Nashville Desegregation Plaque - Nashville, Tennessee
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 36° 10.027 W 086° 46.708
16S E 519924 N 4002507
Plaque on the Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County courthouse commemorating an event which led to the end of segregation in Nashville, Tennessee.
Waymark Code: WMGHQ8
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 03/09/2013
Views: 18
Text of plaque:
April 19, 1960
"And the people shouted with great shout;
so that the wall fell down."
Joshua 6:20
On the 19th of April 1960, Nashville proclaimed itself a beacon of civility, common sense and reconciliation.
Following months of civil rights sit-ins, the home of black City Councilman Z. Alexander Looby was bombed in the early hours of the morning, and several thousand marchers walked to this courthouse in protest.
In the charged atmosphere of that afternoon, Mayor Ben West broke the impasse as he told the crowd that he believed it morally wrong for store owners to sell to blacks while denying them service at lunch counters. He made this statement in a public exchange with Fisk student Diane Nash.
And in Nashville, the walls of segregation crumbled.
This memorial commemorates the civility of those demonstrators, Mayor Ben West and our community on that day. May we continue to live together as one God-fearing community forever.
Philip Bredesen Mayor April 19, 1995