Margaret Cate Hattie Cotton school bombing papers, 1956-1960 (bulk 1957)
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Arrangement: topically

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

Item missing at time of processing by Amber Williams in 2017: an unidentified "button," as noted on original deed of gift.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: A small quantity of materials concerning school integration in Nashville, Tenn., focusing on the leadership of principal Margaret Cate at Hattie Cotton Elementary School in the wake of the bombing that took place there early on Sept. 10, 1957. A significant portion of the collection also focuses on the local and national attention that the event received in the days and months following the bombing.

Documents from the Nashville Board of Education outline the plans and preparations for school integration prior to the start of the fall term in 1957, including the opportunity for parents to voluntarily withdraw their child from attending a school where the opposite race predominated. A formal police statement to be read to all crowds gathered at schools was designed to serve as warning to those who were allied with segregationist leader John Kasper or who sought to interfere with students, parents, or teachers. A few mailings and statements produced by the Parents Preference Committee show their support for maintaining a segregated school system. Other items include an affidavit of Margaret Cate in the wake of the school bombing; and an unidentified questionnaire, probably produced by Cate, regarding various concerns and plans for integrated schools.

A portion of the collection contains correspondence received from supporters and opponents of integration, from local people as well as individuals across the country. Also noteworthy is a folder of letters written by school students to Principal Cate, many from Miss Spivey's 6th grade class at Hattie Cotton, , expressing their responses to the bombing. There are also a couple of outgoing letters from Cate.

The bombing received both local and national press attention, and a number of newspaper clippings from various papers are also included. Two subjects are of special interest. Photographs and other materials are from an article appearing in LIFE magazine on Sept. 23, 1957. Another folder contains correspondence concerning an AP photograph showing a black child seated alone at the back of a class. An erroneous caption claims the scene was at Hattie Cotton. The clipping of the photograph, with the words "Shame on You" inscribed upon it, was sent to Hattie Cotton School anonymously by someone in Chicago, whose crudely written letter accompanies the clipping. Cate subsequently wrote a distressed letter about the incorrect caption to the local member of the Associated Press, and his response is included. A final item is a two-page history of Hattie Cotton school, probably written around 1960.

Cite as: Margaret Cate Hattie Cotton School Bombing Papers, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials.

No copies in any form may be made of LIFE magazine photographs, due to intellectual property rights restrictions.

Hattie Cotton Elementary School, upon action by principal Dr. Karen Hamilton;,Gift;,2007.,Acc. 2008.017

Related Materials: Nashville Early History by Miss Irene Spivey's 6th grade class at Hattie Cotton Elementary School, consisting of brief essays written by students in 1954, is also housed in the Special Collections Division of the Nashville Public Library.

Margaret Cate was principal of Hattie Cotton Elementary School when it was bombed by segregationists in the early morning hours of September 10, 1957. The preceding day, six-year-old Patricia Watson, an African-American girl, became the first black student to attend the formerly all-white school. Principal Cate led her school and community through the response to this event, and was committed to the process of integration.

Margaret Randolph Cate was born in 1905 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, to Mary Lucenia Armistead and James Henry Cate, one of fourteen children. In 1926, after her father's death, the family moved to Nashville, Tenn. Two years later, Margaret received her B.S. at Peabody College, and an M.A. in history in 1931. She taught history at Central and East High Schools in Nashville, then served as principal at Lipscomb and Elliot Elementary Schools. In 1950, she became principal at the newly-built Hattie Cotton Elementary School. In 1962 Cate left Hattie Cotton to become principal of Lockeland Elementary. At one time, she served as president of the Middle Tennessee Teacher's Association. A lifelong Methodist, Cate wrote a novel about the life of Christ, Without a Sword, published in 1958. She also wrote stories for the Jerry and Alice and Dick and Jane children's series; published articles on Tennessee history; and in 1971 with her brother, Wirt Armistead Cate, wrote The Armistead Family and Collateral family history book. She never married. She died in Nashville on Jan. 7, 2001 at the age of 95, and she was buried in the family plot at Riverside Cemetery in Hopkinsville, Ky.

In English.

Items were found stored in a janitor's closet at Hattie Cotton Elementary School, whereupon they were given to the Nashville Public Library in 2007.

preliminary processing;,ca. 2013;,Jennifer Quier

processing, arranged by format;,2017;,Amber Williams

final processing, arranged topically;,2018;,Linda Barnickel

No further accruals are expected