Civil rights attorney who served as chief counsel for the Columbia defendants
Zephaniah Alexander Looby was born in Antigua in 1899 and came to the United States as a teenager. He earned degrees from Howard University and Columbia University before moving to Nashville, where he taught at Fisk University, passed the Tennessee bar and opened a law practice in 1928. By 1946, he was an established civil rights attorney known for challenging racial injustice through the courts.
After the arrests in Columbia, Looby joined the NAACP legal team and served as chief counsel for the Black men charged after the uprising. He helped investigate the raid, document the destruction of East Eighth Street and defend the accused men through the Lawrenceburg trials. Later that year, when police arrested Thurgood Marshall and drove him toward an isolated area near the Duck River, Looby refused orders to continue to Nashville and followed the police car. He later helped arrange Marshall’s safe departure from Columbia.
Looby continued his civil rights work for decades. He helped lead the legal fight to desegregate Nashville’s public schools, and his home was bombed in 1960 during the Nashville sit-in movement. In 1963, he became one of the first Black members elected to the Nashville City Council in the 20th century. He died in 1972.
Z. Alexander Looby
