Built as a complement to the whites-only Kentucky Lake State Park or the Kenlake State Resort Park, the Cherokee State Park was a state park built in 1951 meant for African American folks. It is the only park of such sort in the state ever. It was constructed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, who adhered to the concept of blacks and whites having equal rights, but still with segregation.

The third blacks-only state park in the country, the Cherokee State Park was once dubbed as the “finest colored vacation site in the South”. Such a claim was even written on a state map published and circulated in 1952.

When the desegregation won in the 1960s, the Cherokee State Park closed. Most of its area is now a part of the Kenlake State Resort Park.