Nashville mayor reopens several cold case bombings from Civil Rights era

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — One woman’s book has inspired Nashville’s mayor to reopen several cold cases from the Civil Rights era.

On Saturday, July 13, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell joined Betsy Phillips to celebrate the release of her new book , “Dynamite Nashville,” which “contains revelations about unsolved bombings that occurred here during the era of desegregation in Nashville.”

After the event, Mayor O’Connell announced that he asked Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake to assign a member of the cold case unit to serve as a lead investigator into three unsolved bombings from the Civil Rights era.

This book is not the last word on the bombings of Hattie Cotton School in September 1957, the Nashville Jewish Community Center in March 1958, and the home of Council Member Z. Alexander Looby in 1960. For 64 years, the question of who is responsible for three bombings has gone unresolved. The book doesn’t have all the answers, but it can be the beginning of new discovery and a new conversation.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell

In addition to assigning an investigator to the cold cases, Mayor O’Connell said he also requested that Metro Department of Law work with the Metro Public Records Commission since information related to the cases was lost due to the destruction of records over time.

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The mayor said he hopes their work provides “recommendations for improvements in records retention so important records are not lost to future generations.”

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