State Rep. Tommie Brown remembers her father relaxing on the porch of her childhood home, spotting a young man walking down the street and saying, “look at him — that little Mapp boy is going to be somebody someday.”
On Saturday, the James R. Mapp State Office Building was named in honor of that same little boy who played a major role in desegregating Chattanooga city schools.
Mr. Mapp’s desegregation work began when he sued the school system in 1960 to get a court order to integrate city schools. He lost his government job, received death threats and found a declining client base for the insurance and real estate agency he owned.
The lawsuit ushered in 27 years of court oversight of Chattanooga’s desegregation efforts.
“I’ve seen it come down from the point where ‘whites only’ signs were here and ‘colored only’ signs were there,” he said.