attention on Confederate monuments, Pulaski's city leadership chose to refocus attention on “Building Up” instead. Alderman and Vice-Mayor Ricky Keith introduced the idea of a community committee on inclusive representation at the Sept 28, 2020 regular session meeting of the Pulaski Board of Mayor and Alderman to tell “the other side of the story...the story of the overlooked and unrecognized.”