COLUMBIA, Tenn. (WTVF) — A decision is set to be made Thursday night on how a middle Tennessee community could share a major part of their history. This community's story includes a figure who's part of American history.
"When I look at it, it really hurts," said Trent Ogilvie, referring to Columbia's E. 8th St. "Over the years, a lot of that history and culture has been lost. That was the heart of the Black community, the economic center of the Black community."
In the 1940s, the era of WWII, this stretch of Columbia was an area of banks, barbershops, and theaters. It was 1946 that the story changed.
A historical marker downtown tells some of he story. It began with a Black World War II veteran named James Stephenson who was in an argument with a white shop worker over a radio that'd been left for repair.
"Mr. Stephenson said he was punched in the back of his head," Ogilvie said. "He was a boxer, having served in the Navy. That's when the fight ensued."
The shop worker was punched through a window. An initial charge on Stephenson was changed to attempted murder. A mob arrived in the area to try to find Stephenson but was met with a resistance of Black residents, some armed on the rooftops of the buildings.
"No, James Stephenson is not going to be lynched," Ogilvie said, relaying the history. "We're not going to have another social lynching in Columbia, Tennessee. We're willing to fight for him."
What followed is now called the Columbia Race Riot of 1946.
"At the end of all that, there were 25 that were charged," said Ogilvie.
It was then Thurgood Marshall became the lead attorney to defend Stephenson and the other 25 men. Other figures in the defense included Z. Alexander Looby.
"It was a very boisterous defense using the law to say you cannot unjustly charge these men," Ogilvie said. "They were found not guilty and got acquitted."
Ogilvie is now president of the Columbia Peace and Justice Initiative. That group's hoping a roundabout can be placed at East 8th and South Main to include a statue of Thurgood Marshall, the man who would go on to be the Supreme Court's first African-American justice. Ogilvie sees it as a first step toward telling a fuller story of the area. The Columbia City Council will vote on the proposed statue Thursday night.
"It helps to solidify the importance of that history, that it mattered and the people who lived and worked there, they mattered," said Ogilvie. "It's so important for our community to embrace that and that history's not lost."
