By Clint Confehr FRANKLIN, TN — Born in this city known for its Civil War history, Georgia Harris, a family history consultant, found her antebellum ancestors and subsequent cousins. “His people owned my people,” Harris, 82, said of an old Williamson County family’s early 1800s relative. More than 10 attempts to reach several of his descendants Feb. 16-17 were unsuccessful. “Three years ago, or more,” Harris visited Joseph D. Baugh Jr.’s law office. The former district attorney is one of the descendants of the man who enslaved Harris’ ancestors. “He was interested to know that I had quite a bit…
Author: Clint Confehr
Clint Confehr
Clint Confehr — an American journalist since 1972 — first wrote for The Tennessee Tribune in 1999. His news writing and photography in South Central Tennessee and the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area began in the summer of 1980. Clint's covered news in several Southern states at newspapers, radio stations and one TV station. Married since 1982, he's a grandfather and is semi-retired from daily news work.
By Clint Confehr A U.S. Senate panel has started its postmortem on the pro-Trump insurrection Jan. 6. However, on Jan. 18, NAACP Branch leaders in Pulaski and Gallatin cited cause and cure for the insurgents’ behavior. “We cannot remain silent about the seizure and attack on our capitol, or the dynamics that motivated it,” the Rev. Derrick Jackson, First Baptist Church, Gallatin, told his audience by way of car radio reception after a Unity Day Car Procession. Nor should there be silence “about the push-back against Black Lives Matter or the tribulation of politics and its negative consequences for all…
By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — Dentists ought to be inoculating people against COVID-19, according to doctors speaking on-line for a program hosted by Meharry Medical College. Meharry President & CEO Dr. James Hildreth raised the idea during a ‘fireside chat’ on the COVID-19 vaccine with President Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Would it be advisable, Hildreth asked, to train medical personnel who don’t normally inoculate patients against disease? “Absolutely,” Fauci said. “It’s not only advisable,” Fauci said. “I think it should be recommended.” That’s “because one of the things … that the President said at his Town…
From staff reports FRANKLIN, TN — The 20th Annual Black-Tie Event starting Williamson County’s celebration of Black History Month is Saturday with a performance by a renowned singer-song writer of Christian and gospel music. Jon Reddick composes lyrics that speak about redemption and hope in a way that inspires people across cultural lines and feeds a “generational hunger for healing,” the African American Heritage Society of Williamson County announced. Tickets for the 90-minute virtual program — it starts at 6 p.m. Feb. 6 — cost $25 per person and are available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/aahs-virtual-black-tie-tickets-131958295815. “As we focus on our quest for unity…
The Rev. James Lawson speaks to Dream Summer students. UCLA photo By Clint Confehr NASHVILLE, TN — Follow Black Lives Matter to promote civil rights, a 92-year-old Methodist pastor said during a recently-streamed program by the local Interdenominational Ministerial Fellowship. That preacher surely knows, having mentored students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities here. Several went on to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and desegregate lunch counters. SNCC embraces BLM. https://snccdigital.org/today/controlling-narrative/ The Rev. James Lawson Jr. urged IMF viewers to “emulate Black Lives Matter as we move the civil rights movement … to the day when we will indeed…
NASHVILLE, TN — The newly-elected NAACP branch president here accepts and extends President-elect Joe Biden’s point about last week’s insurrection; It makes unification easier. The branch president says more Americans recognize complaints about racism are valid. “Understanding seems to help us move forward to healing,” Sheryl Guinn said the day after her election to a post she’s held since succeeding two branch officials. “The more light that’s delivered to inequality makes people reflect … and realize there’s validity to complaints” about racism. Biden was asked if the events made his job easier or harder. Easier, he replied. “My over-arching objective…
By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — A community servant, telecommuter and work-at-home mother is one of three newly-elected leaders of the NAACP Branch in Maury County. Jamila Bumpas Brown, a life long resident of Columbia, joined the NAACP a couple of years ago “when they were re-building the branch,” she said. “They needed more members.” Now, Brown is the third vice president of the branch led by Paco Havard. He advocates development of new leaders. Havard was re-elected branch president. The other new officers are: Terry Hannah, second vice present; and Assistant Treasurer Lucy Gallimore. Dr. Kimberly Osborne, secretary, continues…
By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — “Cast down, but not destroyed,” 2nd Corinthians, comforted the Rev. T.D. “Donte” Byrdsong a few hours after his faith was tested in Maury County. Byrdsong is an executive pastor at Grace United Missionary Baptist Church here and in Nashville. He’d been in circuit court Dec. 9 when he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Months ago, Byrdsong explained he was protecting a child from a “bully.” It’s developed into a dilemma; plead guilty of simple assault, or go to trial on three felony charges. He reflects a feeling of being “cast down, but not destroyed”…
By Clint Confehr COLUMBIA, TN — The Rev. T.D. “Donte” Byrdsong, a pastor at Grace United Baptist Church here and in Nashville, stepped up and quoted the Bible after his court hearing Wednesday. “‘We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed,’” Byrdsong said, citing 2nd Corinthians 4:8-9 KJV. “‘We are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.’ “That’s about all I can say at this time,” he concluded in a late afternoon text. Byrdsong had been asked if his faith was tested when he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of simple…
By Carla Hendricks FRANKLIN, TN — This Thanksgiving weekend the Franklin community is mourning the loss of Alderman Pearl Bransford, the sole African American on the city board. She was re-elected for a fourth term in October 2019. First elected to the city board in 2007, Bransford was a Franklin resident for more than 35 years. She was: a respected and thoughtful member of city government; a private person who took care of this community as she did for patients during her career as a nurse. “I’m shocked because I had no idea she’d been sick,” Alderman Dana McLendon said.…