A Stand Against Injustice
In February 1946, Columbia, Tennessee, faced a reckoning. What happened was not a riot. It was resistance. The events reshaped the city and helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement. Yet for 75 years, this history remained largely untold.
How It Began
In the months after World War II, tensions over race and justice were rising across the United States. Black veterans were returning home determined to claim the freedoms they had defended overseas, while systems of segregation and racial control remained firmly in place across the South.
In February 1946, those tensions came to a head in Columbia. After an altercation at the Castner-Knott department store led to the arrest of a Black Navy veteran and his mother, fears of a lynching spread through the city’s Black community. Armed residents gathered to protect their neighborhood. By the following morning, Tennessee Highway Patrol officers had raided Columbia’s Black business district, leaving parts of it in ruins and leading to more than 100 arrests. The trials that followed drew national attention and became an early chapter in the struggle for civil rights in America.
The People Behind the Moment
What unfolded in Columbia began with three individuals: James Stephenson, a young Black Navy veteran recently returned from service; his mother, Gladys Stephenson; and Billy Fleming, a clerk at the Castner Knott department store.
However, residents, attorneys, journalists, law enforcement officers, and state officials all became part of what came next. Some stood at the center of the confrontation. Others became part of the raids, arrests, and courtroom battles that followed.
Thurgood Marshall in Columbia
In 1946, NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall traveled to Columbia to help defend Black residents charged after the February arrests. During his time in the city, Marshall himself narrowly escaped a lynching—an experience he later said left him more frightened than any moment in his life.
Honoring Thurgood Marshall
Today, a statue of Thurgood Marshall stands at the East Eighth Street roundabout in Columbia—the gateway to the city’s historic Black business district, where many of the events of 1946 unfolded.
A gift to the city from Columbia Peace and Justice Initiative (CPJI), the statue, alongside four historical markers, helps ensure that this history remains visible in the place where it happened.
Explore the Record
Newspaper coverage, archival footage, and historical research help bring the history of 1946 into sharper focus. These materials offer additional context and perspectives for those who want to explore further.
Newspaper Articles
Contemporary reporting and later coverage documenting the events in Columbia and the trials that followed.
Videos
Interviews, historical footage, and documentary materials exploring the history and legacy of 1946.
Additional Reading
Books, research, and other publications offering deeper analysis of the events and their place in the Civil Rights Movement.
COMING SOON: Mink Slide Uprising
Bringing Columbia's Civil Rights History to the Stage
February 26–28, 2027 | Cherry Theatre | Columbia, Tennessee
Columbia Peace and Justice Initiative, in partnership with Watershed Theatre, is proud to present Mink Slide Uprising, a theatrical production inspired by the historic events of 1946 in Columbia, Tennessee.
Through live storytelling, the production will bring this important chapter of our community's history to life, honoring the past, deepening understanding and encouraging meaningful conversations.
Follow us for more information!
