Civil Rights Public Art Project

About the Project

It was in downtown Nashville that students from the city’s four black colleges and seminaries launched a nonviolent protest against segregated lunch counters and other public accommodations on February 13, 1960. The sit-in campaign became a highly effective tool in the fight against racial segregation and injustice in the South and across the United States. The civility of the sit-ins and the emphasis on student training and coordination in non-violent tactics became known as the “Nashville Movement”.

In 2012, the Metro Nashville Arts Commission issued a national call to artists for the creation of a public artwork(s) honoring the role Nashville and the “Nashville Movement” played within the Civil Rights Movement. 

Five artist semi-finalists have been selected for this project. They will submit site-specific proposals in late April to the selection panel:

• Mario Chiodo of Oakland, CA
• Carol Gold of Fairfax, CA
• Ai Qiu Hopen of Sutton, WV
• Joel Randell of Edmond, OK
• Thomas Warren of Denver, CO

Community Meetings Feedback

Comments gathered from Post-It Notes gathered February 28, 2013 at the Downtown Public Library and March 12, 2013 at the Alexander Looby Branch of the Nashville Public Library.

Describe your recollections and memories of the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville.

• School bombings– prompted by people to fully support desegregation
• Nashville is wonderful for its civil mindedness
• Old Hickory– White school AND African American School (now an arts center)
• African American School in Old Hickory
• Segregated movie theaters – side entrances for African Americans
• Candyland (Church + 7^th) until 1959 left business because of segregation,African American employment
• Love Nashville for continued discussions on racial issues
• Civil Rights Movement is by no means over
• Closing of public pools after integration
• 2 completely separate by equal societies
• “A Child Shall Lead Them” film
• Grand mother in neighboring town walked with African American man to help him register to vote
• Woman who took child to school during desegregation had crosses burned in her yard
• Riots at Fisk University
• Movement was student-led
• Nashville is remarkable for how non-violent the movement was compared to other cities
• Sports helped with desegregation

• Once I interviewed a member of the “Clinton Twelve,” the group of students who integrated the first high school in (Clinton) Tennessee.  She told me about how a (white) football player started escorting her on her walk up and down the hill to and from school.  He did that to keep her safe from people who would spit at her and pull her hair.  When I listen to this story, I see hope.This stands out against the “usual” historic images of hate (burning crosses,angry faces, etc.)

• Taking the load on my shoulders, as you, heroes, lift me onto yours.”I have no memories – I wasn’t there.  I need storytellers to tell and show me what this era was like.  This could inspire art/design that shows the future of civil rights in our city: a child/young person absorbing the story to date…and looking ahead.

  

• Marches
• Cain Sloan Department Store
• Woolworth’s counter
• Closing of public pools after integration
• Not part of public school curriculum
• Black kids and white were in school rooms together
• Urban renewal: the building of I-40 and destruction of North Nashville
• Proliferation of “Christian” (all-white) schools after integration
• School bombings – prompted people to be more fully supportive of desegregation
• Would today’s students stand up to injustice as they did during the Civil Rights movement?
• Restricted neighborhoods
• TSU, Fisk and ABC students engaged in non-violent direct action

• Students leaving Haynes School to meet with students at ABC. The older students were leaving school to go to ABC to be involved. I didn’t know what was going on;too young and it didn’t ring a bell.

• I went to Haynes, near ABC, that was considered “country.” Every year they would tell us that they were going to integrate. Junior year, we became the integration experiment that next fall, my senior year at East High School.

• Integration was a struggle, academically and socially. It was eye-awakening I made white friends, but no lifelong friends. It was not necessarily something we wanted to do, but it was something we all had to do.

• Students had more freedom in high school then; we were able to sneak out of school in the middle of the day, after homeroom, to go participate in a workshop and then sneak back in before the end of the day.

• I graduated from Pearl High School in 1965; cannot remember a white student in my school.

• Memories:Sit-ins and Stand-ins at the movie theater; we’d go to the Paramount and Tennessee (downtown theaters in the ‘60s) and black students had to wait in the back of line, buy concessions after the white students and sit on the third floor to watch a movie.
  

What visual symbols or ideas connect to the Civil Rights Movement?

• Carried Posters (black and white) and signs and flyers handed out. Permanently write on piece.
• Burning bus
• Café counter  2 first
• Sit-ins
• Kindred Spirits  Educated people fighting ignorance and bigotry
• Equality,dignity, courage
• Faces and bodies of young people/youth who put themselves on the line.
• “Movement” as in visual art movement  ask Fisk Gallery experts
• Creative non-violence
• The Beloved community
• Centers of Education (Fisk, TSU, Vandy)
• People who we may not know by name but who made a difference

• A strong visual image is the long serpentine march of the students after the Looby home was bombed. They marched silently to meet with Mayor West.

• PAPER (flyers, posters, etc.- with messages about the cause [on both sides]) the contrast of black and white on paper

• Being able to eat and fellowship together
• You can’t have self-reliance when the majority is not being “inclusive”
• Self-reliance was insufficient. Thus integration seem to be key to so-called freedom
• The concept of reparations of 40 acres and a mule. When is this going to happen?

