Metro Schools Seeks 16 Pioneers Who Desegregated Nashville Schools

NASHVILLE, TN — Sixty years ago, 16 first-graders in Nashville made history, desegregating six elementary schools, little pioneers in the quest for equality when they walked in the front doors, often berated by shrill voices of racism as they did so.

On Sept. 9, 1957, 16, 6- and 7-year-olds changed the city forever, but the little boys and girls — now in their late 60s — have, in many cases, been lost to time. Metro Nashville Public Schools knows who they are, but they want to know where they are and learn what happened to them as part of a year-long effort commemorating the integration of the city's schools.

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Despite the myths Nashville often tells itself about "The Nashville Way" — a supposedly peaceful and relatively seamless transition from repression to equality epitomized by Diane Nash confronting Mayor Ben West, forcing him to admit that lunch counter segregation was wrong — desegregation was fraught with violence, with riots led by racist mobs the night of Sept. 9 and the still-unsolved bombing of Hattie Cotton Elementary. Uniquely part of the story, of course, are the 16 children from 13 families who actually effected the desegregation.

MNPS is developing a lesson plan about school desegregation based on the facts of the Nashville experience and is planning a series of events and the commissioning of a historical marker. The system has collected oral histories from a number of the people involved in the battle for integration and plans professional-development workshops on the history of Nashville schools, with a special emphasis on the desegregation era.

And it wants to find those 16 students. If you have information on how to contact these students contact Cameo Bobo at cameo.bobo@mnps.org or 615-259-8487.

The students are:

Buena Vista

• Erroll Groves
• Ethel Mai Carr
• Patricia Guthrie

Jones

• Barbara Jean Watson
• Marvin Moore
• Charles Edward Battles
• Cecil Ray Jr.

Fehr

• Charles Elbert Ridley
• Willis Edgar Lewis Jr.
• Linda McKinley
• Rita Buchanan

Glenn

• Jacqueline Griffith
• Lajuanda Street
• Sinclair Lee Jr.

Clemons

• Joy Smith

Cotton

• Patricia Watson

Grace McKinley walking her daughter, Linda Gail McKinley, to Fehr Elementary School on Sept. 9, 1957. Photo via Nashville Public Library Special Collections