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A resolution honoring the life of former Chancellor and Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge Richard H. Dinkins.
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WHEREAS, the Honorable Richard H. Dinkins passed away on October 1, 2023; and,
WHEREAS, Judge Dinkins was born in Nashville on August 30, 1952, when his father was pastor of First Baptist Church in East Nashville; and,
WHEREAS, Judge Dinkins attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and returned to Nashville to enroll at the Vanderbilt University Law School; and,
WHEREAS, Judge Dinkins clerked for the Honorable Avon N. Williams, Jr., while at Vanderbilt and first began his work on Kelley v. Metropolitan County Board of Education, a case which sought to end segregation in Nashville and Davidson County public schools; and,
WHEREAS, after graduating law school in 1977, Judge Dinkins worked tirelessly to advance civil rights in Nashville and Davidson County in private practice for more than twenty years; and,
WHEREAS, Judge Dinkins continued to represent the plaintiffs in Kelley, a case that forever changed Nashville and Davidson County public schools and was resolved through a final settlement in 1998; and,
WHEREAS, Judge Dinkins also served as a cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and a cooperating attorney for the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and,
WHEREAS, after working as a partner of Williams and Dinkins and later as a member of Dodson, Parker, Dinkins, & Behm, P.C., Judge Dinkins was appointed in 2003 to serve as Chancellor for Part IV of the Davidson County Chancery Court; and,
WHEREAS, Governor Phil Bredesen appointed Judge Dinkins in 2008 to serve a judge in the Middle Section of the Tennessee Court of Appeals; and,
WHEREAS, Judge Dinkins authored hundreds of opinions and heard thousands of civil cases during his nearly twenty years on the bench; and,
WHEREAS, Judge Dinkins was known as a brilliant jurist, an exceptional writer, and a public servant with integrity be...
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