Black Nashville in History & Memory

The civil rights movement came to national prominence in the United States during the mid-1950s and continued to challenge racial segregation and discrimination through the 1960s. The civil rights movement eventually achieved equal rights legislation, but not without challenges. In the late 1960s complications arose as various groups confronted the enduring economic and social consequences of past oppression. These problems persisted in subsequent decades, and the idea of real equality remained elusive well into the 21st century. Nonetheless, the intrepid supporters of the civil rights movement took some of the hardest first steps toward equality (Britannica).

Credit: Library of Congress [00651469]

Nashville police officer wielding nightstick holds African American youth at bay during a civil rights march in Nashville, Tennessee, 1964, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Musician and actor Harry Belafonte with Freedom Riders Diane Nash and Charles Jones, discussing the Freedom Riders movement, 1961. 

Alexander Looby reporting to police on April 19, 1960, after his house was bombed.

Fisk University Student, Jean Wynona Fleming in a Nashville Jail after her arrest at a drugstore lunch counter on March 25, 1960. Jimmy Ellis, Gannett.

Credit: The Tennessean

the Nashville Tennessean was covering the arrests of suspects involved in the bombing of the Hattie Cotton elementary school a few days earlier. The bombing followed the integration of 1st grade classes in Nashville public schools.

Credit: The Tennessean, PBS

A silent march to protest the Z. Alexander Looby bombing in Nashville.