Ep. 24 A Conversation with The Dreamer, Judge John McClarty

From the time he was four years old, John McClarty desired of becoming a lawyer. Even in a time when the civil rights movement was evolving and significant Supreme Court decisions were changing the world of education in which he was determined to practice law. In this episode, host Nick Morgan sits down with Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge John McClarty to discuss his autobiography, The Dreamer: John W. McClarty, Judge. Their conversation is filled with stories from Chattanooga in the 1950’s to a lifetime spanning two careers, as a lawyer and an appellate judge. 

This episode is for all audiences. 

Produced by Nick Morgan, Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts

Transcript

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00;00;00;03 - 00;00;22;29
Host
Welcome to Tennessee Court Talk. My name is Nick Morgan. For this episode, and to celebrate Black History Month, I have the pleasure of sitting down with Judge John McCarty of the Tennessee Court of Appeals to discuss his self authored book, The Dreamer. John W McLarty, a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he still lives today. The book details his life from before his childhood to his appointment to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

00;00;23;01 - 00;00;33;10
Host
Judge McCarty was voted onto the Court of Appeals bench in 2009 from the practice of law and still serves in that role. In 2024. Judge McLarty, welcome to Tennessee Court, doc.

00;00;33;15 - 00;00;34;13
Judge McClarty
Thank you.

00;00;34;15 - 00;00;48;09
Host
So I want to start talking about the impact your parents had on your life, your dad worked multiple tough jobs around the Chattanooga area. Your mother was a nurse. But, you know, we're talking about the 1940s and early 50s here. Describe to our listeners what home life was like during that time frame.

00;00;48;09 - 00;01;22;20
Judge McClarty
When I was born in 1948. As soon as I heard the earliest, I had memories of my home life at that point was, I think I was probably about, three and a half, four years old. I remember specifically, being around four years. So when I can, I can actually recall some things that happened. And, where we lived that at that time, it was before my mother became, before she went to school to become, LPN.

00;01;22;22 - 00;01;51;23
Judge McClarty
My dad, worked, a factory. He worked as a bellhop at a hotel. And basically, the work was not consistent. And the work was, he didn't make very much money, but, he made time. We did, to us. We lived a good life. We lived in a, a house, you can call it a house.

00;01;51;23 - 00;02;16;21
Judge McClarty
It was attached down to, what may be called a convenience store. We lived in the back of that convenience store. We did not have any, what I call inside facilities. No hot water? No toilet facilities. We had a toilet out back. No, Central Electric or anything like that. Any heat, like that.

00;02;16;23 - 00;02;22;27
Judge McClarty
But, to us, since that's all we knew, we live pretty good life.

00;02;23;00 - 00;02;40;14
Host
You know, even as the civil rights movement moved forward throughout your childhood, you mentioned that you only recall two race integrated events in Chattanooga before you left for college. So we're talking from 1948 to you leaving for college in, let's say, 1967. Your hometown still hadn't integrated.

00;02;40;17 - 00;03;19;09
Judge McClarty
Well, 1954 is when the Supreme Court ruled on that decision in Brown versus Board of Education, and, school integration in Tennessee, Chattanooga in particular. And, talking about what I actually experienced and what I so I'm not talking about what on paper, all during my school years, from elementary school to junior high school, I do remember, in the mid-sixties, and I'm talking about 66, 67.

00;03;19;12 - 00;03;45;13
Judge McClarty
There was some students, black students that, went to a white school. And I think, the idea was, we see nowadays somewhere around that, that, we could go to, different school, white school, and, there was some black students that did do that, but they were sent back, they, flunked them out.

00;03;45;15 - 00;03;55;13
Host
Yeah. I mean, I think, I think the ruling happens in 1954. Brown the Board of Education, and I think a lot of people think that the ruling happened in the country just started to integrate.

00;03;55;13 - 00;03;56;22
Judge McClarty
No.

