Last surviving teacher memorializes Nashville bombing with plaque, new book
The last surviving teacher of the Hattie Cotton Elementary School bombing delivered a plaque to the school Tuesday morning memorializing the attack and the steadfast, optimistic response of then-Principal Margaret Cate.
MaryAnne MacKenzie, whose husband Stephen MacKenzie recently finished writing a book recounting her experience of the bombing and aftermath, said she hopes the history of the segregationist attack in 1957 isn't forgotten.
"History repeats itself so often if we don't take care to rectify the things that are in our history," she said.
School officials organized a breakfast celebrating the publishing of "Hattie Cotton School: The last teacher's first-hand experiences of the 1957 bombing and aftermath" and the delivery of the plaque in Hattie Cotton STEM Magnet Elementary School on Tuesday. The event brought together families connected with the history of the school's integration, including Cate's relatives and Lenora Cassell, the granddaughter of Patricia Watson, the Black girl who integrated the school the day before the bombing.
Cassell remembered her grandmother as brave and outspoken. She died May 5, 2020, Cassell said.
Cate's family was happy her story was being told since she didn't talk about the bombing often. Amy Cate Crutchfield, Cate's great-grandniece, said the event was particularly meaningful for her as an assistant principal in Metro Nashville Public Schools.
"To see the legacy of leadership she had within my same district is really special," said Cate-Crutchfield. "She led with love, and that's the way I want to lead."
Lajuane Street-Harley, who was the first Black student to attend Glenn School in 1957, was at the event and said she was happy the history was not forgotten.
Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered public schools across the county to integrate, 6-year-old Patricia Watson walked into Hattie Cotton Elementary School on Sept. 9, 1957, making her one of the first Black children to desegregate Nashville's schools. According to a retelling of the day's events by Bill Frist, who is Cate's nephew, the principal had to drive Watson home from school that day.
Shortly after midnight that night, an estimated 100 sticks of dynamite detonated under the school in protest of Watson's attendance. No one was injured, but the building suffered extensive damage. Cate responded to the scene within hours and over the following days instilled a sense of optimism and courage, telling The Tennessean the day of the explosion, "We are doing nicely, considering what we have left."
The school reopened just eight days later, although Watson's parents transferred her to a different school out of fear for her safety.
Stephen MacKenzie said that he started working on the book in 2019 and that the years of research have been difficult and rewarding for him, and cathartic for his wife.
"I just learned so much about our history," he said. "I hope [readers] get that ... we have come so far, but we still have so far to go."
The original school building was torn down in the 1990s and replaced with the current one in 1996. It was changed to a magnet school focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in 2011.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Hattie Cotton School bombing: Nashville teacher presents plaque, book
