John Shearer: Remembering The 1971 Racial Crisis That Followed The Wilson Pickett Concert, Part 1

This month marks the 50th anniversary of what many could argue was the scariest time of collective civil unrest in Chattanooga’s modern history. 
 
A disagreement about a canceled Wilson Pickett concert – the fact many Chattanoogans over 60 or so probably remember about that time of turmoil – turned a night of what was supposed to be fun into days of head-turning despair.
 
In a city that had survived most of the 1960s at least appearing from a distance to be making civil rights advancements and becoming more racially whole, despite the universal problems of inequality and lingering prejudices, all heck suddenly broke loose.
 
As a result, the expected sound of music that was to come from Memorial Auditorium that Friday night turned into a citywide symphony of negative yelling, rock throwing, burning fires and occasional gunshots.
 
Deep-seeded feelings of frustration about many areas of life for black Chattanooga youths and others suddenly began heating up with the temperatures, and it would be several days before the situation would cool.
 
The 1971 crisis was complex, and it came under the watch of an elected city leadership that many believe showed no public signs of possessing the prejudices of those in some other Southern towns 10 or 15 years earlier. In fact, one of the Chattanooga leaders was the first black city commissioner in the city’s history, John Franklin. 
 
Some might say, however, that this was a city caught off guard by the actions of some citizens crying out for more than a ticket refund.
 
Over the next few days in connection with the 50th anniversary of this unfortunate-but-important time in Chattanooga’s history, I hope to take a look at the period through this and at least one or two more stories. I also hope to interview some people who witnessed that period. Anyone with any memories or perspectives of that time is welcome to email me at the address below.
 
It is not only to remember, but perhaps more importantly to see if any positive lessons can be learned or conclusions drawn going forward over improving the issue of racial reconciliation that many believe has still not come full circle, despite many gains.
 
Actually, with increased racial reckoning over police violence and other issues in recent years, especially in 2020, some wonder today whether Chattanooga and many other cities are much more racially whole than 50 years ago. That is, despite the attempts at advancement in many areas.
 
While the actions began at the scheduled Wilson Pickett concert at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium concert on May 21, 1971, Chattanooga seemed to hint collectively that not all was well the day before.
 
A confrontation between some black and white students at Brainerd High had taken place on the school’s patio. It evidently was related to either a fight or false rumors of violence, according to the old newspaper articles. The incident was considered bad enough that both Chattanooga Fire and Police Commissioner Gene Roberts and Health and Education Commissioner John Franklin, both of whom had been elected only weeks before, showed up with officers to quell the situation.
 
Brainerd had experienced problems over disagreements about the Rebels nickname and Confederate flag symbol and “Dixie” fight song beginning in the fall of 1969 as it was becoming more integrated, but this was evidently not related to that.
 
Several Chattanooga high schools had reports of fighting during this era as black and white youths were getting used to each other and blacks were trying to find their expected places in society with fewer constraints than had previously hampered them. 
 
An incident that day also took place at the old Brainerd Junior High near Brainerd Road and North Tuxedo Avenue after some blacks from both Brainerd and Riverside, a mostly black high school, showed up. One student who came there told the principal that his younger brother had been attacked by a white student there.
 
While tense, these situations would soon move off the front page as a good part of the city exploded. That is because the next night, the concert by Wilson Pickett was scheduled. 
 
If the concert was promoted in the newspaper beforehand, I could not find it, at least in the Chattanooga News-Free Press. While newspaper ads for concerts were popular before and after 1971, this must have been a period when they depended on the radio promotions, unless the Times was more involved.
 
As the concert was starting with the opening acts, turmoil was already apparently beginning to become apparent in the Memorial Auditorium lobby by the box office. The first group scheduled to perform was the Impressions, who featured some Chattanoogans and have become a beloved part of the city’s music history and were not involved in the Pickett complaint.
 
However, their band had not arrived yet, so they asked if they could use Pickett’s band and were evidently told no. As a result, the vocal group, the Intruders, went on stage, followed by the Pickett band that played for about 45 minutes.
 
Out in the lobby, meanwhile, Auditorium and Tivoli manager Clyde Hawkins, who would hold the same post for two more decades, had been approached by Mr. Pickett and maybe his band about going ahead and paying them $2,500 for their performance.
 
Mr. Hawkins said his policy was generally only to pay the promoter, and to pay only after the concert had begun, so he refused. Mr. Pickett did not like that arrangement and left out the side while the concert began to not draw attention. 
 
Promoters Ross Fields of Maryland and Brian Roberts of Huntsville, Al., were on hand, a later newspaper article said, but the disagreement could not be worked out.
 
Mr. Hawkins later said Mr. Pickett had been quite belligerent.
 
After the band finished playing, a member reportedly said, “The show is over. Go out there and get your money.”
 
According to newspaper accounts, that is when a melee ensued. Some of the mostly black young people were refunded, but the money ran out, although Commissioner Roberts was able to get some more brought in. Police tried to keep order among the people inside and outside, and tried to keep those outside from coming back in.
 
Unfortunately, the box office was damaged, as were several windows after trash cans and possibly other items were thrown. Seats were also torn from their bases. 
 
The problem was confounded after Commissioner of Public Utilities Steve Conrad said later it might be hard to refund everyone due to the fact some unused tickets were taken during the lobby disturbances.
 
Needless to say, quite a situation was developing. And it did not stop there. 
 
