Franklin McCallie shares a laugh with Cheryl Franklin Key at an award banquet by the Alton Park Development Corp. at Stratton Hall.Chattanooga civil rights leaders were recognized Thursday night by the Alton Park Development Corporation at the inaugural John P. Franklin Humanitarian Award Banquet and Roast.
The black-tie event at Stratton Hall was attended by several hundred and commemorated the 50th anniversary of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race and ended unfair voting requirements and the segregation of schools and public facilities.
John P. Franklin, who attended the banquet held in his honor, was the city’s first and only black vice mayor, the first black city commissioner and the first black president of the Tennessee Board of Education.
Educator and social justice advocate Franklin McCallie was awarded the John P. Franklin Humanitarian Award for his efforts today to bring together blacks and whites and his stand against segregation in the 1960s and 1970s when the issue was being debated in Chattanooga and in his own family.
McCallie is a descendant of one of the city’s most influential families, which founded the prestigious McCallie School. His father was headmaster at the school in that era, but the young McCallie refused to teach there because the school was not yet integrated. He taught instead at one of the city’s all-black schools.