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A resolution honoring the life of Civil Rights leader King Hollands.
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WHEREAS, Mr. King Madison Hollands was born on November 29, 1941, to parents Edward Harvey Hollands and Irene Madison Hollands; and
WHEREAS, a Nashville native, he became one of the first 14 Black students to integrate Father Ryan High School in the fall of 1954. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in schools unconstitutional in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands became a leader and participant in the Nashville Student Movement in 1959, challenging racial segregation in Nashville; and
WHEREAS, he studied physics at Fisk University where he met Jim Lawson, Diane Nash, John Lewis, and Bernard Lafayette, who fought racial segregation through protests; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands had been trained in nonviolent protest at the famous Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, where Rosa Parks and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. were also trained by longtime union organizer Myles Horton; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands was arrested in February 1960 for participating in a lunch counter sit-in at Woolworth’s and spent two weeks in jail; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands continued to be an active community leader, helping to found and lead the Nashville Civil Rights Veterans Association (“NCRVA”), with the purpose of preserving the historical legacy of the Nashville Movement by engaging in narrative presentations to groups, especially the youth. The week that he passed away, he was set to be part of ceremony where NCRVA received the “Fannie Lou Hamer Human Rights Defender Award” at Tennessee State University.; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands sought to preserve African American history in Nashville and also vigorously worked to protect and care for the Edgehill neighborhood, where he grew up. He was also part of the effort to save the Morris building and worked on saving Woolworth’s and the homes of local civil rights figures like Z. Alexander Looby; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands was also a presiding officer for ONE -- Organized Neighbors of Edgehill -- whose goal was to provide scholarships, housing and address community needs that made it a safe place to live and work. He also served as a commissioner on the Metro Human Relations Commission; and
WHEREAS, he also attended New York University’s Graduate School of Business and Vanderbilt University’s Engineering Management Program. His professional history included work as a research physicist for Celanese Corporation, in corporate management with AT&T, business development with ICBO New York, assistant director at MEDCO, business manager and adjunct professor at American Baptist College, assistant director of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise of Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development, and information systems manager with TennCare; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands received a key to the city of Nashville in 2021 as a Civil Rights Hero, present by Mayor John Cooper at the first John Lewis celebration; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands passed away on December 17, 2023. He is survived by his children Kisha Turner, Konya Williams, and King Hollands, along with ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Hollands will be remembered as a Civil Rights icon who continuously labored to make Nashville and Davidson County a better place to live for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY:
Section 1. That the Metropolitan County Council hereby goes on record as honoring the life of Civil Rights leader King Hollands.
Section 2. This Resolution shall take effect from and after its adoption, the welfare of The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County requiring it.