Aftermath of the 1957 bombing of Hattie Cotton Elementary School
Remember that time I wrote a book, and then when we had the book launch, the mayor announced that he was asking the police to reopen the cold case my book was about?
At my book launch, Mayor O'Connell announced that a lead investigator from MNPD's cold case unit will look into three integration-era bombings
Well, on Friday, the results of that reopened investigation were made public, and Steven Hale over at the Banner wrote a really nice article about it after interviewing me:
A Nashville cold case detective has concluded that three Civil Rights-era bombing cases, which have loomed over the city for decades, are unlikely to be solved without a confession from someone involved in the attacks.
The Metro Nashville Police Department announced on Friday that a review of the infamous cold cases uncovered some new information, but did not lead to the identification of any culprits. Mayor Freddie O’Connell called for the cases to be reopened last year after reading Dynamite Nashville, a 2024 book by longtime Nashville writer and historian Betsy Phillips about the series of bombings. The attacks occurred over three years, targeting Hattie Cotton school in September 1957, the Jewish Community Center in March 1958, and the home of attorney and councilmember Z. Alexander Looby in April 1960.
We’re going to get to my formal, thoughtful response, but first I just want to say, “Whew. Thank goodness.”
Y’all, for a year I have been sweating bullets that I missed something obvious. I was so afraid that Metro Nashville Police Department Det. Mike Roland was going to call me up any day and be all, “I found the bombers. Turns out they meet twice a month up at the Hardee’s in Pleasant View. They’ve been reading Dynamite Nashville and laughing about how dumb you are. I’m surprised you never came across them. They have a bunch of flyers all over Cheatham County — 'Old Racist Bombers Reunion. First and third Thursdays.’”
And I’d be the laughing stock of the city. Y’all would call your historian friends in other towns to tell them about how I’d overlooked the existence of the twice-monthly standing Racist Bombers Reunion. I could never show my face at the Tennessee State Library and Archives again.
People kept telling me what a good detective Mike Roland is, and I would nod and say, “Oh, great. I’m so glad this is in good hands.” But inside my own head, at least a part of me was like, “Shiiiiiiiiiiiittttt.”
When he called and told me that he also hadn’t been able to solve the bombings, I felt relief as well as disappointment. A guy whose job it is to do this stuff couldn’t get much farther than me. OK then, I did good work.
Like I said to Hale, I know some people are going to take this non-resolution as proof that the coverup continues, or they’re going to assume the police didn’t try very hard. But I honestly don’t think that’s the case.
In the FBI’s Looby bombing file, the FBI mentions that some dynamite had been stolen up in Clarksville and a picture of a little girl was found at the scene. The FBI report reads: “It will be noted that the photo was of young girl, possibly seven to ten years of age. Underneath photo is printed the word ‘PRICE’ and ‘SCHOOL DAYS 1957-58.’” There’s no copy of the girl’s photo in the file.
Det. Roland, in the year 2025, 65 years after the bombing, tracked down this girl, now a 75-year-old woman, and talked to her. How? I don’t know. Well, I mean, the press release put out by the MNPD (read it in full below) says he was following the work of the fire marshal from 1960, who had figured out she was a student at an elementary school in Ohio. So he had a name and a location for her in 1960. But how do you find a person now based on two data points from 65 years ago?! This is some Sherlock Holmes shit.
But it does make me wonder how Det. Roland was able to track her down now and the FBI wasn't able to back then. One guy with the fire marshal’s file and a phone found her now. The whole damn FBI never could?
Z. Alexander Looby, Marcus Garvey's connections to Nashville, and why our city needs a civil rights museum
I think the truth is that our opportunity to know who did this, for sure, was stolen from us through a series of decisions made more than half a century ago. And that sucks. I know that I, myself, when faced with all the grave injustices we’re living with now, comfort myself by telling myself that the truth will come out, that the bad guys can win, but they can’t erase the truth.
But they can. And it especially sucks, because in this case there’s no one left alive to be mad at. Everyone who worked on this thing now tried their best.
I had really hoped there might be more resolution to these bombings than I could give. As much as I joke about being relieved, Nashville deserves the truth. We deserve justice. And we’re not going to get either of those things.
But at least now there is a police file on the bombings. That’s not nothing.
And we have choices moving forward. One of the reasons these cases remained unsolved is that most of Nashville forgot Z. Alexander Looby. We neglected to teach our kids about the important local civil rights figure. For the most part, we didn’t put him up in the pantheon of Tennessee heroes. And as we downplayed him, we allowed ourselves to move on from the time racists almost killed him without ever finding out for sure which ones and holding them accountable.
So let’s start by fixing that. Once we were neighbors with a great man who set out to change the course of our state. And he did. Let’s make sure we as a city all know that forever.
