NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As confrontations between police and the black community once again trigger public outcry, law enforcement leaders around the country are looking for new ways to restore trust.
In Tennessee, they've turned to the Nashville library's rich archive on the movement to teach new recruits about past injustices, hoping the lessons of history will foster even-handed police work.
For several years, the library's Civil Rights Room has become the setting for regular programs about the role civil rights leaders like John Lewis, Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette and James Lawson played in the push for equal treatment.
Some Nashville officers who visited the room while on a leadership tour were so impressed that they asked the library to develop a curriculum for new recruits, and later for veteran law enforcement officers.
The sessions with new recruits quickly became a core part of their training.