Outside, some of the youth hurled bottles and rocks at police, who had canines on hand, while some went down Georgia Avenue and broke a window at the old Hotel Ross in the Patten Parkway. A detective saw some youngsters breaking windows at Peacock Jewelers on Market Street and fired a shot, although it was not clear if it was just a warning shot.
 
An all-night curfew was called beginning that Friday, and by Saturday Mayor Walker thought it might end after a special weekend meeting with the City Commission.
 
But it did not. Fire bombings, rock throwing and even sporadic sniper fire continued throughout the day, and by Saturday night, eight people had been treated for minor injuries.
 
Among the specific incidents were a three-alarm fire started by an arsonist at the Brainerd Lumber Co. at 3418 Alton Park Blvd., and a situation at the Spencer McCallie Homes public housing complex, where residents threw rocks at police trying to disperse them.
 
And calm did not come Sunday, either, despite the mayor’s and others’ wishes since it was a day of worship.
 
Incidents on Sunday included a fire at a paper yard at Container Corporation of America at Central Avenue and Rossville Boulevard, a fire at the Clark grocery store at Fourth and Cherry streets and some arrests of people at Citico Courts for throwing rocks.
 
For the mayor and two city commissioners, they had just been sworn into office and were literally being thrown into a firestorm.
 
Mayor Walker had been born in Jasper, Tn., but came to Chattanooga at a young age for his father’s work in construction before the elder Walker’s untimely death when the future mayor was only 10. The younger Mr. Walker later finished fourth in his class at Central High and served in the Navy.
 
After marrying the former Joy Holt, whom he had first met in the eighth grade at East Side Junior High, he graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law. Following a brief stint at American National Bank, he became a distinguished attorney and local civic leader, which opened up the opportunity to become the only mayor of Chattanooga in several years who did not hold a previous job in City Hall.
 
This man born on May 22, 1925, remarked years later that he had been looking forward to taking a break from a hard first month or so as mayor and celebrating his birthday. And then the Wilson Pickett incident happened.
 
The then-38-year-old Fire and Police Commissioner Gene Roberts had also first been elected in 1971. The former outstanding boxer and baseball player from Chattanooga High had worked at the Chattanooga News-Free Press before being a public information officer for former Mayor P.R. “Rudy” Olgiati. The multi-faceted man later became an FBI agent before serving as an assistant editor at the Chattanooga Times and making the decision to run for commissioner.
 
John Franklin, the first black city commissioner, had also been elected in 1971 just weeks before the disturbances. He was also a military veteran, a longtime funeral home official with his family, and was also principal of Alton Park Junior High when he decided to run for office.
 
Commissioner of Public Utilities Steve Conrad had formerly been a news anchor in Chattanooga before getting elected in 1967. He was a native of the Bronx, N.Y., and had been a combat veteran of World War II.
 
At the time, Chattanooga still had a City Commission form of government, with commissioners elected citywide.
 
Regarding Wilson Pickett, he was 30 years old in May 1971. Born in Prattville, Al., he got his start as a gospel singer but in the 1960s recorded such popular soul hits as “In the Midnight Hour” and “Mustang Sally.”
 
By the end of the weekend when Mr. Pickett had been scheduled to perform, some 300 people were arrested. All of the incidents resulted in Mayor Walker having to announce Sunday night on the steps of City Hall to the media that the National Guard had been called with the help of Gov. Winfield Dunn, who had also just been sworn into office weeks before.
 
Close to 2,000 National Guard troops arrived in the city, setting up a post at City Hall and the Armory off 23rd Street and giving the city a look of at least being partially patrolled by the military for the first time since the Civil War.
 
But the situation would not immediately ease.  On Monday night, May 24, a 23-year-old black man named Leon Anderson died after he threw a brick at a patrol car in the area of Hughes Avenue and 40th Street and shots were fired at him.
 
That incident was written up in an Associated Press story in the New York Times. The national network TV news stations were also reporting on the Chattanooga rioting, although some local newsmen thought the reports were being sensationalized. 
 
On a positive note, by early in the week, attempted dialogue and conversations to try and quell the violence had begun. A couple of black ministers, the Rev. Paul McDaniel and the Rev. H.H. Wright, met with some city officials, while noted black entertainer James Brown even called for an end to the violence while in New York for a concert.
 
At a Chattanooga Exchange Club meeting at the Read House on Tuesday, May 25, Mayor Walker also called for peace. “I urge all the people of this city to lay aside violence and resolve whatever differences we may have through the processes that have served us so well for so long,” he said.
 
The day before, local NAACP head James Mapp had also tried to call for calm while also mentioning some of the problems that Chattanooga’s black citizens faced.
 
“The local branch of the NAACP has viewed with great concern the events of the past few days,” he said. “The local branch is opposed to lawlessness as it is opposed to misuse of the poor – both black and white -- and the practices of racial discrimination and segregation.”
 
He also called for more money to be put in poorer neighborhoods, including the development of more recreation centers, and the opening of mobile home parks to blacks as ways to begin to heal the city.
 
The Unity Group of black men headed by Mr. McDaniel later in the week while at the funeral home handling the arrangements for Mr. Anderson spoke out as well. They called for a community relations program designed to improve communication between blacks and the police department.
 
As the tenseness in Chattanooga continued and as the days of late May 1971 arrived, they were trying to begin to peacefully and rationally solve complex issues that many believe are still around in some form 50 years later.

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net