Author: Clint Confehr

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — Since Tyre Nichols’ death in Memphis, police reform may be the most obvious objective of the NAACP’s Legislative Day to lobby Tennessee lawmakers. Correction of a requirement imposed by the Legislature is a second change sought by NAACP leaders. They say mandatory retention of 3rd graders who fail a reading test will cost millions of dollars. The GOP-dominated Legislature’s threat to cut Metro-Nashville’s City Council membership is another topic to be pressed Tuesday during the Tennessee NAACP State Conference’s Legislative Day on The Hill, association leaders report. NAACP State Conference President Gloria Sweet-Love said…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — Gov. Bill Lee’s State of the State Address this week included claims of national leadership, and attracted rebuttals on difficult issues. “We heard statements about ‘leading the nation,’” Sen. Charlane Oliver said, “but with this $55.6 billion budget, Tennessee Republicans are actually putting out fires they’ve created due to neglect of issues over the past 10 years they’ve been in power.” The Nashville Democrat’s reaction came as a Knox County-area child’s father, his attorney, and state lawmakers cited problems with the Department of Children’s Services, offered solutions, and reacted to Lee’s speech after he…

By Clint Confehr FRANKLIN, TN — The African-American Heritage Society of Williamson County started celebrating Black History Month with its annual Black Tie Affair on Saturday when it honored a family with deep roots in the county. The Hatcher family from the Arno-College Grove area on Owen Hill Road is the pioneer family honored this year at the society’s 22nd annual banquet. Pioneer families are honored after genealogical research verifies ancestors born before 1860. “This family has many descendants from the formerly enslaved Hatchers,” AAHS President Alma Hatcher said. “They are successful people who’ve been in the community for a…

By Clint Confehr “America wants Blacks to symbolically march to honor the man instead of marching for change,” Nashville’s NAACP branch president said after celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. “We marched together symbolically, but we need to march together for change,” Nashville Branch President Venita Lewis said. “Marching is more about protest and change.” MLK Day “is great education, but is it a great Civil Rights protest for change?” Monday, hundreds of thousands of people in big cities and small towns demonstrated support for Civil Rights. Dr. King’s “dream has not come to fruition, so we have to…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — Dr. Christa Martin is leaving her position as vice mayor, but she’s not leaving city hall. The city council elected her to the planning commission. The council also unanimously voted to name Fairview Park’s community center the Dr. Christa Secrest Martin Community Center; signage to be posted soon. Previously, the center had no name. As a planning commissioner, Dr. Martin will be in a position to influence development and approval of a museum without walls; an event space with monuments and water features advocated by the Columbia Peace and Justice Initiative. CPJI envisions a…

By Clint Confehr MURFREESBORO, TN — A holiday meal at the Patterson Park Community Center was served recently when volunteers sought to provide for people with friends and relatives who are incarcerated. The outreach was on behalf of Rutherford County Adult Detention Center inmates, according to organizers of the community event. The volunteers point to this plaintive fact; the holiday season is a festive time that includes poignant reality. “Every single person is important,” the Rev. Chris Warren of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church told well over 100 people. “Your family member who’s not here is important… People need to know…

By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — Tennesseans are being asked if they want to ‘immortalize’ their state’s ‘right to work’ law by voting yes in a referendum on Nov. 8. If approved, the law can’t be killed or changed without another referendum and transformation of state politics which could take an eternity. In that way, the ‘right to work’ law attains the qualified immortality of a zombie or vampire. That’s if the referendum passes and the statute becomes part of Tennessee’s Constitution. The ballot question asks if the state Constitution should be amended to include the ‘right to work’ law.…

By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — Vice Mayor Dr. Christa Martin is a self-described introverted “farm girl” and private person serving a public college at its highest levels. Now, after 30 years, she’s leaving elected office on her own terms. In 1992, when Barbara McIntyre, Columbia’s first female mayor, appointed Martin to the unexpired term of the Ward 3 councilman, Martin was on nearly a dozen boards. She still is. Elected to council in 1994 and vice mayor eight years ago, Martin says elected office “is a multi-issue public service job” and busy people get things done by working with…

By Clint Confehr “The Picture Taker” documentary retells Memphis photographer Ernest Withers’ secret from the Civil Rights Era — revealed decades later in newspaper reports. The book on those reports, “A Spy in Canaan; How the FBI Used a Famous Photographer to Infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement,” is by journalist Marc Perrusquia, director of the University of Memphis’ Institute for Public Service Reporting. Parts of Perrusquia’s response to a request for comment about the documentary were published Oct. 13 in this newspaper. The rest is here from the journalist who broke “The Picture Taker” story. “Withers survives as a civil…

By Clint Confehr MEMPHIS, TN — A documentary about American Civil Rights photographer Ernest Withers is the opening night movie for the Indie Memphis Film Festival on Wednesday. “The Picture Taker” documents Withers who, as publicized, took “a million images” and had “one big secret” exposed by news reports. He was an FBI spy. “He shouldn’t have sold his soul to a white man for a dollar,” Tennessee Tribune Publisher Rosetta Miller-Perry says in the movie’s trailer. The photographer was close to Civil Rights activists. People appreciated his work, trusted him and later felt betrayed. “It never dawned on any…