NASHVILLE, TN — Walter Searcy, a Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH) founding member, veteran Civil Rights-era student activist, transit access leader, and proud Nashvillian, is being honored with the Flame of Hope Distinguished Leader Award. The award will be presented to Searcy at NOAH’s 2026 Annual Fundraising Banquet on June 4 at 6 p.m. at the Boone Convention Center at Trevecca Nazarene University.
Searcy began his career in community betterment as a student activist while attending Fisk University in the 1960s and 1970s, where he participated in protests that followed the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For half a century, Searcy would use his platform to push for changes at the Nashville Police Department. In 1973, Searcy would protest the shooting of a young Black man by a rookie white police officer, who was charged with manslaughter. The case went on to end in a mistrial. The officer was convicted of less serious charges and only fined $10.
Searcy has continued to publicly call for social reform in recent years, including during the aftermath of the violent white supremacist terrorist attack perpetrated on August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, when James Alex Fields Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people protesting a Unite the Right rally, killing one person and injuring 35 people. Following the terror attack, President Donald Trump blamed both sides of the protest for the violence.
While discussing the attack, Searcy told The Tennessean that the violence that erupted has roots in the 2016 campaign that landed President Donald Trump in the White House. Searcy said the core problem resides in the ongoing struggle the United States has in accepting its racist roots, including that of slavery and the displacement of Native Americans.
Searcy spoke out again for change in the Nashville Police Department in 2021 during an interview with WPLN while he closely followed the case of Andrew Delke, a former Nashville Metro Police officer, who took a plea deal days before being set to stand trial for the shooting death of Daniel Hambrick. Following the plea deal, Searcy said that officers are essentially allowed to carry out the death penalty without a charge or trial. He said those who get killed by police do not get the presumption of innocence that is supposed to be guaranteed in the American justice system.
In the same interview, Searcy said the fear around the power that police wield is the reason why so many Black parents teach their children how to avoid dangerous interactions with the police. Searcy said instructions given to children might even warn against driving at all during certain circumstances or hours of the day.
Searcy has since dedicated his life to advocating for racial justice and has become a longtime leader in both his local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the faith-based progressive advocacy group NOAH. Searcy is currently serving a one-year term in the Carnegie Society, which brings together civic-minded leaders to invest in the Nashville Public Library. Searcy also serves on the Community Review Board, Mayor O’Connell’s “Choose How You Move” Advisory Committee, is an active Steward at Greater Bethel A.M.E. Church, and co-chairs NOAH’s Economic, Equity, Jobs & Transportation Task Force.
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