00;03;56;24 - 00;04;00;18
Host
What motivated you to keep keep a promise to yourself to become a lawyer?

00;04;00;19 - 00;04;30;10
Judge McClarty
Well, I wanted, I developed this dream and when I was about four years old, and I'm not for sure as to why, how I got the dream. There was two incidents that happened in my life, that occurred that, I can relate to, that sort of led me on this path. One was my dad had a pickup truck, and he was hit in this pickup truck.

00;04;30;12 - 00;04;59;13
Judge McClarty
And he had to get a lawyer, to, file a claim for him or to, defend his action in case if he was at fault. And I don't know which one at the time, but I do know he did hire a lawyer. And when he talked about that lawyer, there was this look on his face that he was so, pleased with the lawyer, and it seemed like he was really happy.

00;04;59;13 - 00;05;21;07
Judge McClarty
Or, the lawyer really meant something to him. And I would, see that look on my dad's face as a kid and said, wow, I want my dad to look and talk about me like that. So that might have been one of the things that encouraged me to go in that field. The other one was my mom.

00;05;21;07 - 00;05;48;24
Judge McClarty
I heard her talking. She might have been talking to my dad or some other friends about this friend of hers who was killed by her estranged husband. She was killed with, ice pick, which was common at that time. Nobody had refrigerators that we knew. Everybody had ice. Icebox. Nice man. Come by in the morning, deliver ice, and when you get ice, you got to have ice pick.

00;05;48;29 - 00;06;18;00
Judge McClarty
So ice picks were common, and nobody knew what happened to her at the time. Apparently, if you, stab into me with an ice pick, pull it out. Everything cover up. You know, human body, it don't bleed, okay? It bleeds on. It's, And I remember her, telling us about that, and they didn't know, and she didn't tell, wouldn't tell what happened to all of when they performed an autopsy?

00;06;18;03 - 00;06;41;27
Judge McClarty
They found out that she had been stabbed in the heart. What an ice pick. Husband. And when my mother talked about that, I mean, it really tore up. I mean, I just couldn't. And even up until the time I bought the pad, I could not stand the hear or see my mother cry, I really could.

00;06;41;28 - 00;07;16;01
Judge McClarty
It just broke me up. And I think what happened was, is, once I heard her talking about that, and she was so strong in her feelings about it that, I just said to myself that I got to do something. I won't be, in some type of business or some type of job that help people resolve their problems and, difficulties and, peaceful and honorable way. So, people won't have to suffer like my mother suffered over the loss of her friend.

00;07;16;04 - 00;07;25;00
Host
So you mentioned in the book that you wanted to be a lawyer at a young age, but you didn't quite have the best grades in high school. In fact, you were on the path to become a bricklayer.

00;07;25;00 - 00;07;51;16
Judge McClarty
Well, I have always worked. I have always had some type of job with throwing paper, cutting grass, selling wood, cutting wood, selling wood, babysitting and all my life, even as a small kid, when I got into the eighth grade, I got this job in a store, grocery store. And we was working at the store.

00;07;51;16 - 00;08;22;08
Judge McClarty
I go to work at 8:00 in the morning and to 830, then go to school. Get out of school. About 3:00. And I had to be back at school about 4:00. And then, from there from 4:00 to about 7:00, seven, 730, 8:00 in the evening. And that was five days a week, you know, Saturday I'd be there in the mornings at 7:00 and then get after that seven, 8:00 at night with an hour of a break.

00;08;22;13 - 00;08;50;29
Judge McClarty
So that means that that was not a lot of time for studying. I did not realize, the detriment that I was causing myself educational wise, because I enjoyed working, but yet doing all this work, I was not able to keep, abreast, with, my education, so forth. So. And I did that all during, junior high school and in high school.

00;08;51;01 - 00;09;17;16
Judge McClarty
What happened was I found out at the end of my high school, as I was trying to get into college, that I was deficient educationally. In fact, that created a problem for me going to college. Attempted to get in, and made applications to numerous colleges. And I was not accepted that, one all in one college except me.

