NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Bobby Cain, one of the first Black students to integrate public schools in the South in 1956 has died at the age of 85.
Cain died on Monday in Nashville.
He became the first Black student to graduate from a public formally segregated white high school (Clinton) in Tennessee during the immediate controversial years of integration following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
He graduated from Tennessee State in 1961 with a degree in social work, working for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory before being drafted into the army.
21 years later he retired from the reserves with the rank of captain and went to work at the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at kelly.broderick@newschannel5.com
This is a story I immediately went home and showed my boys - young athletes with big dreams. The Vanderbilt football team's success has stolen the spotlight - what I love about Steve Layman's story is he reveals the individual hardships it took to get there. As Clark Lea says, "we all have scuff marks." This team proves perseverance pays off!
- Carrie Sharp