• An honor roll of key participants: William Barbee, Harriet Tubman, Dr. Smith, John Lewis, University professors, Good “Jelly” Jones

• Marching,Rebel Flag, Freedom riders
• Dr. MLK’s assassination
• Voter ID laws
• First Baptist Church (Capitol Hill) where demonstrators trained
• Little jockey statues on the lawn
• Nathan Bedford Forrest
• Beatings
• Buses,Montgomery, ALA
• Freedom Riders
• Freedom Songs
• Signs: I Am A Man
• Fisk,Peabody, Scarritt, TN State, Vanderbilt, American Baptist Seminary
• White Citizens Council, The Tea Party
• People abused, Black-only Water Fountains, White-only Water Fountains
• Segregated seating at bus and train terminals
• Slavery and bad treatment by overseers
• Forced workers

• Today’s children should be drawn into whatever is depicted; Today’s children need to be able to identify with it

• I feel like a slave. When people treat me wrong, I feel like they are my boss. (Comment from a child)

• William Edmondson’s artwork; a mural
• Intersperse modern children with those who integrated the lunch counter; the Occupy Movement
• A Quaker couple at Fisk University – the Fusons. WEB Dubois, Harriet Tubman

What ideas from the Civil Rights Movement are vital to our city today?

• Love for everyone
• Learn from “white flight” – ongoing problem even now
• Country Town to Metro City. Now where
• Nonviolence is a creative way of dealing with problems. Don’t settle with old methods.
• Diversity. Elders and students working together.
• Spiritual fearlessness
• Diversity - # of non-native Americans (new immigrants) – don’t inadvertently add barriers
• Fear of re-segregating schools. Trend needs to be averted
• Creativity, spiritual, intellect lift people up (nonviolent movement)
• Nonviolence as a means to solve conflict
• Education/Preparation
• Courage in face of adversity to do the right thing
• Dignity of Human Spirit
• Embrace/celebrate diversity rather than fear it
• Educated Voting  continued – or not
• English-only proposals were difficult for this community but we were able to defeat that
• “White Flight”  →60 - 70→ charter2000  private schooling vs. public
• Definition of “civil rights” not limited to past experience
• Quality education is more important than who is teaching the students.
• Nashville should learn from its legacy as successfully nonviolent
• Dr. Lawson – student of Ghandi – mentor to Dr. King on nonviolence.  Nonviolence
• Youth in leadership roles
• Diversity.  All have to be embraced to be a great city.
• Nashville’s movement being nonviolent is/was unique
• The strength that comes from being together – of not being segregated.
• Thought, study, preparation PRIOR to taking action
• Nashville has been progressive – is now and was then
• Including young voices in community problem solving
• Housing/Neighborhoods are now more integrated.
• Reflecting that time but providing guidance for the future.
• Partnerships between young and mature
• MLK Day should be celebration of nonviolence
• “CR” movement gets tied to 1960s and AA. But it is not a static point in time (LGBT, Women, etc.)

• Need to understand the Civil Rights movement and history in neighborhood make-up (where people choose to live)

• People have “moved on” and aren’t fighting this fight anymore.  Educate people to get involved (money,education, influence)

• Anytime we can say we are a “leader” by being a welcoming city – we are known all over the world as welcoming

• Economic Impact moved civil rights movement along when the economic impact of black community became apparent.

• Strong intelligentsias Fisk, TSU, etc. They were positioned to use their intellects to develop strategy.
• Blacks sitting w/ whites
• I love NPT (Nashville Public Television) The eye on the prize

• If we are integrated then why call them black colleges. Answer …“because they would not accept us into theirs”

• All men are created equal!
• Disregard the negativity

• The sit-in and Freedom Rider movements never dealt with white supremacy and a succession plan for the next generation.

• The ideas were not passed down as they should have been. People are scared by the past and cannot talk about it. Don’t want pity; don’t want negative feelings.

• Keep the progress moving forward; Historical landmarks to tell the story of the movement
• Vital that youth be educated and trained to let go of the past. What can we do to keep the torch lit?
• Keep communication open. Keep the issue on the front burner.
• Dialogue
• Keep telling the history to future generations.
• Focus on core values of being human – respect, dignity and freedom
• Non-violence
• Fair housing, especially affordable housing
• Respect the power of arts and music in progressive movements
• Acceptance of all cultures as Nashville becomes diverse
• Understanding and perception
• Activism and cohesiveness
• You are able to go in and eat where you want.
• Even though you could eat in some establishments, could not use the bathrooms.
• The mentality of this era (CRM) has not been left behind.
• Tell me why people still feel “shut up”?
• Get children talking about this more.
• Tell the story: Those who refuse to learn from the past are destined to repeat it.
• Non-violence is a creative way of dealing with problems; a way to solve conflict
• Diversity: all have to be embraced
• Monuments paying tribute to courageous heroes
• Individuals take responsibility as citizens to talk about what happens in this city
• What could we be doing more?
• Keep the light on and not be afraid to speak.
• Vital to talk to people about Nashville’s story