From the President

August 2022 | Martesha L. Johnson

I love Nashville! Not in the love embodied by guests to our beloved city celebrating their bachelorette party or hanging out on Broadway. That love for Nashville is great, but it pales in comparison to the love held by a Nashville native. I have that born-and-raised in Nashville kinda love and it runs deep in my soul.

Born at Vanderbilt Medical Center. North, East and South Nashville raised. A proud Metro Nashville Public Schools graduate (go Whites Creek Cobras!). A Tennessee State University Tiger. And now Nashville’s Chief Public Defender.

I have spent my life in this city and my devotion to its legacy means more now to me than ever before! Long gone are the days I spent at Fountain Square, hanging with Mom at Summer Lights, or having pizza with my friends at Pizza Hut on Clarksville Highway.

Now my childhood neighborhoods are graced with million-dollar homes. Now Nashville is the “IT” city, with a beautiful cityscape attractive to tourists, corporations and major sporting events.

This same Nashville is experiencing a widening wealth divide along with:

• an affordable housing crisis

• increasing education disparities for public school students

• a lack of resources for our neighbors experiencing homelessness, and

• disproportionate arrest and incarnation rates for members of our Black & Brown communities.

I have spent many days wondering what Nashville is becoming. And what is our responsibility as the Nashville Bar Association in writing Nashville’s next chapter?

All my columns to date have had a recurring theme… a plea to you, my colleagues and friends, to use our incredible responsibility as lawyers to lead our community into the next era. We should be partnering to make sure that while Nashville claims the throne as the “IT” city, it becomes the “IT” city for everyone desiring to make a home in Nashville and not just a few. Now is an important time for pro bono partnerships with agencies on the frontlines of equity, education and housing. The time is ripe for lawyers to seek non-traditional leadership roles, engage in policy making and run for office. Our Nashville neighbors need us!

In closing, I recall the late Rep. John Lewis’ remarks when he accepted the ABA’s Thurgood Marshall award in August 2019, “We need the law to be on the side of the people. We need members of the bar more than ever before to find a way to get in the way, to get in good trouble, necessary trouble. When you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just, you have to say something, you have to do something.” He continued, “We need your leadership. We need your vision. We need your dedication now more than ever before to help save our country, to help save democracy and continue to build what Dr. King and many of us call ‘the beloved community,’ to help redeem the soul of America.” I keep Rep. Lewis’ Nashville mugshot as a reminder of my responsibility to get in the way.

I love Nashville and am honored to serve.

In solidarity,

Martesha