NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Cleanup had already begun in Nashville early Sunday morning along Broadway Street - known for the city's famous honky tonks - after protesters broke windows, lit fires and destroyed light poles the night before.
Metro Nashville Police said in a tweet that at least 30 businesses and buildings were damaged after a peaceful demonstration turned violent on Saturday. Fires were lit inside and outside the city's historic courthouse and a statue of a former state lawmaker and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views was toppled.
Mayor John Cooper described Saturday as a "heartbreaking night" for Nashville, noting that the area had recently already faced a fatal tornado nearly three months before that shortly followed the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cooper, as well as other community leaders, lamented that most of the destruction centered around the Metro Nashville Courthouse and City Hall.
"Our metro courthouse, iconic for its role in the civil rights movement, was the site of much of tonight's reprehensible vandalism," Cooper said. "Sixty years ago, 3,000 nonviolent protesters marched to that same courthouse in a milestone moment for integration and yet tonight that same courthouse was defaced and set on fire."
Gov. Bill Lee authorized the National Guard to mobilize at the request of Cooper. More than 300 guardsman had been tapped to help in the "restoring order and limiting the destruction of property for as long as needed," according to a statement.
Meanwhile, Metro Nashville Police tweeted that 28 people were arrested during the protest and four others were arrested after a 10 p.m. curfew was implemented Saturday evening.
Demonstrators earlier in the evening pulled down a statue outside the state Capitol of Edward Carmack.
Carmack was a politician in the early 1900s who wrote editorials lambasting the writings of prominent Tennessee civil rights journalist Ida B. Wells.
He was fatally shot in 1908 by a political rival.
The protest occurred as demonstrators across the country protested the death of George Floyd, a black man who pleaded for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck. The officer has been fired and faces criminal charges.