NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Frankie Henry spent decades fighting for the right to vote and the right to sit at any lunch counter in Nashville. She died this past weekend at 85, but not before watching what her family describes as a dismantling of the very rights she helped secure.
We met Henry’s son Lamont who was more than happy to speak about his mother’s legacy and set the record straight.
He said she was not a Freedom Rider but a “Freedom Activist” who endured endless harassment in pursuit of things we may take for granted today.
“When you think of your mom, what comes to mind?” we asked.
“Discipline. Mom was very adamant about structure, discipline and your moral fiber,” Lamont said.
Whether it was the right to vote or the right to sit at any lunch counter in Nashville, Lamont gives all the credit to people just like his mother.
“They put their bodies, their lives on the line for us to have these types of privileges,” he said.
Footage from the early 1960s shows Diane Nash leading one of the most important civil rights rallies in Nashville history, but Lamont says it only tells part of the story.
His mother was one of several college students still locked up from an earlier lunch counter sit-in, where only one student was released from custody at a time.
“When she was able to get home, that’s when she found out that the State Board of Regents gave them all Fs. So, she was kicked out of school,” Lamont said.
It took almost 10 years for Frankie to finish her bachelor’s degree at Tennessee State University and Lamont says these are stories of sacrifice that people often forget.
“Once I was old enough to understand what she went through, I just shook my head,” Lamont said.
The thought never crossed their minds that what Frankie and others worked for could be undone more than 60 years later.
In her final days, Frankie watched news coverage of a recent Supreme Court ruling that upended years of precedent tied to the Voting Rights Act — the same act she had lived to see signed. The ruling opened the door for Republicans across the South to redraw congressional maps, including a controversial map in Tennessee that splits up the state's last Democratic seat and arguably diminishes the voting power of predominantly Black Memphis.
“Actually, we had this conversation last week because we were looking at the news and she saw what the Supreme Court did for Louisiana. She was livid,” Lamont said.
Frankie never made it to see these new maps take shape, but Lamont says she would never want anyone to lose faith in a vote her generation worked so hard to guarantee.
“And if we don’t keep that at the forefront, it’s going to turn and revert back to where it was when my mom was 18-years-old,” Lamont said.
As Lamont puts it, history does not have to repeat itself.
If it does, then he says the blueprint was drawn long ago for what it takes to keep fighting.
“Push, move forward. These are obstacles, but you have to move forward,” Lamont said.
Lamont knows his family will never forget the woman of many hats. Frankie was a singer, musician, activist and likely the only middle school physical education teacher you know who wore stilettos to class.
There’s a good chance if you grew up in Nashville a few decades ago, you or someone you know crossed paths with Frankie at some point.
Frankie constantly spoke to friends and family about the importance of voting, not just in presidential elections, but in the smaller races that often make the biggest differences.
It’s a message Lamont says he hopes reaches young people who might feel discouraged at the moment, that you do your talking at the polls.
Frankie will lie in state at Lewis and Wright Funeral Directors on Friday, May 22. A celebration of her life is scheduled for noon on Saturday, May 23 at Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in Nashville.
