Transcribed dialogue between Mayor Ben West, Diane Nash, and protesters regarding desegregation of lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee · Counternarratives Digital Archive

Title of the Document: Transcribed dialogue between Mayor Ben West, Diane Nash, and protesters regarding desegregation of lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee
One Line Summary: This transcription details the exchange at city hall between Mayor Ben West and 3000 protesters following the bombing of Z. Alexander Looby’s home. The protesters gathered primarily to express opposition to the segregation of Nashville’s lunch counters.
Author: Fred Travis
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Transcription: “ West: I am glad to meet you here in response to your telegram.
I deny and I resent to the bottom of my soul the implications you have [pled] in that statement. I intend to see that order is maintained [in this city].
I faced 300 to 400 white segregationists up here in the city council chamber when we desegregated the schools, and I told them the same thing I am telling you. As God is my helper, the law is going to be enforced in Nashville.
I am doing my best to find the person who bombed the home of my friend, Councilman Looby. We are going to arrest law violaters and that goes for you, Goo. If you violate the law, you are going to be arrested.
Your leaders have kept in ignorance about the progress made in the city of Nashville… but I can't tell the store owners what they are going to do with their property…
We are all Christians together. I am the Rev. C.T. Vivian’s brother and he is my brother, whether we like it or not. Let’s all pray together.
Voice from Crowd: What about eating together?
West: It doesn't matter if the sky falls, I am going to do my duty.
Nash: Mr. Mayor, we want to ask you this: is it wrong to discriminate solely because of race?
West: I appeal to all citizens to have no discrimination, no hatred, no bias, no bigotry.
Nash: We ask you to stop segregation at the lunch counters.
West: One of my first acts as mayor was to desegregate the lunch counters at the Nashville Municipal Airport.
Nash: Do you recommend desegregation of the lunch counters in the stores?
West: Yes,yes. But that is up to the store owners.
You [Vivian], too, [have the power] to destroy our city. We have made great progress in this community.
(in response to another question about the lunch counters)
I can't tell the man how to run his business. He has got his rights, too.
Related: Ben West & C.T. Vivian
Provenance: “Transcribed dialogue between Mayor Ben West, Diane Nash, and protesters regarding desegregation of lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee,” Tennessee State Library and Archives, Tennessee Virtual Archive, Box 6, folder 38