Camp Dogwood

Over the last few years, we’ve been looking at African American Scouting and where summer camp took place. In the course of our most recent research, we made an interesting discovery: the first summer camp for African American Scouts in the Nashville Council was a place called Camp Dogwood.

Camp Dogwood was the 48 acre summer camp facility of the Bethlehem Center. The Bethlehem Center was a community house in Nashville, inter-racially funded, that served the African-American community through a variety of free clinics. It was a leader in kindergarten education, provided training for new mothers, health services of all kinds, and was partnered with the Methodist Church as well as both Fisk and Meharry. Camp Dogwood was in Ashland City on Marrowbone Creek and, as the ONLY camp for African Americans at the time, provided a host of summer camp programs for youth and mothers. Both the Bethlehem Center and Camp Dogwood still exist today.

Camp Dogwood provided recreational summer camp for African American boy Scouts (the Bethlehem Center, in fact, sponsored the first official black troop in Nashville) as early as 1930. The first true Boy Scout camp–run by Scouts, approved by the Council, with Scouting values and advancement at its heart–was held at Camp Dogwood in August 1937, making this the first official Boy Scout camp for African Americans in the middle Tennessee area.

See here is a representation of Camp Dogwood provided by Steve Fleming, the current director of the Bethlehem Center.

Painting of the Bethlehem Center’s Camp Dogwood in Ashland City. Collection of Steve Fleming.