So Brenda Washington "remembers," the riots in the spring of '71 and National Guard troops patrolling her neighborhood. Well Brenda, I was one of those troops patrolling your neighborhood and as the late Paul Harvey would say, "here is the rest of the story."
Wilson Pickett (a black entertainer) was scheduled to perform at the Memorial Auditorium on a
Friday night.
The concert had been sold out weeks in advance. For some reason Mr. Pickett just decided not to show up and didn't notify anybody. When the crowd found this out they stormed the box office wanting their money back and then a mob developed and stormed down Georgia Avenue to MLK, at that time 9th street. The riots got so out of hand the local police had to call the THP in to maintain order. Disturbances continued
on Saturday and
Sunday night with fires being set and violence in some areas. Events got so out of hand the Tennessee National Guard was called up early
Sunday morning and would remain on duty for a week.
Things were so bad the governor and mayor declared a nightime curfew that applied to everybody. If an employee was working the second shift at Combustion, Wheland or any other business downtown they had to stay over. Finally after 2 or 3 days of curfew order was restored and things began to settle down. And all this because the Wicked Pickett decided not to show up for a concert.
And why exactly were we patrolling your neighborhood, Brenda? Because that was where all the violence and fires were. I would have gladly volunteered to patrol Lookout Mtn. or Riverview but for some reason it was all quiet in those neighborhoods. I don't remember seeing anyone with a smirk on their face like you, in fact every black person I talked to thanked us for helping save their neighborhood.
"What a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of a hypothesis."
Mary Wollstonecraft
Douglas Jones
Ooltewah
* * *
There were no rioting in the neighborhood I lived. And it wasn't 1971 that I was referring to. Also, it had nothing to do with Wilson Pickett not showing up for any concert either. So you must be referring to a very different time in history.
Neither was I 12 or 13-years-old in 1971. You're referring to a very different time and event than the one I recall.
Neither did we attend any concerts in those days. Our parents didn't allow it.
Brenda Washington
* * *
The riot that occurred in 1971 is the only one in which the National Guard was called out. At least, the only one which you and I would remember (I'm two years older than you are).
Even the civil disturbance when Dr. King was murdered in 1968 didn't merit the National Guard. I don't call that a riot because it was an outburst of emotion at Dr. King's senseless killing.
So, since you weren't talking about 1971 and I know you weren't referring to 1980, when did this occur? I don't recall anything in 1966 or 1967. These would have been the years when the 12 or maybe 13-year-old bravely stared down the National Guard.
Are you certain that there was a civil disturbance going on or were the troops headed to Mississippi for the two-week annual training?
Ed Bradley
* * *
I always find the pieces by Brenda Washington published in the Chattanoogan.com to be interesting, highly informative, and well thought out, not to mention well written. What she writes is always based in fact, and her opinions are deeply rooted in her experiences..., real experiences.
I also find it embarrassing that whenever she writes, whatever she writes, a chorus always chimes in attempting to invalidate, not just her opinions, but the facts she cites and worse, her very life experience. When virtually anyone speaks about what it is like to experience whatever it is they experience by virtue of that experience, people sometimes listen with interest, sometimes not, but rarely are they subjected to a barrage of reactions insisting somehow they didn’t really experience it. That is, unless the experience has something to do with race in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Then, for some strange reason I don’t understand, the usual suspects cannot resist spouting off in opposition.
I don’t know Ms. Washington, but I admire her perseverance. Perhaps if her critics pause once in awhile to listen to people whose life experiences are not just like their own, they might actually learn something.
Keep the faith Brenda. You are a breath of fresh air in a city that is still more polluted than advertised.
Frank Wrinn
* * *
Mr. Jones is entirely correct about the date and the events that led up to the National Guard being called out in the spring of 1971. Our unit was assigned to ride the firetrucks with the firemen when the calls came in to go to fires set primarily by thrown homemade Molotov cocktails.
Perhaps Ms. Washington can enlighten us as to exactly when, other than 1971, she claims to have stood defiantly in the street and stared down the National Guard troops patrolling in her neighborhood. Either she made the story up out of whole cloth or, like so many liberals, she cannot differentiate between what is true and what she so desperately wants to be true.
