NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Jack Daniel's Distillery and Nearest Green Distillery are launching a program to increase diversity in the whiskey industry. It's to honor the very first African American master distiller, Nearest Green.
More than one hundred years ago, Tennessee farmer Dan Call took Jack Daniel under his wing. For decades, Call was credited with teaching Jack how to distill, but now historians believe it was actually Call's slave Nearest Green who taught him everything he knew.
"Uncle Nearest actually was the distiller at Dan Call's farm and made all the whiskey he amde, so when Jack was young, Nearest taught Jack the arrt of distilling and how to distill," says Larry Combs, General Manager of Jack Daniel's Distillery.
After the Civil War, a newly freed Nearest declined an offer to work for the distillery, but his son George continued his legacy in an industry in which African Americans are vastly underrepresented -- at least for now.
"With the recent racial issues and the George Floyd case, and it brought so much attention to it, that we felt like this was the time to move," says Combs.
So now Jack Daniel's, along with another distillery that is named in Nearest Green's honor have announced a partnership to increase African American representation in the distilled spirits industry.
It's a three part plan. First, they hope to partner with African American entrepreneurs jumping into the distilling business. Next, they're launching a leadership acceleration program for becoming a master distiller and finally, launching a degree program to help recruit the best and brightest.
"We hope as this builds, we get more and more people through this program and they go out and they’re working in many different places," says Combs.
The curriculum could be offered as early as next year at Motlow State Community College.
