Z. Alexander Looby: The Man Who Saved Thurgood Marshall

 

Z. Alexander Looby disobeyed police and took a U-turn on a dark November night in 1946 just outside of Columbia, Tennessee...that U-turn saved the life of Thurgood Marshall and made straight the path for many Civil Rights victories in the coming decades! 

 

Z. Alexander Looby

Video Clip on the 1946 Columbia "Race Riot"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeCjvqFKxMo (14:47)

 

Thurgood Marshall, Z. Alexander Looby, Maurice Weaver (NAACP Lawyers) and Harry Raymond (news reporter for the Communist Party of America) travelled to Columbia, Tennessee to successfully defend over 20 African-American men who were accused of instigating the Columbia Race Riots of 1946...as soon as the verdicts were read they exited the courthouse to get out of Columbia (they had been threatened by the KKK) and back to Nashville as quickly as possible.

But, as they tried to "make their escape" they noticed their car was being followed by three police cars...they were soon surrounded by 8 police officers (aka southern Klansmen) and accused (Thurgood Marshall was known to enjoy a drink or two) of drinking and driving. But, Marshall had not been drinking that night. Nevertheless, the police arrested him for "drinking and driving" and told the other men to get out of town before they were arrested too...

It was becoming clear that the KKK/ police planned to lynch Thurgood Marshall and throw his body in the Duck River (as promised) that night.

 

Thurgood Marshall

 



But, a car followed the police toward the "Duck River Lynch Mob"...it was Looby, Weaver, and Raymond! They had decided they were all going to be lynched that night or none of them would be lynched. The police now worried that their were too many witnesses and that there might be another riot if 4 men "went missing" drove the group into Columbia to book Marshall for drunk driving. The judge sensed that this was a police "frame up" and immediately released Marshall and his friends.