Federal building officially drops name of Klansman, now named only for prominent Black judge

Lucas Finton, Memphis Commercial Appeal
·3 min read
The Horton family pulls down the curtain on the new sign bearing Judge Odell Horton's name, officially naming the federal building in Memphis after Horton alone.
The Horton family pulls down the curtain on the new sign bearing Judge Odell Horton's name, officially naming the federal building in Memphis after Horton alone.

Clifford Davis' name was officially stripped off the title of 167 N. Main St. Monday morning. The building is now the Odell Horton Federal Building.

The name change came last December, when President Joe Biden signed HR 390, a bipartisan bill authored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee) to drop the name of Davis, a segregationist with ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

The building is now named for the first Black judge in West Tennessee since Reconstruction.

After his election to Congress in 2007, Cohen had pushed for Horton's name to be added. His efforts were ultimately successful and, at an unveiling ceremony Monday he spoke about biding his time to have Davis' name dropped entirely.

"I considered naming it for Judge Horton alone at the time, but didn't know if it was the right time," Cohen said. "I was a freshman Congress person sitting at the lowest level, which is where a freshman sits, looking up high at the first row where the chairman sits. Well, I introduced my first bill a little nervous. And all of the sudden, I hear this voice from the first row. 'Clifford Davis, sat right over here. One day, somebody got mad at somebody and said some bad words. Clifford Davis said, 'Why you being so mean?''" And all I could think of was, 'My God, the only person who knows who Clifford Davis was, is the chairman of the committee.' It was not the right time. The right time was now."

Clifford Davis-Odell Horton Federal Building in Memphis Wednesday, March 25, 2020.
Clifford Davis-Odell Horton Federal Building in Memphis Wednesday, March 25, 2020.

The ceremony took place with some of Memphis' most prominent political figures, along with representatives from both Tennessee's senators and Horton's family.

Previously: Senate vote clears way for renaming of Memphis' downtown federal building exclusively after Odell Horton

New look: Ida B. Wells Plaza in Memphis to undergo renovations. Here's a look at what's planned.

"It's hard to be able to believe the positive impact on this city and our father wanted us to say that his wife, our mother Evie, was the driving force behind the success," Odell Horton Jr., the son of Judge Horton, said Monday. "Our father lived by very simple Bible verse: 'What does the Lord require you to do? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.'"

The event ended with the Horton family pulling a black curtain from the new sign, which now prominently features Odell Horton's name, followed by a parting benediction delivered by his brother, Max Horton.

Odell Horton died in February 2006, at the age of 76.

Horton worked in a number of positions in his life, but is prominently remembered as a federal prosecutor. He was the first Black assistant U.S. attorney in West Tennessee and served in that role for five years before being appointed to serve as a judge for the Shelby County Criminal Court. His legal career would culminate in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve on a federal bench in West Tennessee.

Lucas Finton is a news reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Klansman no longer officially named for federal building in Memphis