by John Shearer
posted April 3, 2008
April 4 marks the 40th anniversary of the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but it also brings recollections of how Chattanooga handled that time in a mostly positive manner.
While many other cities were literally on fire with racial tension, Chattanooga came together, and frustrations were vented with only minor negative repercussions.
After the shooting occurred that Thursday in Memphis and the civil rights leader’s life was taken, a small article appeared in the next day’s paper saying that the National Guard units in Chattanooga were being put on alert.
Mayor Ralph Kelley, whose diplomatic and compassionate handling of the whole week proved beneficial, called for a multi-racial gathering at the Tivoli Theatre on Friday, April 5. The event, he said, was not a memorial service, but a service of rededication to the principles of equality, freedom of speech and nonviolence.
The rally, attended by 1,500 people, included comments from Mayor Kelley, Coca-Cola bottling executive DeSales Harrison, Dr. Horace Jerome Traylor of City College, and Chattanooga Times managing editor John Popham, who had befriended Dr. King during his journalism career.
Dr. Traylor told the audience that “black and white together, we shall overcome,” while Mr. Popham said Dr. King would not soon be forgotten.
“You will have him with you every hour of your being for countless generations to come,” he said.
The City College choir and a Notre Dame High School choir also performed. The latter gave a stirring rendition of the 1960s’ song, “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love,” and it reportedly moved some audience members to tears.
The Rev. Dr. John Bonner of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church closed the program with the benediction, praying that God would “save us from violence, discord and confusion.”
The Rev. Louis Brooks had also delivered a soul-searching prayer earlier.
A previously scheduled meeting of the Tennessee Education Association that same Friday drew speeches from Mayor Kelley and U.S. Rep. Bill Brock, who obviously had to refocus their planned remarks.
Rep. Brock told a group of language teachers that teaching communication was the key to an ideal society.
“If there is anything we need in this world in America today, it is the ability to communicate with each other,” he said.
After Palm Sunday passed, Chattanooga continued to remain calm, while some cities were on fire with protests.
A fire unrelated to the assassination occurred at the Home Plate cafeteria and killed one employee, however.
Also in Chattanooga that week, the historic First Baptist Church at Georgia Avenue and Oak Street was being torn down.
On Monday, attorney Pete Underwood of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked all black and white children of Chattanooga to wear armbands the next day, the day of Dr. King’s funeral, as a tribute.
That Tuesday, which was April 9,1968, became a time of great crisis in Chattanooga over the assassination.
The situation began shortly before 9 a.m. at Riverside High School. A chapel program was scheduled for the auditorium, but several students instead left the school and headed to the Warner Park swimming pool, where some speeches were to be held.
The Riverside principal, Dr. Charles Berry, walked with some of them down to Warner Park and even offered remarks. This event was orderly and included the singing of the popular civil rights song, “We Shall Overcome,” led by Tyrone Ricks.
However, before the Warner Park event, some of the Riverside students had turned at Palmetto Street and began walking toward Howard High School, the other mostly African-American high school at the time.
There, they and a few Howard students left after a special program and began marching toward downtown Chattanooga, where a small amount of looting occurred. A window was broken at Zales Jewelers, for example, and some clothes were taken from Ira Trivers.
By the end of the day, 22 people were arrested.
The Chattanooga Times quoted one frustrated black youth that day saying, “Non-violence didn’t get King anything but dead. I am not violent, but we’ve got to do something. This has been building for a long time, but it really got strong when King died.”
With the urging of Howard football coach Chubby James and Riverside coach Calvin Sorrells, many of the youths did disperse in downtown and went back to their schools.
However, some remained, and they were frustrated and angry.
In a smart tactical move, Mayor Kelley and Chattanooga Police Commissioner “Bookie” Turner offered to buy lunch for the marching students at the Greyhound bus terminal, which was then located between the Bicentennial Library and the Patten Towers. Many of the students accepted their offer.
As Mayor Kelley proudly recalled years later, he and Commissioner Turner told the youths that they sympathized with their frustrations, but that violence in downtown Chattanooga was not a way to solve the problems.
As a result, many dispersed.
However, some remained on the streets, even after Mayor Kelley called for a 3 p.m. curfew and officials also ordered that the Chattanooga City Schools and Central High, a county school then on Dodds Avenue, be closed the next day.
The frustrated youths who continued to march were joined by a couple of ministers, the Rev. Richards and the Rev. Edwards from the HELP office, who tried to keep them calm.
An official who said he was with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta also encouraged the youths to march non-violently.
Finally, with the threats of arrests for being out after curfews, many of the students left downtown and peace returned.
Chattanooga had survived the King assassination with only minor scrapes, and it was apparently due in large part to a compassionate political, church and business leadership as well as those adults who stayed with and were generally able to control in a caring manner the marching students.
The road to racial reconciliation would not be easy for the Scenic City over the next few decades, but the collective citizenry came together during those dark days of early April 1968 in an admirable way.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net
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