Author: Clint Confehr

By Clint Confehr FRANKLIN, TN — Historic preservationists are dedicating a state marker Saturday to memorialize a house listed in a guide book for travelers suffering Jim Crow laws. “The Negro Motorist Green Book” was brought to the attention of a wider and more recent audience by a 2019 Oscar-winning movie. “Green Book” premiered Sept. 11, 2018. Dedication of the “Historic Green Book Home” marker, as described by the dedication’s announcement, was set for 10 a.m. Feb. 15 in front of the house at 253 Natchez St. where Ruth Gaylor (1902-1982) lived. It was a guest house before Civil Rights…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — Key figures in the Civil Rights Movement include historic women as well as those whose 15 minutes of fame has come and gone, or hasn’t been fully explored. Dr. K.T. Ewing, an assistant professor of history at Tennessee State University, made the point recently in the Maury County Archives Building to the African American Heritage Society here. As a group, black church ladies are recognized as influential, so Dr. Ewing includes her grandmother, Esther Jackson Ewing (1911-1983). Born in Sheffield, Ala., she’s known to her family as Oma, German for grandmother. Oma was a…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — Maury County’s new historian was confirmed last week by county commissioners who supported the county mayor’s choice. Jo Ann McClellan, president of the African American Heritage Society of Maury County, was selected by Mayor Andy Ogles to succeed Bob Duncan who died Sept. 30. “I didn’t apply,” McClellan said Saturday during a quarterly meeting of the AAHS in the county archives building, 201 East 6th St. “I was asked by Mayor Ogles” to serve in the unpaid position. Her plan is to “tell all the history of Maury County, not just the black history…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — Maury County’s school board started developing a superintendent search Wednesday having voted 7-3 last week against renewing the current manager’s contract. Superintendent Chris Marczak’s contract ends June 30. “There will be a discussion as to whether we should let him continue that, which is what he would like, or whether we want to consider a buy-out,” board chairperson Betty Kinser said. The board would “discuss the next step,” she said anticipating discussion Jan. 29. Buying-out Marczak’s contract includes paying an interim manager. With a 5-5 vote Jan. 21, the board didn’t make Jan. 24…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — The president of the Tennessee chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has resigned, calling for diversity and growth for the consumer advocacy group. “We lack diversity without blacks on the board,” Doak Patton said after nearly nine years as president of a state organization that’s had local groups in Memphis, and Knoxville. “It’s an organization that needs new, young and minority blood.” Patton announced his resignation during a chapter meeting attended by half a dozen other people on Jan. 19 in the Severe Park Community Center. All are older…

By Clint Confehr NEW ORLEANS LA — When Americans watch Nashville’s Christmas Parade in person or on syndicated TV shows, they’ll see artistic achievements from Mardi Gras World at the Port of New Orleans. Nashville’s Nov. 7th parade starts at 8:30 a.m., goes down First Avenue from City Hall to Broadway, turns right, and proceeds up hill to go by Bridgestone Arena for peak performances with floats made by Kern Studios along the Mississippi River. “It’s a parade up to a point,” show director John Best says. “Then it’s a television broadcast where performances start for the cameras.” Piedmont Natural…

By Clint Confehr WHITES CREEK, TN — Between high school classes recently, Anthony Adcox of Joelton discussed his plans to run for Congress in 2030 and eventually for President. He’s serious, knows classmates might laugh, but he’s Whites Creek High School’s freshman president. He’s thinking big and doing something about it. Anthony interviewed Metro Councilman Brett Withers at Stratford High School after Mayor John Cooper was sworn in. Withers’ answers might be likened to a primer on local government. Make America Awesome Again is Anthony’s presidential slogan. His campaign song would be by Disturbed. Born Jan. 31, 2005, Anthony knows…

By Clint Confehr BRENTWOOD, TN — As flu shots ward off that train wreck of a sickness, precautionary measures are the best prophylactic against data theft and kidnapping, according to one businessman’s clinical approach. “The World Wide Web that we know … is probably less than a third of the dark web,” says Thiru Ilanchelian — call him Ted — who leads CMIT (Completely Managed Information Technology) Solutions at 205 Powell Place. The dark web isn’t indexed by search engines. It harbors “a huge underground” of criminal activity, Ted says. CMIT offers cyber security for businesses with four to 400…

By Clint Confehr SPRING HILL, TN — The atmosphere on GM’s assembly line here might be tense now, but not hostile, one union official said, noting the local 51-49-percent vote against contract ratification. Nationally, 57 percent of United Auto Workers voted to end the strike started Sept. 16 and ended Oct. 25 while picketers advocated equal pay for equal work by temporary workers and full-time employees. “It’s absolutely terrible,” full-timer Dedrick “Dee” Wells said, recalling conditions he felt before becoming an elected union official. “I worked day in and day out beside temporary employees, and I got to see how…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — Wrongfully convicted of murder because of racism, a man who spent 30 years in jail says faith helped him survive. At Christ Presbyterian Academy, Anthony Ray Hinton said he was arrested in 1985, released in 2015, and recently published “The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row.” “This book,” Hinton told nearly 3,000 people, “is the second best book ever written.” Laughter and applause followed Hinton’s opening that led to sad truths about wrongheaded criminal justice which, in his case, was reversed largely because of the Equal Justice Initiative,…