Tennessee Judge Richard Dinkins, who paved the way for desegregating Nashville schools, has died

The first Black member of the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Judge Richard Dinkins, has died. He began his career as a law clerk, before later winning a Nashville school desegregation case.

Dinkins was known as a titan of justice and passionate civil rights activist. In 2019, he was honored with the Nelson C. Andrews Distinguished Service Award at the Nashville Public Education Foundation.

He was mostly known for winning the school desegregation case in Davidson County, settled in 1998. When he appeared on WPLN’s The Promise, he was critical of the lack of change that came after the case.

“Even now, even now, with 43 years, the system is segregated — through the same sort of decision-making that segregated it in the first place,” said Dinkins. “What have we learned?”

Dinkins served as the president of the Napier-Looby Bar Association in 1985 and as a cooperating attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

He retired from the Tennessee Court of Appeals in 2022, after serving for 16 years.