Dynamite Nashville - Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers beyond their Control

New evidence in 'Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers Beyond their Control’ uncovers the origin of an organized group of racist terrorists committing nationwide acts of violence against integration efforts in the late 1950’s and early 1960s. The book also implicates both the FBI and local law enforcement agencies. No understanding of the violent nationwide white response to desegregation efforts then and white supremacist actions now can be complete without reading 'Dynamite Nashville.' Award winning historian Betsy Phillips not only paints a detailed picture of the social dynamic of the times, but details how a violent fringe of racists came to national prominence. In 'Dynamite Nashville,' Phillips unmasks the KKK, reveals a racist terrorist network, "The Confederate Underground," names its principle leader, J.B. Stoner, and shines a much needed historical spotlight on unsung civil rights hero and near martyr Z. Alexander Looby.Just as Nashville was where Civil Rights icons like John Lewis, James Lawson, and Diane Nash began, Nashville is where one of the country's most prominent organizations of racist terrorists formed. Members of The Confederate Underground would participate in least twenty bombings between 1957 and 1963, including the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama—a bombing for which J.B. Stoner allegedly provided the dynamite. In ‘Dynamite Nashville,’ Phillips revisits three unsolved Nashville bombings—Hattie Cotton Elementary School (1957), The Jewish Community Center (1958), and the home of Civil Rights attorney and city councilman, Z. Alexander Looby (1960)—and uncovers the same J.B. Stoner, perhaps best known by the public as one of James Earl Ray’s attorneys, as the mind behind the bombings. Additionally, her research shows how the differing agendas of local police and the FBI allowed these bombers to escape prosecution until decades later, if at all. 'Dynamite Nashville,' is a prequel to... On September 10, 1957, Hattie Cotton Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee, blew up. On March 16, 1958, the Jewish Community Center was bombed. On April 19, 1960, the home of Civil Rights attorney and Nashville city councilman, Z. Alexander Looby was dynamited. He and his wife were lucky to escape with their lives. These bombings have never been solved. In fact, many in Nashville dont even know theyre connected. In Dynamite Nashville, Betsy Phillips pieces together what really happened in Nashville at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. It has national implications for how we understand the violent white response to desegregation efforts and white supremacist actions now. Just as Nashville was where Civil Rights icons like John Lewis, James Lawson, and Diane Nash got their start, it turns out that Nashville is also where a network of racial terrorists began experimenting with using dynamite against integrationists and the Civil Rights Movement. Worse, in Nashville, we see how the differing agendas of local police and the FBI allowed these bombers to escape prosecution until decades later, if at all. J.B. Stoner, perhaps best known as one of James Earl Rays attorneys, brought together Klansmen disillusioned with the Klans unwillingness to sanction violence and racists unaffiliated with any particular group and provided them the training and support theyd need to commit acts of terrorism throughout the South. Members of this network committed at least twenty bombings between 1957 and 1963, when the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four little girls (a bombing for which Stoner allegedly provided the dynamite), forced tighter dynamite regulations, making it hard for the network to get their hands on the stuff. Dynamite Nashville, then, is a prequel to the racist violence of the 1960s, the story of how these bombers came together to learn how to terrorize communities, to blow up homes, schools, and religious buildings, and to escape any meaningful justice.