America about the waverley Train Derailment and and im sorry about a Train Derailment in waverly, tennessee dr. Ali is a cardiology and former president of the vanderbilt history of medicine society. She graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt Universitys college arts and science with a bachelors degree in molecular biology and and then she attended Vanderbilt School of medicine and she still lives near waverly, tennessee. So in turn the floor over to her, dr. Ellie, thank you. My reading is from the introduction to the book but the end after the taylor is of metal and machine have had their turn. We always eventually find that what it down to is the people involved the people who lived the people died, the people who endured with uncommon bravery, who cleaned the mess and who were to deal with the aftermath and all that entailed. This book, a true story told to me directly from the mouths of these very people, the ones who were there and lived it firsthand, who emerged from the wreckage with the scars to show and the stories to tell. This is the first book to relate the history of the waverly train disaster from beginning end, while focusing specifically on the remarkable of individuals, all walks of life who came together in the tiny two room Emergency Department of waverly nautilus Memorial Hospital on that fateful day in. 1978, thrown together by the worst and most unexpected circum stances imaginable to them, they are people. I have been fortunate enough to know all my life because waverly is my. Two of them are my own parent aids physicians who had from the middle east years earlier and chose waverly lee as their new and forever home. And had they not been there that day. Many more lives would have been lost or permanently disabled due to the explosion and its aftermath and the narratives that follows draws upon more ten years of interviews local documentation and primary Source Research to tell the story of the train disaster and its consequences is as experienced by. The people who were actually there on the ground at the time like so who rise to the occasion when. Tragedy strikes the people in this narrative are Unsung Heroes true small town heroes. Those who toil endlessly so often behind the scenes to, save life and limb. They ask for little if any recognition or reward but they and all who know them remain forever changed by their bravery and selflessness. They dont expect or lord, but at some the time must come their story to be told this is their story. This is their time. And were fortunate enough have with us here today one of these very people, one of the people who is featured quite a bit in this book, mr. Frank craver, would stand up for us, please. So everyone see you. Mr. Craver was a First Responder and is one of the survivors of the and he is always happy to to anyone afterward who has questions so he will be around for you. Thank you so much i love your focus on that your and family and friends in this for those of you who not familiar with this event, dr. Lee, could you give us a little sort of overview of of what happened and how it unfolded and then also lay some of the national. Ramifications of that event . Sure. So on the night of wednesday, february 22nd, 1978, a little over 45 years ago, a 96 car land freight derailed in the center of tennessee among the 23 wrecked cars were to propane tankers full. 30,000 gallons of liquid propane due days later at 2 55 p. M. On the afternoon on a friday february 24th, one of those tankers exploded during the cleanup efforts, it took 16 lives and all waverly newtowns section with it. More than 200 people were injured. It was one of the worst train explosions of the 20th century and was entirely preventable. The immediate root cause, that of a Railroad Employee failing to check the brakes on a gondola car that was to the train before it reached waverly. So the handbrake was left and the friction that built up as the train went along toward waverly cracked that wheel all the way through. And when it hit the switch in the tracks at richland crossing and waverly, it pulled its own car over on its side, and the two cars behind it. And so the train explosion in waverly was, a very big deal at the time and for a long time afterward made both national and international. And any of you who were here in the region will remember it to Business Days after the explosion and the National Governors association released their recommendation for the establishment of a federal agency for emergency. Because what we had before then was sort of a chaotic hodgepodge of state and local agencies and Civil Defense forces. And thats what was available at the time in waverly. And it had become very clear that that was not working. There was no central authority, and there was a lot of chaos. Whenever we had a disaster like this. And so the National Governors association had found a welcome listener in the president. The time president jimmy carter, who had been looking at ways to improve the nations Emergency Response and Disaster Preparedness capabilities. And so just over a year after waverly train disaster, on march 31st 1979, president carter issued an executive order officially creating the federal Emergency Management agency, or fema, and that origin story, femas origin story is in the book as well. And i think its a fascinating one so make all the of this fascinating. I would like you to talk a little bit this is an off script question for which i apologize, but i would like you to talk a little bit about your process for research and your choices for narrating the story about a town, about people for which you have such evident admiration and affection well, as i mentioned, was a process took over ten years