00;09;17;18 - 00;09;52;19
Judge McClarty
And that was Austin Peay, State University at the time in Clarksville, Tennessee. And I think looking back, the reason they accepted me, because at that year, 19 and 67, they were trying to increase the number of minority, students on that campus. Austin Peay may have only graduated maybe about 1 or 2, students, before I went there the year that I went there, I think they had gone all out to bring in black students, as many as they can bring in, to move about 25 or 30.

00;09;52;25 - 00;10;14;12
Judge McClarty
My class was the largest black class at Austin Peay, of 3500 students. Well, it had about 25 or 30 students in my class. So but they were willing to take a chance on me when I got my midterm grades for my first quarter there, they would send the midterms out to the parish. So that person know how we were doing.

00;10;14;16 - 00;10;36;04
Judge McClarty
And I got those grades and my grades were atrocious. I'm talking about really bad. I realized then that even though I had a desire to be a lawyer and graduate from college to be a lawyer, go to law school, I did not have the ability to do that. I was deficient academically, and, I thought about it.

00;10;36;10 - 00;11;04;03
Judge McClarty
What could I do? My mom, told me that maybe you can. If you can't do that, then maybe you can come back home and work. I didn't want to do that. It's that now I got this dream. And what happened was one of my, college professors, my English professor. Mr. Waters, the, he, was talking in class one day about students who were academically deficient.

00;11;04;06 - 00;11;36;27
Judge McClarty
So what you could do is, in addition to your regular, class were in college, you can get books from the library and you can study those books, books on education, and grammar, composition, mathematics and all those other subjects. And bring yourself up so that, it takes a lot of studying to do that, but you can bring your self up, to be proficient.

00;11;36;29 - 00;12;18;00
Judge McClarty
And that's what I did. And, I started that, that process, and we wound up and I said, we, my roommate and some of my friends pretty much living in the library, doing on my college town. And, a lot of that, would be studying, remedial studying and bringing ourselves, bringing myself most of them were already, good students and to the point where at the time I got ready to graduate from college, I was hitting close to the Dean's list, every quarter.

00;12;18;02 - 00;12;45;28
Judge McClarty
I graduated from college in 1971 and in 1997, which would have been, about 20, 26 years later, Austin Peay, did an article on me and, and the entire that article against the, let me read to you something one of, professor said this is, political science professor who was chairman of the Political Science department.

00;12;45;28 - 00;13;22;02
Judge McClarty
Doctor Vernon Ward. He said that I think John McLarty was one of the hardest working students, that he had ever taught. He said I had the feeling when he graduated that he would be very successful. More than that, he's a hard worker. He's personable, and he reaches out to people he has a positive sense about. And this professor, even 20 some years later, placed me in the category of being one of the hardest, most improved students that he had.

00;13;22;05 - 00;13;40;24
Host
It sounds like you were already starting to create good study habits. After reading the book, though, I feel like, you kind of revolutionized yourself during your time between college and law school. While serving in the Army. What about your time in Germany led you to more like a rigorous studying schedule? Because it feels like you really had an uptick in the book?

00;13;40;26 - 00;14;11;05
Judge McClarty
I sort of started on the path of revolutionizing, my, academics in college. Then I was drafted in the Army right after I graduated. I graduated in 1971, and I was drafted that summer or late summer after I completed the basic training. Was sent for special infantry training. But during that time, I noticed I had some available to, between my trainings.

00;14;11;07 - 00;14;53;16
Judge McClarty
And what I did was, I did more then than almost, did in college because I had the time, and that's for myself, self learn, so to speak. And while I was doing training with, I was sent to Germany, the position that I was placed in in Germany, I had, certain workouts. But those workouts, after those workouts during the week, I had, time that I could spend, studying, on the weekends, I could spend a lot of study. So I did an awful lot of work. Working on things academically. The, even when I was in service.

