Judge Lillard’s Belongings Will Continue To Inspire At Whites Creek High School

From the Metro Nashville Public Schools:

October 5, 2020

Dr. Roderick Glatt remembers his late grandfather as a man defined by his heart for public service – and his determination to get things done. Judge Robert E. Lillard’s motto was simple: “You can if you try, not cry.”

Lillard was an attorney, a Nashville City Council and Metro Council member, and a Davidson County Circuit Court judge who defended civil rights activists and spearheaded legislation to desegregate the Parthenon.

“He did a lot to help all people,” Glatt said. “It wasn’t just a Black thing.”

MNPS recently consolidated Robert E. Lillard Elementary School into Alex Green and Cumberland elementary schools in the Whites Creek cluster due to low enrollment and a desire to provide more opportunities and better academic outcomes for all students. The school’s restorative practice room, which also was named for the judge, will be moving soon to Whites Creek High School so it can continue to inspire young people.

The room is full of Lillard’s belongings, including his desk, chair, gavel, law books, fishing pole, walking stick, an oath of office, a certificate of election from 1959, and other evidence of his accomplishments and influence, such as a photo of the judge with Supreme Court justice and NAACP legal mastermind Thurgood Marshall, Nashville Mayor Ben West, and Fisk University President Charles S. Johnson.

Lillard Elementary used the room for quiet, tension-relieving conversations between staff and students. Rather than automatically moving to suspend or expel disruptive students, restorative practice calls for working to resolve conflicts, help students understand the impact of their behavior, and ultimately build stronger school communities.

MNPS plans to move the restorative practice room to a busy spot near the mock courtroom at Whites Creek High School in the spring of 2021. Whites Creek Principal Brian Mells said highlighting the life and work of Lillard, who knew many of the school’s alumni – including Glatt, who graduated in 1985 – would benefit Whites Creek’s Academy of Law.

“I think it will bring light to our law program,” Mells said. “It will help bring the connection to the community back to Whites Creek High School, which is needed.”

“This is a progressive move,” said Glatt, a leadership consultant. “It makes sense to have his belongings at Whites Creek in their legal academy. It really honors what he stood for in terms of the legal profession, and that was to help all.”

Born in Carthage, Tenn., in 1907 and raised in South Nashville, Lillard graduated from Kent College of Law, a school for aspiring Black attorneys. He practiced law part-time while working for the fire department until 1950, when he took his practice full-time and entered politics. In 1951 he and fellow attorney Z. Alexander Looby became the first African-Americans elected to the Nashville City Council in 40 years.

Known for his deep, booming voice, Lillard went on to serve 20 years as a councilman, including eight on the Metro Council after Nashville and Davidson County consolidated in 1963. He made history again in 1978, when he became the first Black judge appointed to Davidson County Circuit Court. Judge Lillard died in 1991 at the age of 84.

This press release was produced by the Metro Nashville Public Schools. The views expressed are the author's own.