Q. Who was the first African American from Hamilton County to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly since Reconstruction?
A. The late Clarence “C.B.” Robinson served 18 years in the House of Representatives from 1974-92 and was a founder of the Black Caucus. His legacy lives on today in part through the bridge over the Tennessee River, not far from the Chickamauga Dam, that bears his name. “The naming of the bridge is a significant representation of him being a bridge builder,” former Chattanooga Commissioner John Franklin, himself a pioneering figure in the city’s history, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press just after Robinson died in 2002 at the age of 90 “He was involved with every significant organization in town that advocated advancement and opportunities for people.” Before serving in the legislature, Robinson spent 39 years as an educator, the paper reported, and he and his wife, Lillian, were early civil rights activists. “C.B. Robinson has done more in one lifetime than most people could do in three,” former Chattanooga Mayor Jon Kinsey told the paper in 2002 “His devotion to the betterment of this community and the advancement of his race has been an inspiration to people of conscience all over the country.”
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Staff photo / People pass by the C.B. Robinson Bridge while on the Riverwalk in Chattanooga in 2012. The bridge opened in 1981 and is named after the first African American from Hamilton County to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly since Reconstruction.