because this history had never been told paper before. And so there was a lot of there were a lot of interviews, a lot of reaching out to people, trying to find who would talk to me, who who, the survivors were and i mentioned this in the in the acknowledgments. It might be the longest acknowledgments in the history of books. There were some there were so many people who helped me with this. And one of the people who was integral to putting me, in touch with everyone was my fathers scrub nurse, miss carolyn tucker. We her as sam and she she would call around to people when she found out that i was really interested in this and writing the book and say, you yasmin is writing a book about the train disaster, would you talk to her . And she would just put me in touch with person after person. And then, you know, sometimes i would go back to those people five years later, after i had talked to more people, found more documentation and, and was trying to put the puzzle parts together and oh, thats okay. Now what about this and what about this . And people were so patient and kind with me and generous with these were very bad memories. And so it was incredible. I felt an incredible responsibility and it was an incredible honor that they share them with me. Thanks. So we have just a couple. Well, no, we have about 5 minutes left. So do you think that there were other important outcomes from waverly . Yeah, absolutely. You know, as we mentioned, the train disaster was a terrible tragedy and one never had to happen. But if anything good came it, it was the scope of magnitude and the magnitude of the national change, because it revolutionized rail safety. Hazardous materials and Emergency Response in this country and in other countries. Well, it prompted the overhauling of the u. S. Railroad industry from top to bottom. The way train you train wheels are manufactured to the design of the couplers that hold the train cars together to the insulation and labeling of tank cars to the maintenance, the tracks. All of that came out of waverly. A lot of a lot of it weve taken for granted today the one mile evacuation zone that gets put into place when a tanker Hazardous Materials is in jeopardy. We saw that this past february in east palestine, ohio. That Safety Response came out of waverly and, important tennessee institution that was a direct result of the waverly train disaster, or was the tennessee Hazardous Materials institute, which we still have today and has served as a model for hazmat handling and training all across the nation. It was created in 1980 by governor ray blanton, who by executive order who had been president present in waverly, that friday night in 1978, while the fires were burning. And so saw firsthand the magnitude of what happens when Hazardous Materials are mishandled and poorly contained. And so he created that institute. Another remarkable was the staggers rail act of 1980, which was landmark federal legislation that allowed the Railroad Industry to remain privatized while still requiring the full of new safety standards. And for decades, it worked. Railroads did become safer fact as a result of all these changes during the 12 years from 1994 through 25 Railroad Accidents involving materials resulted in a total of 14 like 14 fatalities, which was less the 16 fatalities seen in waverly in a single afternoon. So now over the past year, weve seen a resurgence in Train Derailment and hazmat. But we not seen the loss of life that we saw in waverly and a lot of that is because of the lessons were learned there. Thanks. So with a couple of minutes left. Are there any other lessons from waverly that we need to Pay Attention to today that you feel are important . Yeah, there is one more id like to highlight. Its a i think its a very important one and very resonant for today. It struck me when i had finished the book that the overall story of the waverly train disaster is one about the triumph of community over chaos and how resilient we can be when we all come together. Waverly, a community that has now bounced back from two major disasters, the train disaster in 17 eight and the Flood Disaster, a massive Flood Disaster that killed more people than the train disaster did. In fact, in 2021. And it could never have bounced back from from those either time if it werent the Titanic Community that it is, one that pulls together and where people have each others backs in hard times. And i think we need more waverly in this world. I think thats the lesson . Thank you so much. Okay, so as much as it pains me, were going to move on to our next author whom you will also be interested to hear from. This is Rachel Louise martin, whos a most tolerant little the explosive beginning of school desegregation, which happened in clinton, tennessee which is something thats been almost completely forgotten in our history books until rachel did massive work figuring this all out. So let me just tell you a little bit about rachel before i turn the floor over to her. Shes in and a writer whose work has appeared in the atlantic and, oxford american, among other publications. Shes also the author of hot, hot chicken, a history of Nashville Hot chicken and shes especially interested in the politics of memory power. The power of stories to illuminate why injustice persists in america today. And she lives here, nashville. So im turning the floor over to rachel. Thank you for that. Yes. So if you havent heard about what happened in clinton, tennessee in 1956, do not feel alone. You are not the only one. But it was, in fact, the first court mandated school in america in 1956. In august of that year 12, black students walked into Clinton High School. There were massive riots as a result. Eventually, tennessees