Zephaniah Alexander Looby (April 8, 1899 – March 24, 1972) was a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

who was active in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

. Born in the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...

, he immigrated to the United States at the age of 15; he earned degrees at Howard University, Columbia University Law School and New York University. He settled in Nashville, Tennessee, where he built a law practice and taught at

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

. He is noted for being part of the defense team for 25 black men charged in attempted murder for the

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

race riot of 1946 and winning acquittals for most, in the aftermath of the first major racial confrontation in the United States after World War II. He participated in numerous other cases, including leading desegregation of schools in Nashville. He served as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the

Nashville City Council The Metropolitan Council is the legislative body of the consolidated city-county government of Nashville, Tennessee and Davidson County. The Council has 40 members, 35 of which are district council representatives, and five of which are council ...

from 1951 to 1971. His house was bombed by segregationists on April 19, 1960.

Early life

Looby was born on April 8, 1899 in

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

. His father was John Alexander Looby and his mother, Grace Elizabeth Joseph. When he was five, his mother died while giving birth to a sibling. His father died when Looby was a teenager. The youth moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in 1914 as an orphan when he was fifteen years old. Looby attended

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

as an undergraduate, and became a member of the

Omega Psi Phi Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African-American fraternity. The fraternity was founded on November 17, 1911, by three Howard University juniors Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman, and their faculty a ...

fraternity. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1922. He went on to earn a law degree in 1925 from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York City, and a doctorate in jurisprudence from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in 1926.

Career

Looby moved to

where he started as an assistant professor at

, a

historically black college Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

. In July 1928, he passed the Tennessee bar exam and opened his own practice. In 1932, he helped found the Kent College of Law in Nashville. Looby was part of the defense team organized by the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...

for black men charged in the Columbia race riot of 1946. Looby worked with white attorney Maurice Weaver from Chattanooga and

Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...

of the

Legal Defense and Educational Fund The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (NAACP LDF, the Legal Defense Fund, or LDF) is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City. LDF is wholly independent and separate from the NAACP. Altho ...

of the

; the latter led the defense team. They won acquittals for 24 of the 25 men charged, and the last had his charges reduced.Gilbert King, ''Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America,'' HarperCollins, 2012, pp. 8 and 14 As a young state senator in Nashville's fifth ward, Ben West pushed for a charter reform in 1950 to allow local residents to elect city council members from

single-member district A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...

s rather than through

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...

voting. The latter system favored the white majority in the city and made it difficult for the sizeable African-American minority ever to elect candidates of their choice. With the change, African Americans began to elect some candidates. At that time, many black voters were still

disenfranchised Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...

since the state had passed laws in the late 1880s to charge

poll taxes A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments f ...

and make voter registration and voting difficult.Connie L. Lester, "Disfranchising laws"
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of Culture and History,'' 2011 After the change to the charter, in May 1951 Looby was elected to the Nashville City Council, along with another lawyer, Robert Lillard. They were the first African Americans to be elected to the council since 1911. In 1953, the state passed a constitutional amendment to repeal the poll tax. This led to increased numbers of African Americans registering to vote statewide. After the United States Supreme Court ruled in ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

'' (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, Looby filed a suit in Nashville on behalf of A.Z. Kelley. His son had been denied admission to a traditionally white school. Looby is credited with beginning the school desegregation movement in Nashville. Beginning in February 1960, councilman Looby defended the students arrested in the

Nashville sit-ins The Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, were part of a protest to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The sit-in campaign, coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and th ...

to achieve integration of public places. His law associates Avon Nyanza Williams and Robert E. Lillard also were part of the defense team. As a result of Looby's support of the students, his house was dynamited by segregationists on April 19, 1960. The house was nearly destroyed by the powerful bomb, which also blew out 140 windows at nearby

Meharry Medical College Meharry Medical College is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Medical school in the United States, medical school affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Nashville, Te ...

, resulting in minor injuries to students. Neither Looby nor his wife, Grafta Mosby Looby, was harmed in the bombing. Afterward students from Fisk University led 2500 protesters on a silent walk to city hall, where they confronted Mayor Ben West. Diane Nash asked him, "Do you feel it is wrong to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of their race or color?" West said "yes,' later explaining, "It was a moral question – one that a man had to answer, not a politician.""Timeline: The Civil Rights Movement in America"
'' "This Honorable Body:" African American Legislators in 19th Century Tennessee'', 2013, Tennessee Department of State By May of that year, lunch counters in Nashville were desegregated. By October, Looby and his team gained dismissal of the charges against 91 students "for conspiracy to disrupt trade and commerce."

Death and legacy

Looby died on March 24, 1972. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Nashville. In 1976, the city government of Nashville named a new library and community center in Looby's honor. In 1978, the James C. Napier Lawyers Association changed its name to the Napier-Looby Bar Association, in honor of Looby and his accomplishments. In 1982, the Nashville Bar Association posthumously awarded Looby membership; it had rejected him on racial grounds when he applied in the 1950s.

Early life

Career

Death and legacy

References

Further reading