Kudos to "The Athens of the South'; Nashville ranks 19th for most literate cities in the United States

Rankings of 71 American cities released today by Central Connecticut State University(CCSU) placed Nashville as the 19th most literate city in the nation -- a most impressive ranking considering the poor condition of its schools and poor quality of its print journalism.

CCSU and John Miller, its president and author of the study, deserve a lot of credit for compiling these findings. Literacy determines the direction and progress of a community. Literacy attracts the best jobs and highest quality of life. Literacy empowers the least among us.

The university said: "This study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources."

Nashville's highest ranking was 17th most literate in 2005. Memphis ranked 58th in the 2008 research. No other Tennessee city was listed in the rankings.

Nashville finished way ahead of some impressive big citie -- including New York City, Chicago, Indianapolis, Charlotte, San Diego, Jasksonville, Dallas and Los Angeles.

Here's the top 10 literacy list:


1. Minneapolis and Seattle (tie)

3. Washington, D.C.

4. St. Paul

5. San Francisco

6. Atlanta

7. Denver

8. Boston

9. St. Louis

10. Cincinnati and Portland, Ore. (tie)