Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers beyond their Control

by Betsy Phillips

On September 10, 1957, Hattie Cotton Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee, blew up. On March 16, 1958, the Jewish Community Center was bombed. On April 19, 1960, the home of Civil Rights attorney and Nashville city councilman, Z. Alexander Looby was dynamited. He and his wife were lucky to escape with their lives. These bombings have never been solved. In fact, many in Nashville don’t even know they’re connected. In Dynamite Nashville, Betsy Phillips pieces together what really happened in Nashville at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. It has national implications for how we understand the violent white response to desegregation efforts and white supremacist actions now. Just as Nashville was where Civil Rights icons like John Lewis, James Lawson, and Diane Nash got their start, it turns out that Nashville is also where a network of racial terrorists began experimenting with using dynamite against integrationists and the Civil Rights Movement. Worse, in Nashville, we see how the differing agendas of local police and the FBI allowed these bombers to escape prosecution until decades later, if at all. J.B. Stoner, perhaps best known as one of James Earl Ray’s attorneys, brought together Klansmen disillusioned with the Klan’s unwillingness to sanction violence and racists unaffiliated with any particular group and provided them the training and support they’d need to commit acts of terrorism throughout the South. Members of this network committed at least twenty bombings between 1957 and 1963, when the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four little girls (a bombing for which Stoner allegedly provided the dynamite), forced tighter dynamite regulations, making it hard for the network to get their hands on the stuff. Dynamite Nashville, then, is a prequel to the racist violence of the 1960s, the story of how these bombers came together to learn how to terrorize communities, to blow up homes, schools, and religious buildings, and to escape any meaningful justice.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Book Club, True Crime, Audiobook, Journalism

360 pages, Paperback

Published July 16, 2024

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this one. The writing style was very informal. Sometimes it worked, but I mostly found it distracting. This would have done better as a podcast series.

[Lauren Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would not have been a book I picked up on my own and thank goodness for my book club it gave me an opportunity to read it! Betsy does a really good job with explaining the story (even with the dozens of names and people to follow) and intertwines her personality into the writing. It’s a good book and expanded my knowledge on the huge role Nashville and the racists that reeked havoc throughout the city in the 50s and 60s during desegregation of schools and how it impacted the rest of the southern states during that time period.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating nonfiction where Betsy Phillips, a well-known Nashville journalist, tries to solve three race-related Nashville bombings that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement. A lot of what she researches reflects upon current issues. Because of this book, the cases have been reopening and assigned an investigator.

[Johnisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad that someone followed the trail on these domestic terror events, but if I am being honest, this was a bit hard to follow at times because of the writing style. I gave it a three because of the subject matter.

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important history and connections revealed. Puts constitutionalists into perspective with their roots in white supremacy for the upper class.

[Stephen Monroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book if you want to learn more about Nashville history, with recommendations on a places to get more specifics about integration. It dives into the mysteries of unsolved bombings in the city and how they can be connected to other events throughout the south.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads like a progress report: the primary problem isn't yet solved, but new information is gathered. It is tedious reading in parts where tiny discrepancies are exhibited; it is page turner in others where the action is more clear. Perhaps that is of necessity. One point Phillips emphasizes is lack of investigation, and she surmises it was to protect FBI informants/operatives. Another is that the three bombings were treated as isolated incidents when they appear to be part of a network. (This point reminds me of Kathleen Belew's Bring the War Home.)

Phillips continually indicates where she is hypothesizing and where she has facts. This seems to keep the distinction between conspiracy and conspiracy theory; however, I'll admit to not having read close enough to say whether she is convincing or not. Yet her conclusions are intriguing. One comes to mind: a transcript of a conversation where one participant gives a lot of information (that happens to contradict other sources) and the other divulges little. She suggests that the talkative one is trying to get the quiet one to correct the errors so the comment will be o tape. She also hypothesizes that the quiet one knows he is talking to an informant.

A strength of the book is her close reading of the quotations she uses. Rather than dumping quotations on the reader and letting the reader think through the connection to the thesis, she spells out in detail what she sees. This essential feature is also what makes the reading slow and difficult.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book doesn’t give answers, but it does give plausible directions and connections that might help get to some truth. Although I’ve read sections of this book published over the years in the Nashville Scene, seeing it all put together, with other important pieces, was impressive. I also learned more about Z. Alexander Looby, an incredibly important person in Nashville and Tennessee who deserves more awareness and acknowledgment than he currently gets. Bravo to the author for sticking with this important story despite many barriers and challenges. I hope that this leads to further results now that Nashville has re-opened the cases.

