Columbia Race Riot of 1946
The Columbia Race Riot[1] of 1946 was a violent series of racially-motivated conflicts that occurred from February 25-28 in Columbia, Tennessee.
Lynchings - the killing of often-innocent people by armed vigilantes, usually as a means to assert white racial supremacy - were an unfortunately common phenomenon in the Southern United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with more than 214 lynchings in Tennessee between 1882 and 1930.[2] Maury County gained national notoriety for the lynchings of two young African-American men, both accused (with little or no evidence) of having attacked young white women, in 1927 and again in 1933.[3]
On February 25, 1946, a disagreement over a radio repair led to a street brawl outside of the Castner-Knott department store in Columbia involving Billy Fleming, a white radio repairman; Gladys Stephenson, a black native of Columbia who was visiting town; and Stephenson's son James, who was a competitive boxer during his service in the United States Navy during World War II.[4][5][6] Though the Stephensons were arrested and initially charged with disturbing the peace, their warrants were changed to "attempted murder" after the intervention of Fleming's father.[7]Fearing that the Stephensons would be lynched if they remained in the county jail. local black businessmen led by Julius Blair posted bail (which had been raised from $50 to $3,500) and the Stephensons were released.[8][9] Later that evening, James Stephenson was later escorted out of the county for his own safety.[10][11]
A mob of white citizens began forming that afternoon in downtown Columbia, and some of the town's black citizens began arriving, armed, to the area then known as the "Mink Slide" (part of a larger area known as "The Bottom" between East 8th and 9th Streets south of the county courthouse) to defend the black-owned businesses there.[12][13][14]
Hearing gun fire coming from the "Mink Slide," Columbia Police Chief Walter Griffin and three officers (nearly half of the town's entire police force at the time) walked down to East 8th Street at about 9 p.m. to investigate and break up the black crowd. In the darkness of that night, and with confused shouts from the crowd of "halt!" and "fire!", Chief Griffin and the four officers were fired upon by the crowd and wounded.[15][16]
At about about the same time as the four officers were shot in Columbia, Governor James McCord called Public Safety Commissioner Lynn Bomar (who had command of the | Tennessee Highway Patrol) and ordered him to Columbia.[17][18] Commissioner Bomar assessed the situation on his arrival and concluded that the main threat came from the armed blacks in the Bottom and sought to deputize the white civilian mob and arm them with weapons from the Tennessee State Guard armory -- a move that the State Guardsmen strongly, and successfully, objected to.[19][20]
Meanwhile, Bomar ordered his Highway Patrolmen to Columbia and the State Guard mobilized; the Highway Patrol and State Guard agreed, due to the time needed for their patrolmen and troops to arrive, to a plan to cordon off the area but not to advance into the Bottom until daybreak; this delay afforded many of the black citizens of the area to leave the neighborhood in the night.[21][22].
During the night, members of the white mob heckled the state authorities for their inaction; two young white men tried to sneak into the Bottom themselves and were fired upon.[23] During the early morning (before the agreed-upon time of daybreak) Bomar and a small group of his patrolmen into James Morton's home without a warrant, arresting about a dozen people, ransacking the place and confiscating guns, as well alcohol and Morton's wife's jewelry.[24][25] The Highway Patrol (with local lawmen, but without coordinating with the State Guard) advanced in force at 6 a.m., vandalizing local businesses in the Bottom and arresting and beating blacks found in the area.[26][27]
By February 28, over 100 black citizens had been arrested and held without bail or legal representation for days.[28] Two black men were killed during an interrogation when they attempted an escape, by grabbing some of the confiscated guns that were being stored in the same room as the interrogation.[29]
Lawyers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) intervened following the mass arrests on February 26.[30]
- ↑ Dr. Ikard notes in the preface to his book that some, particularly in the African-American community, have objected to referring to the events of February 1946 as a "riot." Ikard, Robert W. No More Social Lynchings. Franklin, Hillsboro Press, 1997, p. x. Web (hathitrust.org). 1 Feb. 2021.
- ↑ Approximately one person - usually but not always African-American men - was lynched each week on average in the Southern United States between 1882 and 1930. Bennett, Kathy. "Lynching." Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Tennessee Historical Society, 1 Mar. 2018, Web. Accessed 1 Feb. 2021.
- ↑ Ikard, cited supra, at pp. 8-9.
- ↑ Van West, Carroll. "Columbia Race Riot, 1946." Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Tennessee Historical Society, 1 Mar. 2018. Web. 2 Feb. 2021.
- ↑ Ikard, cited supra at pp. 13-15.
- ↑ O'Brien, cited supra, at pp. 9-11.
- ↑ Ikard at pp. 15-16.
- ↑ O'Brien at pp. 11-12
- ↑ Ikard at pp. 15-16.
- ↑ Ikard at pp. 23-24.
- ↑ O'Brien at 13-15.
- ↑ O'Brien at pp. 15-17.
- ↑ Ikard at pp. 20-23.
- ↑ Van West, cited supra.
- ↑ Ikard at pp. 27-28.
- ↑ O'Brien at pp. 17-18.
- ↑ Ikard at p. 47. Note that Ikard gives the time of this phone call as 8:30 p.m, and that Commissioner Bomar was in Nashville for this phone call.
- ↑ O'Brien at p. 18. Note that O'Brien states that there was a phone call after the officers were shot, or after 9 p.m., and that Commissioner Bomar was already near Spring Hill.
- ↑ Ikard at p. 32.
- ↑ O'Brien at pp. 18-19.
- ↑ Ikard at p.34
- ↑ O'Brien at p. 20.
- ↑ Ikard at pp. 33-34.
- ↑ Ikard at pp. 35-36.
- ↑ O'Brien at p. 21.
- ↑ Ikard at p. 37.
- ↑ O'Brien at pp. 23-27.
- ↑ Ikard at 45-47. Note that Ikard states on p. 50 that all were released, either on bail or without charges, by March 7.
- ↑ Ikard at 47-48.
- ↑ Ikard at p. 51 et. seq.
