Editing Chattanooga, Tennessee (section)

===20th century===
[[File:Market-street-chatt-1907.jpg|thumb|left|210px|Market Street in 1907]]

In December 1906, Chattanooga was in the national headlines in ''[[United States v. Shipp]],'' as the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]], in the only criminal trial in its history, ruled that [[Hamilton County, Tennessee|Hamilton County]] Sheriff Joseph H. Shipp had violated [[lynching of Ed Johnson|Ed Johnson]]'s civil rights when Shipp allowed a mob to enter the Hamilton County jail and [[Lynching|lynch]] Johnson on the [[Walnut Street Bridge (Chattanooga, Tennessee)|Walnut Street Bridge]].<ref>{{cite news
|title=The lynching that Black Chattanooga never forgot takes center stage downtown
|first=Chris
|last=Moody
|date=March 11, 2021
|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]
|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-lynching-that-black-chattanooga-never-forgot-takes-center-stage-downtown/2021/03/11/67405b4e-7c27-11eb-85cd-9b7fa90c8873_story.html}}</ref>

Chattanooga grew with the entry of the United States in the [[World War I|First World War]] in 1917; the nearest training camp was in [[Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia]]. The [[Spanish flu|Influenza pandemic of 1918]] closed local movie theaters and pool halls.<ref name="History of Chattanooga from Reconstruction to the Second World War">{{cite web|url=http://ngeorgia.com/tenn/chattanooga2.html|title=Chattanooga, Tennessee (Reconstruction to World War II)|publisher=NGeorgia.com|access-date=August 29, 2012|archive-date=August 24, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120824043151/http://www.ngeorgia.com/tenn/chattanooga2.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> By the 1930s, Chattanooga was known as the "Dynamo of Dixie", inspiring the 1941 [[Glenn Miller]] [[big-band]] [[swing music|swing]] song "[[Chattanooga Choo Choo]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.greenpageschattanooga.com/2011/08/chattanooga-dirtiest-city-in-american.html |title=Chattanooga, Dirtiest City in American &#124; Chattanooga Green City |publisher=The GreenPages Chattanooga |access-date=April 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510013812/http://www.greenpageschattanooga.com/2011/08/chattanooga-dirtiest-city-in-american.html |archive-date=May 10, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Through [[P.R. Olgiati|Mayor P.R. Olgiati's]] efforts, Chattanooga became the first city in Tennessee to have a completed interstate highway system in the latter 1960s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chattanooga.gov/about-chattanooga/history-of-mayors/1951-1963-peter-rudolph-qrudyq-olgiati|title=Peter Rudolph "Rudy" Olgiati|website=Chattanooga.gov|publisher=City of Chattanooga|access-date=November 28, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chattanoogan.com/2004/7/9/52682/Where-Do-Our-Interstate-Highways-Terminate.aspx|title=Where Do Our Interstate Highways Terminate?|work=chattanoogan.com|date=July 9, 2004 |access-date=July 17, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chattanoogaradiotv.com/general/why-did-they-name-it-the-ol-johnny-bridge/|title=Why did they name it the "Ol' Johnny Bridge?"|work=chattanoogaradiotv.com|date=October 24, 2013 |access-date=July 17, 2015}}</ref> In February 1958, Chattanooga became one of the smallest cities in the country with three [[VHF]] television stations: WROM-TV (now [[WTVC|WTVC-TV]]) channel 9 ([[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]), WRGP-TV (now [[WRCB-TV]]) channel 3 ([[NBC]]), and [[WDEF-TV]] channel 12 ([[CBS]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gtvhof.com/chapterseven.htm|title=Chapter Seven|work=gtvhof.com|access-date=July 17, 2015}}</ref>