00;14;53;23 - 00;15;10;21
Host
You get out of the Army, you attend Southern University, which is a historically black college, for law school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. You grow up in this segregated environment for so long, and you had so many people tell you, you know, you can't do that or you can't do this, or, you know, you can't go to that event.

00;15;10;21 - 00;15;17;24
Host
You can't go to that event. What was that transition like from a segregated situation to a historically black college?

00;15;17;26 - 00;15;48;02
Judge McClarty
Austin Peay, was, an integrated at the time they were working on integration. Now, all of the professors, and staff at Austin Peay was not of that mind initially, but I think the administration was, that their idea was, is to make sure that all students, got equal treatment, had the opportunity to have a chance to, develop themselves in college.

00;15;48;04 - 00;16;21;20
Judge McClarty
But after I left, you know, while I was in the Army, I started applying for law schools, right as my time was expiring in the Army, and I applied to I know, three law schools. One was Howard University. The other one was, University of Tennessee. At that time, the University of Tennessee, I think, were sending African-American students, but they were not accepting a lot of them.

00;16;21;23 - 00;16;52;02
Judge McClarty
And maybe I did not reach up to their standards because they didn't even acknowledge my application at that point. But Southern University in Baton Rouge, did acknowledge my application and accepted me. As, for the fall of, semester. I left there, Southern University was probably the largest, historical black, college in the country at the time.

00;16;52;04 - 00;17;36;13
Judge McClarty
I left Germany and started my study of law. And there they did not limit their membership, their, admission to, only African-American students, in predominantly, black university. However, they admitted, students who applied red, yellow, black and white. And my class was a very mixed class. The faculty there mix also there, but they concentrated on preparing, students for work in the legal profession or the master. So I had a good experience. A very good experience.

00;17;36;13 - 00;17;52;23
Host
So you pass the bar, you come back to Chattanooga, which at this point it's the 1970s, you know, things are moving forward, but you're still one of the very few African-American lawyers in the city. What do you do to make a name for yourself and establish yourself? Get rapport.

00;17;52;27 - 00;18;10;16
Judge McClarty
When I came to Chattanooga in 1976, I took the bar, after my graduation. And when I took the bar in Tennessee, there may have been two, maybe three African-Americans that, passed the bar that, had.

00;18;10;16 - 00;18;12;06
Host
To give you some motivation. Right?

00;18;12;08 - 00;18;52;09
Judge McClarty
Well, the problem was it was a national problem. Throughout the country, African-Americans were not passing the bar. Throughout the country. And that didn't change to a few years later on. And, after a bunch of lawsuits were filed and, the bar association, would say, start looking into the problem and developing a situation where, they were looking at the type of education that was given and, also how they prepare students, for, the profession.

00;18;52;12 - 00;19;26;00
Judge McClarty
And but at any rate, they changed the process. And so now, there are more students that are prepared to take the bar and, and actually should be successful at the bar. Okay. But when I took it in 1976, like I said, it was only made about two, maybe three African-Americans that passed the bar in the whole state of Tennessee, in Chattanooga, when I started came to Chattanooga, to practice law.

00;19;26;03 - 00;19;54;19
Judge McClarty
There were only one other African American lawyer in the whole city of Chattanooga. In fact, I think in the whole in all of East Tennessee at the time. And so that was an experience in and of itself. I shopped around quite a bit to see if I could, find someone that would be willing to allow me to work in the law office.

00;19;54;21 - 00;20;21;05
Judge McClarty
And, I was not able to find anyone until I ran into, who is now I consider my mentor, Jerry summers. He had a very small office, but, he handled a lot of cases, and Jerry, offered me a position. And I think the thing that really helped me here, and, I don't know if he realized it or not, or, I definitely did not realize.

