I realize assimilation into the Gannett-o-verse means that The Tennessean has priorities other than telling you about important Nashville stuff, and I know that there is indeed a movie about Thurgood Marshall out right now, which seems like a good reason to write a story about Thurgood Marshall and stuff he did in Tennessee. So I get why The Tennessean is running a story called “Tennessee artist brings little-known but historic Thurgood Marshall trial to life,” but dear God!
When you write a story for a Nashville audience in which Nashvillians figure so prominently, shouldn’t that be the focus of the story, not Marshall? Writer Jessica Bliss even says in the story that Thurgood, “fell ill, [was] hospitalized in New York and unable to attend most of the trial. Looby took the lead.”
How in the heck is the Columbia Riot trial a Thurgood Marshall trial if he was not there for most of the trial?! In 1946, Z. Alexander Looby, a Nashvillian, was the only civil rights attorney in the state. He was also a member of the NAACP. The NAACP didn’t send Marshall into the hinterlands to be the brilliant legal mind for black people in a state where there weren’t any. We had Looby.
Bliss also leaves out the most harrowing moment of the trial when Looby saved Marshall’s life after Marshall was stopped by police officers when the two men were caravanning back to Nashville. The police put Marshall in their car and drove off into the night with him, in the opposite direction of the police station. Looby followed them in his car. They tried to ditch him, but he stayed on their tail. And eventually, after a scenic tour of the darkest rural spots of Maury County, the police dropped Marshall back off at his car and the two lawyers headed back to Nashville. Looby’s presence, most historians feel, is what kept those officers from killing Marshall and dumping him along a back road.
Also a bit of context that might be important is that Thurgood Marshall was Avon Williams’ first cousin. Williams hadn’t passed the bar at the time of the Columbia Riot, but he grew up in Knoxville and practiced law there. Marshall had family in Tennessee. So, Marshall worked with Looby, a guy who was one of the most important lawyers in the state, who almost every single — if not every single — local civil rights victory can be traced back to, who served on the Nashville city council. And Marshall was related to a local dude who joined Looby’s quest for black social justice, who also served as a state senator for many years, and who reshaped Tennessee State University in countless ways.
Bliss has written a story that makes it seem like Marshall was a civil rights Superman, alone in the country, bringing truth, justice, and the American way to Tennessee (so go see his movie), but he was literally a member of a Justice League, and the stories of our Batman and Nightwing give us a fuller picture of Thurgood “Superman” Marshall’s actions.
Also, just as a side note, Mink Slide — a term Bliss uses in the story, but doesn't explain — has heavy racial and gender connotations. Many cities and towns throughout the South had a neighborhood called Mink Slide where black people lived and did business. But it was a slang term for what could be purchased there — dark, slippery “fur” you could slide right into. It’d be like calling a neighborhood “Hooker Hollow” or “Brothel Bottom,” but with the implication from the coloration of the mink’s fur, that those sex workers were black.
It’s not a name the people who lived in that neighborhood would have chosen to call it. After a time, yes, it did become the de facto name for the neighborhood that everyone, black or white, used, but it seems like the kind of thing that shouldn’t pass without explanation. If we had a neighborhood nicknamed Whoretown, we’d think carefully about using that nickname as if it was a valid name, and for good reason.
Anyway: Tennessean, celebrate our heroes, be proud of Nashvillians who put their butts on the line for justice. The Thurgood Marshall story is a good one, but it’s one with a lot of important Nashville ties that shouldn’t be glossed over.