The same mountains that provide Chattanooga's scenic backdrop also trap industrial pollutants, which settle over the city. In 1969, the federal government declared that Chattanooga had the dirtiest air in the nation.<ref name="From being the nation's dirtiest city to being one of the nation's cleanest cities">{{cite web|url=http://citiwire.net/columns/healing-the-urban-heart-chattanoogas-next-great-challenge/|title=Healing the Urban Heart: Chattanooga's Next Great Challenge|last=Brandes Gratz|first=Roberta|date=July 7, 2011|publisher=The CitiStates Group|access-date=June 28, 2012|archive-date=March 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130315142823/http://citiwire.net/columns/healing-the-urban-heart-chattanoogas-next-great-challenge/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Like other early industrial cities, Chattanooga entered the 1970s with serious socioeconomic challenges, including job layoffs because of de-industrialization, deteriorating city infrastructure, racial tensions, and social division. Chattanooga's population increased by nearly 50,000 in the 1970s. However, this was mostly because the city annexed nearby residential areas.<ref>{{cite news|last=Hightower|first=Cliff|date=August 28, 2009|title=City reveals second phase of annexation|url=https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/news/story/2009/aug/28/city-reveals-second-phase-of-annexation/232465/|work=Chattanooga Times Free Press|location=Chattanooga, Tennessee|access-date=December 21, 2018|archive-date=December 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221182934/https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/news/story/2009/aug/28/city-reveals-second-phase-of-annexation/232465/|url-status=dead}}</ref> By the mid-1980s, local leaders launched [[Vision 2000 (Chattanooga)|Vision 2000]], an effort to revitalize and reinvent Chattanooga's culture and economy. Chattanooga's population declined by more than 10% in the 1980s, but regained it over the next two decades, the only major U.S. city to do so in that period.<ref name="timesfreepress.com">{{cite web |date=July 7, 2009 |url=http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/07/city-populations-grow-shift/ |title=City populations grow, shift |publisher=Chattanooga Times Free Press |access-date=November 13, 2011 |archive-date=August 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810060414/http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/07/city-populations-grow-shift/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==== Civil Rights Movement ====
The civil rights movement of Chattanooga began in 1960 when teenage students of Howard High School, inspired by activists in [[Nashville sit-ins|Nashville]] and [[Greensboro sit-ins|Greensboro]], began to organize a similar sit-in protest. Class President Paul Walker, Lehman Pierce and as many as 200 other black students organized peaceful sit-ins at four businesses along one block in downtown Chattanooga.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Arbuckle |first=Alex |date=February 19, 2017 |title=Newly uncovered photos capture the tense atmosphere outside a 1960 Tennessee sit-in |url=https://mashable.com/feature/chattanooga-sit-ins |access-date=April 24, 2023 |website=Mashable |language=en}}</ref> White youth mobs responded with agitation, inflammatory language and violence. By the third day, Mayor Rudy Olgiatti instructed the fire department to utilize water hoses on crowds becoming the first city to utilize this tactic against protesters. Three months later the city would agree to desegregate the downtown businesses.<ref>{{Cite web |title=February 1960 |url=https://chattanoogahistory.com/february1960.php |access-date=April 24, 2023 |website=SAM HALL {{!}} chattanoogahistory.com}}</ref>

