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An Ordinance naming the landing and steps in front of the Historic Metropolitan Courthouse in honor of Diane Nash.
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WHEREAS, Diane J. Nash was born on May 15, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois, eventually making her way to Nashville, Tennessee when she transferred to Fisk University during her college career; and
WHEREAS, her experiences of the Jim Crow system in the South led her to become a notable civil rights activist, as well as a leader and strategist of the student-led wing of the Civil Rights Movement; and
WHEREAS, Nash strongly supported the direct nonviolent-protest philosophy and was elected chair of the Student Central Committee, and was part of the small group of students who "tested" racial discrimination at Nashville's lunch counters before the full-scale coordinated sit-ins; and
WHEREAS, Nash was one of the founding members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), later becoming the director of their direct-action wing, and was one of the Freedom Riders who helped desegregate interstate transportation facilities; and
WHEREAS, on April 19, 1960, Diane Nash led a group of protesters to the steps of City Hall after the bombing of attorney and civil rights activist Z. Alexander Looby's home in Nashville; and
WHEREAS, on the steps of the courthouse, Diane Nash asked Mayor Ben West if he felt it was wrong to discriminate against people solely based on race or color, to which he replied "yes", leading Nashville to become the first southern city to integrate lunch counters a mere three weeks later on May 10, 1960; and
WHEREAS, Nash was also an instrumental figure in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom through her work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 through her work with the Alabama Project and the Selma Voting Rights Movement; and
WHEREAS, Section 13.26.010 of the Metropolitan Code provides that no building or structure of the Metropolitan Govern...
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