governor called out the National Guard, but he called out the National Guard to enforce the court order instead of to prevent it. Like orval faubus would a year later, the school was bombed and destroyed and rebuilt by an International Fund raising headed up by billy graham. Of course, there were journalists around the world, in town. Cover it during those years. At one point there were five photographer for us from life magazine in there. The New York Times had people there. The bbc was covering it. Edward murrow did two Award Winning documentaries, town and must have. Youve never heard of it. So that is what i set out to fix. Here we go. The process forgetting an event as important as the desegregation of Clinton High School sounds passive, but it requires an active correction of the record. When i started my work, clinton and back in 2005, my first oral history interview was with Margaret Anderson, a white woman who had been the high schools business and typing teacher. She had served as the unofficial guidance counselor for the 12 black students, though she had not believed in desegregation. When the 1956 school year began, she did believe in obeying law. The black students to remain in clinton high changed into a true integrationist. She wrote about desegregation in a series of articles for the New York Times, which she later expanded into a memoir. The children of the south, in her narrative, she sent her to black students and castigated many white leaders. Maybe that was why when i was introduced to her by a local white official just old enough to have seen for himself, he admonished her. Now, remember miss anderson, you lied in your book, he said. You tell, rachel, what we agreed had occurred. Right after he left. Margaret made me a mug of instant coffee, and we sat down in her parlor to chat. She was nervous when dont want you to record it. Can i just raise my hand something . Give you a signal . She asked me. That way i feel free. You know what mean . I didnt it that morning in Margaret Andersons kitchen. But i would spend the next 18 years of my life, immerse in the stories. The people of clinton had to share. Whether neighbors wanted them to or not. As each person i spoke with would show me William Faulkner was right. History wasnt dead. It was barely even the past. And i dont just mean that story is told by grandparents and great lived on in their descendants minds. This history was so recent that many of the participants themselves were still alive when. Locals looked at pictures of white writer around the school. They knew the faces captured on film. These were the people that they shopped with at the local food city or worshiped with at First Baptist church or traded presents with every christmas. The people in the pictures birthed and raised them. The best way to settle the conflict over desegregation was to let it lie. Many white folks said, or, as one founder of the tennessee white youth told honey, there was a lot ugliness down at the school that year. Best we just move on and forget it. But the rest of the world did forget. About clinton high. The student and teachers and parents and townspeople affected by the story could not. Their experiences had changed them scarred them, broken them. Some were able to rebuild their lives, but others were not. To people id come to admire complicated individuals with a hammer. Its necessary for classical heroes never recovered. Both would die by. The first lesson of this book is this history is the of human beings individuals responding to events already in motion and, seldom under their control. Along the way, many of them end up doing things they never expected. Sometimes they act bravely changing their world for good. At other times they do to people they would have called friends. Very few of us are simply heroes or villains. None of us deserves to be remembered for only the very best or very worst things we done. And yet we must be accountable for our damage and a lot of damage was done in those years. Its a powerful book. And if you havent read it, i cant wait for you to read this one, too. Rachel. Question id like to start with, is this and im quoting from you, you say that the events in clinton challenge how we talk about rights history. And id like you to elaborate on that a little. Yeah, i dont think its an accident that we have forgotten this tiny little town in appalachia where 12 black teenagers proved that brown versus could be implemented in the American South and it could happen immediately. I dont think its an accident that we erased a story that showed that Decisive Action on the part of authorities or determination on the part of students and. Teachers could begin to revolutionize america. Instead of telling that story, we actually with the story of little rock, and it is also a very important story to tell, but it is a story of failure. It a story that says this could not be done. It is a story that says the south is not ready. Its a story, says a governor whos a racial moderate, be pressured into enforce housing segregation. And the story clinton challenge challenges all that. If you look at whats happening in education in america today, schools are more segregated today than they were. In 1968, and they are rapidly resegregating. Not only that, the funding of American Public schools is plummeting because and many, many, many people as a result are very understandably pulling children out and putting them into other systems. What that means is that those kids who need most opportunity, who need public investment, are getting less and less of. And we can explain that away if we start with a story of failure. If we start with a story like clinton which is a very, very. Costly and h