Dennis Wooden
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Maybe Brenda if referring to the riots and fights at Brainerd High School. Being a 1971 graduate from Brainerd, the last class of the Rebels, I remember distinctly how the fights began and who started them. The fight that broke out at the Brainerd / Riverside football game in the fall of 1970 at Brainerd was started by a black classmate of mine and stated he was paid to start the fight. I have firsthand vision of the fight breaking out, and in fact made the front page of the News Free Press in an attempt to remove my then girlfriend from the fighting in the stands.
Understandably this had nothing to do with the riots in the spring but was the birth of trouble to come. At the time the friction was over the Brainerd’s fight song, Dixie, Confederate flag and the Confederate soldier painted on the interior gym wall.
To the best of my knowledge it was in the early part of spring 1971 when fighting began in the school. This action was prompted by a young man named Randy Thompson, a popular student with a million dollar voice. Understand, Randy would not harm a fly. However he ventured into the boys' bathroom only to be assaulted by a gang of black students. Previous to this action some of the black students were harassing the white girls.
After these two events took place an explosion of emotions took place and the rest is history with thousands of outsiders getting involved, resulting in the following agencies arriving: city police, county police, state troopers etc., etc., along with the famous Mr. Jessie Jackson. The school was shut down for the next two weeks to restore peace and order.
Maybe this is what she is referring to as the tension city wide was extremely high. All of the above was supposedly prompted by the removal of the schools symbol.
What a shame it was as I had many black friends and the good relationship was harmed by adults higher above stirring issues that didn’t need to be stirred. I’m still not sure why Jesse Jackson showed up.
Michael Mansfield
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As an alumni of Brainerd High School, I was witness to racial unrest from 1969 through 1972 in protest of the use of Dixie as the school song, Rebels as the name of the sports team, and the Confederate flag as the school flag. Paired with overdue enforcement of desegregation policies in Chattanooga City Schools, the culture of the school was far from hospitable to our black students and became a hotbed of racial confrontation.
On Oct. 20, 2009, John Shearer wrote a column, "Unrest At Brainerd High 40 Years Ago," which details the beginning of the 1969-1970 school year and the explosive racial tension of that time. Anyone living in Chattanooga during those days is certain to remember National Guard soldiers, fleets of cars and trucks with Rebel flags cruising down Brainerd and North Moore roads, and city-wide curfews. Perhaps these days are what Brenda Washington remembers.
Elisabeth Zachary
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I grew up in downtown Chattanooga close to the intersection of Third and High. I lived there from birth to July of 1973 when I got married.
I remember demonstrations and conflicts on the streets of Chattanooga off and on in 1959 and 1960. These were handled by the Chattanooga Police Department not the National Guard.
I further remember clearly the summer of 1971. I read about the Wilson Pickett matter in the paper. I played a number of Musicians' Union engagements over my career at the Memorial Auditorium and Tivoli as part of the band for many named performers. It was customary to pay the performers after the engagement not before unless stated in the contract. Apparently Mr. Pickett wanted to change the custom and refused to go on stage without being paid first.
But I didn't give it anymore thought until my future wife and I went to the Rogers Theater the following evening. We were turned away at the box office and told the movies were ending due to the curfew. I took my date home and returned back to my house wondering if I would be stopped.
I got home just before dark, but after the sun went down I could hear sirens and loud vehicles near my house. I personally witnessed a military truck carrying a dozen or more guardsmen in full gear on High Street and saw it turn down Third Street. I don't know where it went because I couldn't follow it; there was a curfew on and I wasn't interested in violating the law and getting arrested.
So, I, too, am wondering when this confrontation with National Guardsmen occurred and where if it didn't happen in 1971.
Ralph Miller
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I, too, was a 1971 graduate of Brainerd. One correction for Mike Mansfield was the year when things really got out of hand was the Riverside-Brainerd football game. It was the fall of 1969, not 1970.
Another point was there were antagonists from both sides. I got along quite well with the black kids, and they had legitimate concerns, especially when their noses got rubbed in Confederate symbols. To them it was a symbol of hate. For most whites, it was a cultural symbol of a way of living, eating, and dialectc. I think some just raised h--- to get out of school.
As for Wilson Pickett, the way I remember it, was early 1971. He didn't show up due to a money dispute, but things got out hand because people were demanding a refund when they hadn't even bought a ticket. A curfew lasted a few days after things abated.
Grade my grammar, Elisabeth.
Brian Foley
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Liberals see racism where it doesn’t exist, fabricate it when they can’t find it and ignore it within their own ranks.
Chuck Davis,
Lookout Mountain, Tenn.