Contents

1. USEFUL MAPS
2. TIMELINE
3. PREFACE
4. The Limits of This Book and My Hopes for It
5. CHAPTER 1
6. In Which We Discuss Nashville’s Long History of Racist Violence in Response to Black Education and We Meet Z. Alexander Looby
7. CHAPTER 2
8. 1949–1954, A Brief History of Local Non-Klan Racists and of Nashvillians Blowing Up Things
9. CHAPTER 3
10. 1956, the Beginnings of Racist Attacks on Tennessee Schools
11. CHAPTER 4
12. August 1957, When the Klan Tells the FBI They Won’t Have Anything to Do with John Kasper, so the FBI Ignores John Kasper for a Whole Month
13. CHAPTER 5
14. The Hattie Cotton Elementary School Bombing
15. CHAPTER 6
16. The Aftermath, the Beatings, and the Man in the Garage
17. INTERMISSION
18. The FBI and the Ku Klux Klan. Best Friends Forever?
19. CHAPTER 7
20. The Jewish Community Center Bombing
21. CHAPTER 8
22. J.B. Stoner Decides Bombing Empty Buildings Isn’t Enough
23. CHAPTER 9
24. The Bombing of Z. Alexander Looby’s Home
25. CHAPTER 10
26. Nashville’s Known Racist Bombers—Robert Gentry and Gladys Girgenti
27. CHAPTER 11
28. Informed Speculation
29. CONCLUSION
30. A City Can’t Heal if It Can’t Say What Happened
31. EPILOGUE
32. The File Finally Arrives
33. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
34. ENDNOTES
35. IMAGE INDEX
36. BIBLIOGRAPHY