THE HATTIE COTTON BOMBING

 Very early on the morning of September 10, 1957 pro segregationists dynamited Hattie Cotton elementary school on Greenwood Avenue in East Nashville. I was just starting first grade at Martha Vaught elementary in West Nashville. My grandparents, however only liveda few hundred yards across Gallatin road from the school on Mckennie Avenue. I remember my parents telling me that they were blown out of bed by the explosion. The explosion caused 71,000 dollars damage or 588,953 dollars in today's currency. A witness stated that it knocked out every window and caused damage to the library, classrooms and interior walls and lockers. Despite an investigation no one was charged. John Kasper, one of six suspects had secured a cache of dynamite two days before the bombing. Kasper was convicted in November 1958 of inciting a riot on the first day of that school year. Kasper predicted "blood will run in the streets of Nashville before Negro children go to school with whites".

 Nashville's city government was responding to two Federal Court orders in 1954 and 1955 ordering segregated schools to desegregate at "all deliberate speed". Nashville decided to desegregate on a year by year basis starting with the first grade in 1957. The bombing of Hattie Cotton happened because one black female student had been enrolled at Hattie Cotton that September. The mother withdrew her after the bombing and enrolled her in an all black school. Nashville didn't become a Metropolitan government until 1963. In 1957 we still had county and city schools. Martha Vaught was a county school. Upon the deaths of my parents in 1963 my brother and I went to live with my grandparents and my Aunt Didi on Mckennie Avenue. I did not attend school with black children until my 10th grade year at East High in 1965. Bailey, Buena Vista, Fehr, Glenn, Hattie Cotton, and Jones were the first Nashville schools to desegregate. I went to Bailey from the 7th grade through the ninth but I can't recall ever seeing a black student there.

 When I hear people on the left saying that racism is still a major problem today or it is systemic I want to barf. No one in their right mind will ever claim that racism doesn't exist in 2025. It does. I know a few racist people myself. Through legislation and court rulings it has ceased to be systemic. At least as far as white racism toward blacks is concerned. With DEI, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and CRT, Critical Race Theory, racism and sexism I might add is becoming systemic against straight white people. Hopefully President Trump can kill it before it totally permeates our society. SNL had their 50th anniversary special recently where Tom Hanks did a ridiculous and unfunny skit making fun of MAGA voters. Although I am not a Republican the modern Republican party could not be more inclusive. There are millions of all races who support Donald Trump. As a historian I know the true racist history of the Democrat party. The Republican party has always championed the rights of black people. The Democrats won't admit it but they are still a racist party today because they continue to obsess on race.

 I have been bludgeoned by the left ever since I became a conservative in the 1980's and been called a racist many times but being called a racist doesn't scare me or intimidate me. I have no white guilt. I have been tested because I am a Southerner who actually lived through racist times. I come from a home where racism was not practiced and I did not practice it myself. As a white man I have no special privilege other than the privilege that every American has and that is that I was born in the greatest country on earth. Tell me one privilege that I have today that anyone of color doesn't also possess. Yes, my race gave me special privilege in 1955 but not in 2025. I have always believed that a man should be judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin long before Martin Luther King famously spoke those words in 1963. No, you will not find white guilt here but you will find truth and I will tell it as long as God gives me the breath to do it.