The book does feel a little bit like looking at one of those conspiracy boards with photos and yarn connecting them/etc. As the author correctly points out, it’s hard not to see a conspiracy when there may have been one (or many). She does a great job of staying grounded in facts and details as much as possible.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings on this one. I learned a lot, and I thought the writing style was very readable for a non-fiction book. But honestly, I think where this book lacked was in the background story. I knew NOTHING about the Nashville bombings this book referenced - didn't even know they existed. I think Phillips dives into this book assuming you already know the story of these unsolved mysteries and then takes her editorial approach on trying to investigate them. I think the book would have been better if we had a little more of the story as to WHAT happened before we tried to investigate them. This was so close to being great, but it just didn't get there for me. I do think it was a good book though.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absorbing piece of Nashville and Civil Rights history. Phillips has put together an exhaustive investigation into three unsolved bombings, covering not just what is known but the very specific gaps in the record. It's the gaps that raise some of the most interesting questions, because many of those unknowns feel like they should damn well be known. The tone is very conversational. If you'd told me this was a transcribed podcast series, I would believe you. I don't mean this as a criticism, but I'm sure some readers won't vibe with that style. The cast of characters is enormous, which Phillips attempts to mitigate by including a cast listing at the start of each chapter.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. The author has clearly done a ton of research and I appreciated her storytelling style. Very conversational and humorous even in the face of such a tragic subject. It feels like listening to a friend tell a story. I hope her work leads to, if not justice for the guilty, then at least the outing of truth about what really happened in these cases.

[Heather Tiedtke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the story of school integrations and the extremes and violence used to attempt to stop it. I will admit i was very unaware of most of the incidents in the book and appreciate gaining this knowledge. My only complaint about the book is it was written a bit like an editorial and I would have preferred just the facts without the opinion added

[Tim Jester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dynamite Nashville was a riveting story. The history was complex and at times difficult to follow but the author did a great job of tying everything together and creating incredible amounts of suspicion around the bombings and around reasons for there never having been a conviction. I definitely recommend this book, especially if you're from Nashville or enjoy Nashville and Tennessee history.

[Archer Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the info in the book, the writing was too informal for me to enjoy. Felt more like a collection of blog posts. Sometimes was left thinking about how I'd edit the book after I set it down for the day, instead of thinking about the content of the book itself.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book about the Civil Rights movement and Nashville’s part in it. We are lucky to have had such brave men and women in Nashville who helped to change lives.

[Jay Dougherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journalistic but exciting and detailed description of bombings in Nashville during the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.

[Lora Shouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the writing style of this book. It is informal and chatty and sounds as if someone from Nashville, or at least who knew Nashville well, is doing the telling. Yet it managed to hold my attention from beginning to end. By the time I was done with the book, I felt as if I knew most of what can still be found out about these bombings at this late date, and about the people who might have been most likely to have done them.

I was initially interested in this book because I earlier read David Halberstam’s The Children, about the black college students who began by integrating lunch counters in Nashville and later, in many cases, went on to become prominent in the Civil Rights Movement. This book is about the people who made up the other side of that fight.

The author said in her preface that she began working on the book (initially meant to be a short newspaper feature) in 2017. She meant at that time to write mainly about the first bombing, at the Hattie Cotton Elementary School in 1957, who committed it, and why the case remained unsolved. She never found definitive answers to these questions. And, barring some sort of miracle, I suspect that these answers will only become more elusive. Nevertheless, I feel that I now know much more about the three bombings than I did before. Although, curiously, I don’t feel as if I know the most likely suspects and their friends nearly as well as I do the young Civil Rights activists.

[lillqaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An accessible book with a narrow focus: discovering who completed a series of three bombings in Nashville in the 1950s and 1960. Phillips argues we cannot heal from history without knowing it, and how the truth deserves to be uncovered to heal from the pains of America’s racist past. It is deeply researched with an informal writing style (Phillips uses the phrase “farting around” at least twice), which is why I think this book would be best utilized by middle schoolers for research, learning key information about American history through a humane lens and casual writing style. I unfortunately found Phillips to be repetitive at times, taking pages to repeat herself when she could have gotten her point across in a page. This was frustrating.
The book educates on the KKK in Nashville/ Tennessee (the birthplace of the Klan). I really enjoyed learning about the incredible Z. Alexander Looby, a lawyer who defended Black participants in the civil rights movement and helped bring about the desegregation of Nashville (honestly I probably learned about him in middle school but forgot so I am happy to learn about him here with the deserved deference Phillips gives to him.) She tries to discover who bombed his house in 1960, but unfortunately does not come to a definite answer, which she prefaces the book with. This was not for a lack of trying, and one does come away knowing who likely did it.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looks at three bombings that occurred in a couple of year span in Nashville - Hattie Cotton Elementary School, the first public school to integrate in Nashville; the Nashville Jewish Community Center; and the home of Nashville City Council Member and Civil Rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby. Phillips intent was to work to uncover who performed these unsolved bombings. In the course of her research, she was able to make a number of plausible theories on who organized and performed the bombings but not deliver conclusive evidence. In the research process, Phillips ran into FBI stonewalling over records and met people who were deeply connected to the racist networks of that time.
Phillips writes this book in a very conversational tone that is very accessible - that includes interjecting profanity as part of her voice. Phillips is open about areas where information is inclusive and areas where she was challenged - there is an interesting discussion about her interaction with Gladys Girgenti, whose charm masked the fact that Girgenti attempted to bomb a synagogue in Nashville.
The title to this book works in two ways - one is the dynamite used in the bombings that are the subject of the book; the other is the dynamite of how a genteel southern city that views itself as forward thinking left these three significant bombs unsolved and underdiscussed.
This book offers an examination of the three bombings that occurred in Nashville in a three year span 1957-1960 and offers insight into the white supremacist and antisemitic movements in the South at the time as well as the complicated relationship between these groups, local law enforcement, and the FBI. An interesting, insightful look at this period and these issues.