Author: Clint Confehr

FRANKLIN, TN — The Shindellas, songbirds who’ve played venues across America, will be performing to an exclusive audience here Feb. 2. The African American Heritage Society’s 18th Annual Black Tie Affair was sold out in December. However, Society President Alma McLemore says there’s another way to party hardy and support the society’s cause. “Coming up,” McLemore said, “is the 10th Annual Proc’s Amateur Show, the pre-Black Tie Event, at Johnson Elementary School, 815 Glass Lane at 6 p.m., on Saturday Jan. 19.” The African American Heritage Society chronicles lives and contributions African Americans in Williamson County. For more call Paulette Johnson at (615) 243-7751. To support the cause,…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — While considering his options, a former school resource officer denies using unnecessary force when he protected a sixth-grade boy from a bully. Maury County’s Civil Service Board on Jan. 8 voted 4-1 to confirm Sheriff Bucky Rowland’s dismissal of T.D. “Donte” Byrdsong in December, Byrdsong and Rowland said. “We’re still going through a process; waiting and praying that the truth will come out,” Byrdsong said. Byrdsong is an American Baptist College student, a pastor, and the NAACP branch president here. “No one wins in this situation,” Rowland said Tuesday. “It’s a very, very unfortunate…

By Clint Confehr It’s “xenophobic rhetoric” and “fear mongering,” but most Americans are more pragmatic about border security, according to NAACP leaders and friends commenting on President Trump’s first televised Oval Office speech. “There is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border [with] thousands of illegal immigrants trying to enter our country,” Trump said. “All Americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal migration. It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages. “Among those hardest hit are African Americans and Hispanic Americans,” Trump said. NAACP Nashville Branch President Keith Caldwell asked, “How has he arrived at this…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — Like many who’ve seen progress on civil rights, several community leaders say metro’s new Equal Business Opportunity Law is a good start, but there’s more work to be done. “Passing legislation is the easy part,” said IT Solutions by Design President Alex Coure, who’s been frustrated by local government contracting. “Hard work and difficult tasks remain. We’ll just have to see if Nashville follows through … or whether it’s going to be business as usual.” Councilwoman Jacobia Dowell led a panel gathering information and drafting the law enacted Jan. 4. “You’ve got to start…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — As Chattanooga activists recently allege police there use bogus Facebook identities, Nashville Police say they monitor social media for public safety. Nevertheless, a Metro Police spokeswoman last week could not confirm or deny that metro police use pseudonyms as alleged in Chattanooga and reported by the Times Free Press. In Memphis, federal Judge Jon McCalla ruled Memphis police must stop spying on politically active people and train officers to stop treating them like criminals. McCalla’s Oct. 26 order reenforces a 1978 consent decree against sharing information with other law enforcement agencies unless it was…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — Public policy must change, metro’s new NAACP branch president told a full-house last week with several more civil rights groups celebrating his installation. The Rev. Keith Caldwell of Key United Methodist Church, Murfreesboro, thanked that congregation — “If they didn’t give me the nod, I couldn’t be here” — and praised Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois and Mary White Ovington as civil rights trail blazers. Then he began to preach. “We’ve always known the NAACP is the fighting arm of the church… An overwhelmingly Christian nation [has] too many contradictions, so we needed…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — With a margin of less than half a percent, this city’s first African American vice mayor was re-elected recently when a new mayor was elected with a wide margin. Vice Mayor Dr. Christa Martin, Columbia State Community College’s assistant to the president for access and diversity, bested Councilman Steve Boshers; 5,544 to 5,506, approximately 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent. Boshers conceded election night. He has two more years on the council. Mayor-elect Chaz Molder won with 7,296 votes (64%) over two-term incumbent Dean Dickey’s 3,985 votes. Swearing-in is in January. “Our campaign strategy started…

By Clint Confehr SOUTHAVEN, MS — In this Memphis suburb, the Rev. Bartholomew Orr, senior pastor of Brown Missionary Baptist Church, appears to be this season’s proof that “the medium is the message.” Rev. Orr spoke of Jesus’ return during his Nov. 25 sermon while suspended from cables carrying him to the pulpit. His serious message about the second coming was recorded and went viral, substantiating the famous phrase. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan wrote “The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects” with graphic designer Quentin Fiore to explain a mutually beneficial relationship between what’s said and how it’s…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — A new president has been elected for the Nashville Branch of the NAACP. The Rev. Keith Caldwell will succeed long-time president Ludye Wallace. Rev. Caldwell’s term is scheduled to start in Jan. 1. Caldwell’s four-point election platform is consistent with national association concerns: health care, economic justice, housing and criminal justice reform. “We will also respond to the immediate needs that grow from our community,” he said. With “huge momentum” from passage of the community oversight board referendum, Caldwell plans to “harness that energy within the branch” to stop racial profiling, he said. “We’re…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — When people bow heads to pray on Thanksgiving Day, many are grateful for life, family and God. Few feel it like Jackie Hopkins of Greenwood in East Nashville. “I’m thankful to be alive,”Jackie says in a whisper barely audible with the sound of her ventilator in a basket on a mobile pedestal next to her wheel chair. “And for family.” A C-3 break in her neck left Hopkins, 61, dependent on medical devices for each breath she’s taken since June 2, 1978 when she drove off the road in a storm, returned to pavement…