00;20;21;05 - 00;20;51;11
Judge McClarty
But the thing that really got me started was the jury required me to be at Chattanooga City Court. Every morning from 8:00 in the morning when they start the docket until about 12 noon. When they finished the morning docket. The Chattanooga City Court at that time, handled all kinds of cases. And the judges there, what they would do is someone who come up on the docket who did not have a lawyer, could not afford a lawyer.

00;20;51;14 - 00;21;39;28
Judge McClarty
That was before the public defender system. They would appoint me to represent that person in that preliminary hearing. Or if it was a misdemeanor case in the trial, it was a regular trial there. And I did that for a whole year. And I found out that doing that, that gave me an awful lot of experience. Hell, in cases, it also put my name out there, became, I won't say friends, but, I became known to some of the police officers that were there because there was an awful lot of police officers in the morning who had made charges, and a lot of people the court was always filled up, and people begin to recognize me and notice me as a lawyer. And I think they observed the way I handled cases.

00;21;40;03 - 00;21;58;20
Host
So you end up opening the only all African-American law office in East Tennessee. Did you feel like, you know, I made it? I've done exactly what I wanted to do. Was that your initial plan to open your own office, or did you think, hey, this is it. This is what I'm going to do for the rest of my career.

00;21;58;23 - 00;22;24;25
Judge McClarty
My dream and my desire was to open a law office after I was with Jerry Summers and his practice for two years, I felt that, getting enough experience to do that. And, I found out once I did that, I'll make that decision. I received an awful lot of help, although I did receive some discouragement from some people, I received a lot of help in doing it.

00;22;24;25 - 00;22;45;17
Judge McClarty
But my thing was to open up on the, African-American law office. I was not aware of that, that it was the only black law office in East Tennessee, but apparently that was the case. There was no other black law offices in all of East Tennessee that I was aware of.

00;22;45;19 - 00;22;48;01
Host
So this wasn't I'm making a statement kind of thing.

00;22;48;02 - 00;23;24;11
Judge McClarty
I was not making a statement. And a lot of a lot of people, were observant toward that, too. For instance, one of the judges, the juvenile court judge, judge this Dixon Smith, he had called me in on some special, cases, to handle, say, the special judge. He, also had refer a lot of juvenile cases to me who are juveniles charged with various crimes to defend and when I opened up my office, Judge Smith was appreciative to me.

00;23;24;14 - 00;23;44;26
Judge McClarty
And he called me in and he said, John he said, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to make sure that you have enough cases. I'm going to put you on enough cases. And that's when cases began to I was paying appointed attorneys. I'm going to appoint y'all enough cases for you. It's going to help pay you over here.

00;23;44;29 - 00;24;10;20
Judge McClarty
I, I like the way you all the cases, you know, like, where you represent people, in court. And that's what he did. And that helped me tremendously. Jerry Sowers. So I'm going to refer all my bankruptcy chapter 13 cases to your office. And then a lot of the people that I represented at city court and their families, they began to bring their cases. I was very busy.

00;24;10;23 - 00;24;14;23
Host
So you weren't doing just civil either, right? You were doing civil and criminal.

00;24;15;00 - 00;24;36;29
Judge McClarty
I was doing civil and criminal during that point of time pretty much. I was, I had trials and, pretty much just about anything you can come up with if it was a conflict, brought into my office, pretty much I would take it if I felt that I had the possibility of being successful in the case.

00;24;37;02 - 00;24;56;29
Host
You start this law firm, and I don't want to just race through a 32 year career. But the book does a great job of covering some of your huge personal injury cases, juvenile cases, etc.. What made you even consider applying for the Court of Appeals in 2009? Because it seems like you always wanted to be a lawyer, since you were a young boy, you did it.

00;24;56;29 - 00;25;02;22
Host
You had this super successful law firm in Chattanooga. Why does that even come to mind?

