Author: Clint Confehr

By Clint Confehr MURFREESBORO, TN — What hurts us makes us stronger is one realization among nearly 45 people gathered Saturday to talk about juvenile delinquents’ desecration of Walnut Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Church contributions are up since “KKK” and “We are watching you” were scrawled Sept. 18 in the predominantly African American Church, the Rev. Richard Sibert said with Clarksville NAACP President Jimmie Garland, a vice president of the association’s Tennessee conference. Rutherford County Sheriff Mike Fitzhugh said, “These were juveniles. I’m not going to make it anything more than it is. What their motive is may come out…

By Clint Confehr FRANKLIN, TN — There’s a college graduation rate equity gap between white students and students of color, Gov. Bill Haslam told a conference on diversity, asking educators to close that gap. Winding up for that pitch, Haslam compared education policies of “a white Republican president, George W. Bush” and “a black Democrat president,” Barack Obama, who “kept three main tenants” of Bush’s No Child Left Behind program. Obama’s “controversial” tenants were: “to raise the standard on what we expect everybody to know; have a year-end assessment to measure what that child knows;” and have “teacher evaluations tied…

By Clint Confehr MEMPHIS, TN — The Black Business Association’s speaker here next week has a message for Nashvillians looking for greater diversity in business contracting  “It’s an approach to economic inclusion,” says Iconoclast Consulting President Fred Keeton who’s speaking at the BBA’s BENNY (Black Entrepreneurship and Networking Need You) Awards Luncheon Oct. 11 in the University of Memphis Holiday Inn. Keeton’s approach is relevant to Nashville since another study of city contracting shows Metro doesn’t meet inclusion goals. And, Keeton’s view is in concert with a Community Benefits Agreement in Nashville with the soccer group since politicians said businessmen…

By Clint Confehr MURFREESBORO, TN — Four previously-declared juvenile delinquents are under “house arrest” because of what may be a federal hate crime, pastors at Walnut Grove Missionary Baptist Church said this week. Rutherford County Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport found the boys delinquent again, this time for desecration of the church Sept. 18 when racist threats were written on the church and the building vandalized, Walnut Grove’s pastor reports. Meanwhile, Rev. Richard Sibert has called a town hall meeting for 3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 13 in the Baptist church at 2480 Twin Oak Drive. It’s in the vicinity…

By Clint Confehr MURFREESBORO, TN — A former staff attorney and director of the Office of Civil Rights for Tennessee’s Department of Education is now an assistant city attorney here, officials announced last week. She is Elizabeth Taylor, a magna cum laude graduate of Fisk University with her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. Taylor is a 2009 graduate of the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis. As assistant city attorney, Taylor represents Murfreesboro City Schools and divides her time between the school system and City Hall. From 2015 to 2018, Taylor served as…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — A symposium on 1968, a year that transformed America, included progressive discussion on the Vietnam War, convulsive politics and civil rights. Lingering racism was acknowledged. “I’m interested in our race of people knowing how to get things done,” civil rights activist Annie Hardison said before addressing 68 people Sept. 13 in Maury County’s main library. “I believe in not being angry. That’s hard in Columbia.” Faith in Jesus helps, said Hardison, starting her presentation saying, “Let us pray.” She was a lunch-counter sit-in protester at F.W. Woolworth’s on 5th Avenue North in Nashville. Hardison,…

By Clint Confehr MURFREESBORO, TN — Four teenage boys were in custody Tuesday, accused by Rutherford County Sheriff’s deputies of vandalizing an African American church that was being cleaned by volunteers Wednesday evening. The Rev. Richard Sibert, pastor of Walnut Grove Missionary Baptist Church, 2480 Twin Oak Drive, prayed with one of the boys whose mother took him to the church that’s east by southeast of Oakland High School. They prayed “that he come to his senses and … that he should be his own person,” Rev. Sibert said. The mother “had done a lot to keep him on the…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — Maury County’s school board will follow a court judgement — one that found “inappropriate” acts — on how to follow state law “moving forward” with teachers toward employee work rules, school system leaders say. That includes discussions Oct. 8 and 29 when the Maury County Board of Education gathers for a non-voting work session and, later, its monthly meeting, Board Chair Kristin Parker explained after speaking with school system attorney Jake Wolaver. Parker is enjoying, with her family, a hiatus from her practice of law in Maury County. She’s a graduate of the University…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN – Maury County’s Board of Education must take steps toward polling teachers this winter on whether they want working conditions subject to an agreement from “collaborative conferencing” under a state law that replaced union negotiations. That’s according to Maury County Chancellor Robert Jones’ order which includes a finding that voting patterns during an on-line poll in 2015 were “fishy,” a term attributed to J.C. Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee. PET competes with the Tennessee Education Association. Collaborative conferencing with Maury County Education Association members here in June 2016 resulted in a memorandum…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — The Haynes-Trinity Neighborhood Coalition protested a grease and oil disposal business Tuesday at the Metro Police North Precinct building an hour before Councilman DeCosta Hastings’ district meeting there. Residents oppose relocation of Onsite Environmental, 1421 Baptist World Center Drive (previously known as Combs Industrial Service) to 2832 Whites Creek Pike, and prefer that the business move far away from their homes, neighborhood coalition leaders said. “This move would clear the way for up to 15-story buildings to be built on its present Baptist World Center Drive site, gentrifying the existing minority neighborhood,” the coalition…