The College Hill neighborhood has approximately 500 mostly black working-class families within its borders, although it is slowly diversifying. There was an established black community prior to the Civil War in Bradley County, and College Hill as a designated geographic area dates back to this time period. Between the 1860s-1870s core religious institutions were established in the neighborhood, and these became and have remained a stronghold for neighborhood residents.

Another pillar institution for many years was the College Hill School, which became the first black school in Bradley County in 1883. In 1966, the school closed due to desegregation, which marked a major turning point in the neighborhood's stability. Residents remember the early 1960s and the decades before as a robust time for the neighborhood. There were family-owned businesses including restaurants, cafes, and clothing stores. Neighbors knew each other, and took great pride in the neighborhood they had cultivated and sustained as a black community in the midst of segregation.

In the 1970s everything began to change. Government leaders decided to develop a federal highway that would run directly through the College Hill neighborhood. Black-owned businesses and residential property were declared as eminent domain in order to complete this massive infrastructure project, that ultimately, was never realized. As a result, College Hill residents were displaced from their community, families lost their businesses, and people lost their jobs. Surrounding businesses, like the local grocery, soon left the community as well. This primarily affected black families and individuals, and the neighborhood was never the same. Residents who lived in the community for years were forced to scatter, either moving across town or elsewhere in the City. Residents who were left behind suffered great economic distress caused by the interstate development, and these effects are still very evident today. The disruption in the community led to outside investors buying up vacated properties and renting them out at unaffordable rates while allowing them to deteriorate. These events resulted in a rapid decline in economic stability, the physical environment, and neighborhood resident pride.

To this day, a level of distrust remains between community members in College Hill and the powers that be in the greater community. Despite it all, College Hill is full of resilient residents working to have their voices heard as they rebuild, both physically and metaphorically, what has been damaged.