By Tribune Staff
Davidson County Circuit Court Clerk Richard Rooker will not seek re-election.
Rooker was first appointed to the job in 1993 after his father, George Rooker, died. After being appointed, Richard Rooker won seven four-year terms.
A legacy of a mostly disbanded Nashville political machine, Rooker and his father have combined to hold the clerk’s office for 54 years. His brother, George Rooker Jr., served two terms as Davidson County Property Assessor.
“It’s bittersweet, but it’s time for me to move on,” Rooker told the Post.
Miller-Perry congratulated Rooker on knowing when to stepdown. She went on to say it is time for city government to rid itself of family ties including wives, children, grandchildren, etc. She said, “I spent over 30 years enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and when I came to Nashville I was appalled that one reason African Americans were not employed in the number that they should have been even though they were graduates from 4 local HBCUs, is that the city hires too many white relatives of other employees. The mayor should end this immediately. Blacks have paid their dues to this city and their relatives deserve city employment also. There should be no department in Metro government that is all white. Where are the Black supervisors? How many? How many departments has ever had a Black supervisor and actually permitted to supervise white employees? That is the reason why I disliked Metro paying out thousands of dollars for a Disparity company to come in and say you don’t have Blacks in this department, etc. Metro do your own study or walk through your own department, and if you don’t see any Blacks, and no Blacks has ever worked there, it smacks of racism. Metro should help retire racist supervisors (I hope there are none). Metro should have a plan to promote more Blacks into supervisory positions. And if there is Metro discrimination, what does the NAACP or the Urban do?
