In the fall of 1955, A.Z. Kelley walked with his son Robert to his neighborhood high school—East High on Gallatin Road—to enroll for the year. The staff refused to register them in defiance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown versus Board of Education. Kelly became the lead plaintiff in the suit “Kelly versus Board of Education of City of Nashville” that was filed against the Nashville Board of Education and included twenty other families.
The image on your screen accompanying this entry shows A.Z. Kelley and his legal team. A.Z. Kelly is standing on the far right. With him, from left to right are - Reverend Kelly Miller Smith – Supreme Court lawyer Thurgood Marshall – and Nashville attorney Z. Alexander Looby.
It took a heavy push by Civil Rights activists and integration supporters before a plan was officially enacted in Nashville. The Nashville Board of Education created the "stair-step plan" as the integration process. In practice, one school grade a year starting with first grade would be integrated.
School desegregation in Nashville had begun.