Moore: These two Reconstruction lawyers found success in Chattanooga at the turn of the century

Styles Hutchins practiced law in Chattanooga at the turn of the century.

Editor's note: First of two parts. Read the second part here.

Born in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in 1852, Styles Hutchins did not lead the life of a typical black man in the years after the Civil War. His father, a wealthy artist, sent him to the private black Atlanta University. Upon graduation, Hutchins began a teaching career and in 1871 was named principal of the Knox Institute, a private black school in Athens, Georgia.

An ambitious young man, he resigned his position in 1873 and entered the University of South Carolina School of Law. After graduation, he was admitted to practice before the South Carolina Supreme Court. For a time he served as a judge but resigned following the Democratic Party's return to power and departed for Atlanta.

Seeking admission to practice law in Georgia, he was subject to an 1875 state law requiring lawyers to pass an examination by the presiding judge. The white judge publicly declared the admission of "a Negro upon social professional equality with white men was an innovation hardly to be tolerated."

Hutchins fought back and after a six-month struggle became the first African American admitted to the Georgia Bar. He reportedly tired of the racial atmosphere in Georgia and in 1881 moved to Chattanooga, where he opened a law practice.

Ever eager for a challenge, Hutchins in 1882 entered into a partnership with other black leaders to establish The Independent Age, the first newspaper in Chattanooga owned and operated solely by African American men. Hutchins was the first editor. Using the newspaper as a platform, he entered politics as a Republican and in 1886 was elected to the Tennessee State Legislature. A follower of W.E.B. DuBois, Hutchins' speeches and writings attacked whites who would deny the rights of black people.

He served one term and returned to the practice of law in 1888. Remaining active in politics, he wrote a letter that year to The Chattanooga Times endorsing Democrat Grover Cleveland for president, stating white Republicans "did not now care whether he (the Negro) is protected or not."

Hutchins was ordained a minister by the United Brethren in Christ church in 1901. Styles Hutchins loved to preach, and his fiery style in the pulpit made him a popular figure. He had a wife and children, but little is otherwise known of his family.

Norah Parden practiced law in Chattanooga at the turn of the century.

Norah Parden was born near Rome, Georgia, in 1868. His mother was a former slave who worked as a cook and housekeeper. His father was an unidentified white man. His mother died when he was 7, and young Noah was sent to an orphanage.

At age 16, Parden settled in Chattanooga. For five years, he supported himself as a barber and a carpenter while attending Howard High School. During his 1890 graduation, he presented the class oration, "The Duty of a Citizen." Parden enrolled as a senior in the law department of Central Tennessee College in Nashville. Graduating at the top of his class in 1891, he returned to Chattanooga and opened a law practice with another black attorney, James Easley. The two published a newspaper, The Chattanooga Herald. Later Parden joined Hutchins at The Independent Age.

Parden married Mattie Broyles of Dalton, Georgia, in 1892. The couple had two children, Frank and Lillian.

By the turn of the century, Parden had a successful law practice with a reputation as an effective defense attorney able to obtain victories for his African American clients as they faced all-white juries.

On Jan. 23, 1906, Nevada Taylor, a 21-year-old white woman, left her bookkeeping job at Brooks Grocery on Market Street. Taking one of the new electric trolleys, she arrived in St. Elmo across the street from the Lookout Mountain Incline and walked toward the house on the Forest Hills Cemetery grounds that she shared with her father, cemetery Superintendent William Taylor, and her brother. Near the cemetery gates she was attacked from behind by a man who choked her with a leather strap. She was thrown over a wall, raped and left unconscious.

Three days later, Ed Johnson, a 24-year-old black man, was arrested and charged with the rape of Taylor.

Johnson's trail, lynching, and the resulting Supreme Court case forever linked Styles Hutchins and Norah Parden to this tragic event.

Gay Moore is the author of numerous articles and two books, "Chattanooga's St Elmo" and "Chattanooga' Forest Hills Cemetery." Contact her at gaymoore@comcast.net. For more visit chattahistoricalassoc.org.