💬 Which local leader is screaming at protestors?

🎵 Lower Broadway Through a Musician’s Eyes

On today’s City Cast Nashville podcast, we’re chatting with Lower Broadway bassist Mandy Shucher about what downtown Nashville looks like from the stage, from the worst tippers to the weirdest moments, and the biggest changes she’s seen over her two decades in the business. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

💬 Rep. Andy Ogles Confronts Protestors

At a rare public town hall in Spring Hill, Representative Andy Ogles (TN-05) got into screaming matches with multiple constituents and protestors, some of whom were barred from entry. “It seems like [Ogles] cares more about representing Trump’s agenda than representing us as constituents of this state,” said one Franklin constituent. [Nashville Banner]

🧑‍⚖️ Lawsuit Against State Not Legally Defensible

Tennessee’s Attorney General will not defend the state in a lawsuit against a measure that makes it a felony to vote for sanctuary city policies, explaining the policy is not legally defensible. Attorney Jonathan Skrmetti says the “Constitution provides absolute immunity for all legislative votes, whether at the federal, state, or local levels.” [Nashville Banner]

• Seven Metro Councilmembers, along with the ACLU, filed the lawsuit. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]
• Related: The Metro Nashville Police Department has noticed immigrants are more hesitant to report crimes after May’s immigration enforcement activity, and some nonprofits are worried about providing aid to immigrant crime victims amid federal scrutiny. [Tennessee Lookout]

⛪ Church Helps Unhoused Nashvillians

Every Tuesday and Thursday, McKendree United Methodist Church serves lunch to unhoused folk. After the downtown library branch closed, they noticed hundreds more people lining up at their door, trying to escape the heat and seeing the church as a safe place to do so in lieu of the library. In response, the church has been opening its doors earlier. [NewsChannel 5]

• Library spokesperson Andrea Fanta told me restoration experts are evaluating the downtown library branch, and in the meantime, the Office of Homeless Services is holding two office hours this week at the Hadley Park and North branches.

On this day, Sept. 9, 1957, 19 Black six-year-olds walked to newly integrated Nashville public elementary schools as hundreds of white protestors screamed and threw rocks and glass bottles at them. Signs read “God is the author of segregation,” and white ministers preached the evils of integration. That evening, mobs burned down buildings owned by Black families, and burned crosses in their yards. The next day, Hattie Cotton Elementary School was bombed, and the lone Black student there would not return to class.

This is the story of how Nashville schools were desegregated.

🧑‍⚖️ Courts Weigh in on School Segregation

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools violated the U.S. Constitution in Brown v. Board of Education. Hours after the decision, NAACP attorneys Avon N. Williams Jr. and Z. Alexander Looby — whose home would later be bombed — formally asked Nashville’s school board to end segregation. The superintendents and Nashville mayor Ben West requested more time as they awaited further direction from the court. Only Nashville’s private Catholic schools would desegregate their admissions that fall.

In May 1955, the Supreme Court issued a follow-up ruling that allowed school districts to develop their own desegregation policies locally. NAACP attorneys once again petitioned the school board to desegregate schools that fall, but were ignored. Black families who tried to sign their children up for school were denied.

In September of that year, Looby, Williams, and Thurgood Marshall filed suit against Nashville city schools on behalf of 21 Black children in Kelly v. Board of Education. It would become the longest-running case in Tennessee history.

Superintendent Bass worked out a plan to desegregate Nashville schools one grade at a time, beginning with first grade in 1957, and extending to all twelve grades by 1968. Only certain schools were okayed for desegregation. The NAACP attorneys called the plan “completely inadequate.” But it would be the beginning of school desegregation in Nashville, three years after Brown v. Education.