The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee and the Supreme Court Historical Society will host the opening of an exhibit created by the students of the 2024 “Supreme Court and My Hometown” summer civics camp at the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building and United States Courthouse Thursday, Oct. 24, 5 p.m.
The camp was presented by the district court, the Supreme Court Historical Society and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. It was part of the society’s new Hometowns program, which engages high school students in a study of the process and substance of cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Each program uses a local case that reached the Supreme Court to teach the students in a personalized way about the U.S. court system.
The Chattanooga program was the first Hometowns summer civics camp. It gave 20 area high school students and five college student mentors an in-depth look at the historic cases of Ed Johnson and United States v. Shipp.
During the two-week camp, the students learned from and asked questions of federal and state judges, prominent attorneys, college professors, a bestselling author and others. They also analyzed contemporary media coverage and toured relevant historical sites around Chattanooga.
The exhibit consists of five large panels the students created as their capstone project. The panels share with the community the legal and historical lessons the students gained from the Hometowns camp, including the lasting impact of the cases they studied.
The panels will remain on display outside the third-floor courtroom of the federal building.
The camp examined the case of Ed Johnson, a young Black man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in state court in 1906. After the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution to review Johnson’s trial, a mob broke into the jail and lynched Johnson.
In response, the Supreme Court conducted its first and only criminal trial, United States v. Shipp, finding the Hamilton County Sheriff and five others involved in the lynching guilty of contempt of court.