Unlike many southern cities the [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]] did not lead to riots in Chattanooga. Mayor Kelley and Police Commissioner Turner met with young people to defuse the situation and bought the protesters lunch. The frustrated youths voiced their complaints about racial injustice in Chattanooga, but were convinced to peacefully disperse.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 30, 2018 |title=John Shearer: Remembering How Chattanooga Reacted In 1968 To M.L. King Jr.'s Death |url=https://www.chattanoogan.com/2018/3/30/365990/John-Shearer-Remembering-How.aspx |access-date=April 24, 2023 |website=www.chattanoogan.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1971, John Franklin Sr. became the first African-American elected official of Chattanooga.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 21, 2018 |title=Chattanooga history maker John Franklin dies {{!}} Chattanooga Times Free Press |url=https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2018/jun/21/chattanooga-icon-john-p-franklin-sr-dies/ |access-date=April 24, 2023 |website=www.timesfreepress.com |language=en}}</ref> However racial tensions related to poverty and education continued to simmer. In the same year, a cancelled concert refusing to give ticket refunds sparked a four-day riot of black youth. An all-night curfew was called and close to 2,000 National Guard troops arrived in the city, setting up a post at City Hall.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shearer |first=John |date=2021-05-28 |title=Remembering The 1971 Racial Crisis That Followed The Wilson Pickett Concert, Part 1 |url=https://www.chattanoogan.com/2021/5/28/429125/John-Shearer-Remembering-The-1971.aspx |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=Chattanoogan.com}}</ref> The unrest led to 1 death and 300 arrests.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Times |first=James T. Wooten Special to The New York |date=May 25, 1971 |title=Negro Is Killed on Fourth Night of Violence in Chattanooga After 2,000 National Guardsmen Move |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/25/archives/negro-is-killed-on-fourth-night-of-violence-in-chattanooga-after.html |access-date=April 24, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
[[File:1980mural downtown.jpg|left|thumb|A downtown mural memorializing the five Black women who were injured during the 1980 Klan shooting.]]
On April 19, 1980, three [[Ku Klux Klan]] members rode down historic 9th street and opened fire on five black women: Viola Ellison, Lela Mae Evans, Katherine O. Johnson, Opal Lee Jackson and Fannie Crumsey. All of the women survived.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 19, 2020 |title=The Case Of A KKK Shooting In 1980 Chattanooga |url=https://www.wutc.org/news/2020-02-19/the-case-of-a-kkk-shooting-in-1980-chattanooga |access-date=April 24, 2023 |website=WUTC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Zechman |first=Bliss |date=February 20, 2020 |title=86-year-old survivor of 1980 Chattanooga KKK attack shares her story in front of hundreds |url=https://newschannel9.com/news/local/86-year-old-survivor-of-1980-chattanooga-kkk-attack-shares-her-story-in-front-of-hundreds |access-date=April 24, 2023 |website=WTVC |language=en}}</ref> When an all-white jury acquitted the three Klan members for their crime, Chattanooga erupted into four nights of rioting.<ref>{{Citation |title=Alton Park Residents Riot in Chattanooga after All-White Jury Acquits Klansmen in Shooting 7/23/80 | date=December 20, 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxOqSWhCyK4 |access-date=April 24, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> Not deterred by the jury verdict, the five women went on to be plaintiffs in a historic civil lawsuit against the Klan. In 1982, the federal courts ordered the Klan to pay the women $535,000 on account of the attack. This case created the legal strategy for dismantling the Klan across the country in the following years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 15, 2020 |title=Cook: Local Klansmen shot these women. Do you know what they did next? {{!}} Chattanooga Times Free Press |url=https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2020/feb/15/local-klansmen-shot-these-women-do-you-know-w/ |access-date=April 24, 2023 |website=www.timesfreepress.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1987, the city's at-large voting process was challenged on the basis that it marginalized the voting power of Black voters.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brown v. Board of Com'rs of Chattanooga, Tenn., 722 F. Supp. 380 (E.D. Tenn. 1989) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/722/380/2592781/ |access-date=May 16, 2023 |website=Justia Law |language=en}}</ref> The issue was initially presented by [[Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin|Lorenzo Ervin]], Annie Thomas and Maxine Cousin to the [[ACLU]] in [[Atlanta]]. Following the case of ''[[Brown v. Board of Commissioners of the City of Chattanooga|Brown v. Board of Commissioners of Chattanooga]],'' the city terminated the at-large voting system.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 13, 2011 |title=Brown v. Board of Commissioners shifted form of government to boost minorities {{!}} Chattanooga Times Free Press |url=https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/oct/13/court-case-dramatically-shifts-form-of/ |access-date=May 16, 2023 |website=www.timesfreepress.com |language=en}}</ref>