Patricia Watson had not pre-registered for school, so nobody knew she was attending Hattie Cotton Elementary. At the end of that first day, a mob had formed outside the school as word spread through Nashville of her integration. Margaret Cate, the principal of the school, snuck Patricia out the back and delivered her safely to her family at a police station.
In the early morning hours of September 10, 1957, a group of white supremacists threw a bundle of dynamite and blew up the east side of Hattie Cotton Elementary. The bombing caused extensive damage to the school building, shattering windows, and destroying classrooms. No one was injured or killed, as the bombing occurred before students and teachers arrived for the second day of school.
The school reopened nine days later. Patricia Watson did not return and enrolled in the all-black Head Elementary School.