March 16, 1958: White Supremacists Bomb Jewish Community Center

Nashville’s Jewish Community Center following the March 16, 1958, white supremacist bombing. Source: PBS

On the evening of March 16, 1958, dynamite destroyed a section of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Nashville, just hours after families and children had departed. Just that same morning, a bomb had been planted at the Temple Beth-El in Miami, Florida, damaging the synagogue’s school wing. According to anonymous callers following each of these bombings, these white supremacist attacks were done as a warning against school desegregration.

According to an article by Betsy Phillips for Nashville Scene,

Rabbi Silverman of The Temple out in Belle Meade received a call before he had even heard the news of the explosion. His wife answered the phone and according to The Tennessean and the FBI, the caller said, “I am a member of the Confederate Union. We have just dynamited the Jewish Community Center. Next will be The Temple, and next [. . .] we’re going to shoot down Judge Miller in cold blood.” Judge William Miller was the judge overseeing Nashville’s school integration.

The Historical Marker Database states,

The JCC, which was located here from 1952–84, often hosted community meetings aimed at desegregating Nashville’s schools and communities based on the Jewish values of equality and justice for all. Rabbi William Silverman received a call from the “Confederate Underground” claiming responsibility for the bombing. The JCC opened one day later to demonstrate its resilience.

Jewish Community Center Bombing Marker. Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, March 28, 2020. Source: The Historical Marker Database

Phillips continued,

By the end of 1958, the Anti-Defamation League had a pretty clear theory of the bombing, which they recognized as being a part of a region-wide wave of terrorism. On November 11, 1957, there was an attempted bombing at the Temple Beth El in Charlotte, North Carolina; on February 9, 1958, there was an attempted bombing at the Temple Emanuel in Gastonia, North Carolina, The Beth-El temple in Miami was bombed the same day as our JCC, on April 27, a black high school and a Jewish synagogue were bombed in Jacksonville, Florida, and the next day, April 28, The Temple Beth El in Birmingham, Alabama, had a bombing attempt; and then on October 12, the Temple in Atlanta was blown up.

The Confederate Underground claimed responsibility by phone in many of these bombings.

Learn more about these white supremacist attacks during the Civil Rights Movement in the book Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control by Betsy Phillips.