2 events helped diversify city government
Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. To read more, visit timesfreepress.com/150years.
The two packages of headlines came 18 years apart from Chattanooga’s two daily newspapers but were inescapably linked — then and now — in the history of Chattanooga and the African Americans who live here.
April 14, 1971: “ROBERTS AND FRANKLIN ARE WINNERS IN HEAVY TURNOUT OF VOTERS IN CITY”
“Record 33,229 Voters Turn Out
As City Elects Roberts, Franklin”
August 9, 1989:
“New city government ordered”
“CITY TO PLAN NEW GOV’T”
John Franklin Sr. was elected as the first black member of the five-person City Commission in a runoff on April 13, 1971. It came in an election
in which one of Hamilton County’s legendary politicians, Bookie Turner, lost an election for the first time.
The next morning, Springer Gibson of the morning Chattanooga Times, which sold for 25 cents and issue, wrote:
“Chattanooga made history Tuesday by electing the first Negro to the City Commission and handing James (Bookie) Turner his first defeat after 19 consecutive elections.”
Eighteen years later, a group that successfully backed Franklin in his election sued their friend and the four other members of the City Commission on the grounds that the five at-large seats violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. African Americans, they said, were not fairly represented.
“Judge Upholds Challenge by Blacks” was the headline on the front page of the Aug. 9, 1989, NewsFree Press, which sold for 25 cents at the time. Tommie Brown, one of the 10 plaintiffs and an assistant professor at UTC, called the ruling “an opportunity to start anew.”
Courthouse reporter Dick Kopper of the Times, which also sold for 25 cents, wrote of federal court Judge R. Allan Edgar’s ruling, “And Edgar’s decision will have more widespread impact on Chattanooga than any federal court ruling since the school orders issued by U.S. District Judge Frank Wilson, who is now deceased, during 1962 and the 70s.”
“There is no question that those two events are linked together,” Yusef Hakeem, who has served on both the City Council and in the Tennessee General Assembly, said of the election of the city’s first black commissioner and the effort to replace the city government.
Hakeem’s view is filtered through the eyes of a first grader at Chattanooga Avenue Elementary who took physical education from Franklin and a black man who was successfully elected four times in the district form of government that came out of the 1989 ruling.
“If Mr. Franklin were here today,” Hakeem said, “he would look back at getting elected and give the credit to those who pushed him to run and to citizens, both black and white, who elected him.”
The News-Free Press and Times were fierce competitors in 1971. Both published on Sunday and both had enough advertising to create space filled by two newsrooms with more than 60 journalists each. The ideologically liberal Times of Publisher Ruth Holmberg and the ideologically conservative News-Free Press of Roy McDonald gave readers a balanced view of the elections on the editorial pages as the journalists
“If Mr. Franklin were here today, he would look back at getting elected and give the credit to those who pushed him to run and to citizens, both black and white, who elected him.”
— YUSEF HAKEEM
fought for breaking news. The business competition would end nine years later when the papers merged their business operations into the Chattanooga Publishing Company while the journalism battles continued.
Franklin defeated Dean Peterson for the education and health post by a 1,571-vote margin, 17,525-15,668. The animus of the Roberts-Turner race dominated the news coverage when either the 1971 general or runoff election was the topic, which helped turnout overall in black precincts.
Franklin was pushed to do what seemed impossible, win an at-large seat on the City Commission where the voter base was more than 60% white. He was pushed to run by a group of black leaders led by the Rev. Paul McDaniel, who died in 2014 after having retired as the legendary pastor of Second Missionary Baptist Church.
“We made a decision one night that John Franklin should be the man,” McDaniel told Times Free Press columnist David Cook on July 1, 2018, 11 days after Franklin’s death. “This county needed Johnny Franklin.”
Times reporter Bill Casteel, a veteran of city elections, described “precincts which heretofore produced little more than a few people passing out sample ballots with opposition’s name marked” in the largely black voting locations.
“Even with the turnout in the black communities, a lot of white people had to vote for Mr. Franklin,” said Hakeem.
In Franklin, the group found an educator who interacted with white families for years. They found a successful businessman with FranklinStrickland Funeral Home and a respected husband and father. It was enough, this time, to elect an African American when all the voters of the city cast a ballot.
J.B. Collins, who turns 102 next month, covered the election for the NewsFree Press. His analysis of the numbers showed Franklin “swamped Petersen” by a “100-1 margin” in the predominantly “black wards.” In contrast, he pointed to what got Franklin elected when he said, “Missionary Ridge, virtually all white, gave Mr. Franklin 300 votes to 472 for Mr. Petersen.”
News-Free Press Editor Lee Anderson endorsed the incumbent Petersen. The day after the election, Anderson captured what happened when the voters elected a black to the commission in a citywide election when he wrote:
“Mr. Franklin becomes the first Negro elected to the City Commission. He indicated during his campaign that he is the most outstanding candidate of his race ever to run for office here. He conducted himself well and earned the admiration and friendship not only of those who gave him a majority of votes but of Dean Petersen, who has served honorably and well in capacities in the community.”
John “Duke” Franklin Jr. served on the City Council because thanks to what his father did in 1971 and what black leaders did in 1989.
“He was a humble person, and that helped with white voters,” said Franklin, who runs Franklin Funeral Home with his sister, Cheryl. “He would look back at the election and the change in government and say, ‘No man is an island unto himself.’”
The son agreed with Hakeem that his father would point to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and say they deserved the credit for turning a five-person commission elected at large into a nine-person City Council elected by districts. The first city council elected had four black members and four remain on the council today.
The plaintiffs in the case were: Brown, Leamon Pierce, the Rev. Herbert H. Wright, J.K. Brown, Annie D. Thomas; Johnny W. Holloway, George A. Key, Lorenzo Ervin, Bobby Ward, Norma Crowder, Maxine B. Cousins and Buford McElrath.
The Times dedicated half of its front page and two full pages inside to Edgar’s decision, including a half page of quotes from many of the people who worked to elect Franklin Sr. in 1971.
The Times’ editorial page said Edgar’s ruling “concluded that Chattanooga’s city commission form of government is discriminatory intent and effect.” It closed by asking now-Mayor Gene Roberts to move forward, saying, “That gives them a marvelous opportunity to shape the direction of this city for years to come. A proper regard for fairness and equity should produce a result that will serve Chattanooga well.”
The News-Free Press strongly disagreed with the opinion, saying, “It is outrageous distortion of the principle of democratic government when the equal voting right of every citizen — regardless of race, or other such distinction — is thwarted so the selection of government officials may be rigged on the basis of racial bloc voting to facilitate certain racially predetermined results.”
Both Hakeem and Franklin Jr. believe the community is better off today with a diverse council. Both wonder whether the political dynamics of the past decade will prevent people like Franklin Sr. from seeking office and both recognize that Franklin Sr. was just a man “appointed at a certain time to do what he did,” said Franklin Jr.
“It took a person like him to win a race like that,” said Hakeem. “He could stand his own ground educationally and economically, and he could talk with kings or anyone on the street. I miss him.”
Contact Davis Lundy at davislundy@aol.com.