00;25;02;29 - 00;25;46;24
Judge McClarty
Apparently, there was some people who had observed, my work and my demeanor and the way I carried myself over the years that felt that I should be a judge. It never faze me. And I said, you know for sure. And I was making quite a bit of money, you know. And so it had come, it was brought to me a few times, and I realized, that, you know, I don't know, I started thinking about when I got the notification from one day, Lawndale, Harvard that, had received the rating of a the, which is the highest rate that they give.

00;25;46;27 - 00;26;14;27
Judge McClarty
And it's from peer review. It's from, other judges. And this is something you don't even know that's going on until they make the decision. And, I realized then that my colleagues in the profession, the judges that I tried cases and Hill cases before all felt that I was doing a good job. As far as handling, my cases and and representing my clients.

00;26;15;03 - 00;26;45;07
Judge McClarty
Justice, who was chief judge at the time, make it work, is preparing to retire. And my colleague and my, mentor, Jerry summers, and 1 or 2 other people, someone who was on the, the selection committee approached me and said, this is something you should consider because I thought that they they would, the way you, me, consider the Tennessee Supreme Court.

00;26;45;13 - 00;27;11;17
Judge McClarty
My goodness, that's not even another black Jesus that I was aware of. Definitely not a, black state judge in all of East Tennessee. And you talked about, I think, I need to consider applying for the Tennessee Supreme Court. They were serious about that. Yeah. After I thought about it. Say, you know, this opportunity is not going to come again in my lifetime.

00;27;11;20 - 00;27;39;07
Judge McClarty
And if these people think that, that I'm worthy of this appointment, I think I owe that to the citizens to, to move, to make myself available. And so I applied for justice for the court. Justice Lee, who was on the Court of Appeals at the time she applied. Also, she appeared on the Court of Appeals, I think about, oh, about 5 or 6 years.

00;27;39;10 - 00;28;15;15
Judge McClarty
At the end, the governor appointed her to the Supreme Court, but later, he appointed me to fill her spot on the Court of Appeals, which I feel, was the best. But anyway, but, and once he appointed me, at, I talked with him as governor. I said I pledged to do the best job that, that I can and to be respectful to the people and, make sure that I don't embarrass anyone.

00;28;15;18 - 00;28;38;28
Judge McClarty
Do the work that needs to be done on the Court of Appeals. And he said, wait a minute. He said, you don't have to pledge anything. He said, after your background, investigation. He said, look, Marty, he said, I have no fear in you. I don't think you're going to do anything different than what you've already done, that you're going to do a good job on the Court of Appeals.

00;28;39;01 - 00;28;43;11
Judge McClarty
He said, you have proven yours. That's how I wound up on the Court of Appeals.

00;28;43;16 - 00;29;04;11
Host
With justice Lee, by the way, who could end up having a long stint on the Tennessee Supreme Court and just recently retired? You know, and it's also unique. You don't see a whole lot of lawyers who jump from the practice law straight to an appeals court. It was that unique at the time. And it had to be to some extent.

00;29;04;14 - 00;29;38;05
Judge McClarty
I think may even 1 or 2, that I can recall that, occurred prior to my appointment. But there was another thing about that, too. I've been appointed to the court of Appeals. I became the first African-American state judge. Period, in all of East Tennessee. And in fact, in the history of East Tennessee, the not been in still to this day, another African-American state judge that has been appointed in East Tennessee.

00;29;38;11 - 00;29;40;09
Judge McClarty
And that's one third of the state of Tennessee.

00;29;40;15 - 00;29;55;26
Host
With that filling to you. You know, so many people wanted you to go for the Supreme Court job, and you still got appointed to an intermediate appellate court, which is still a great honor. All of these, you know, stories you've been telling that had to fill such a sense of accomplishment, right?

00;29;55;28 - 00;30;14;06
Judge McClarty
It it was a feeling of accomplishment. And it was also filling a responsibility because, I always felt that I have an obligation and a responsibility to, to do the best job that I possibly can, for the people of the state of Tennessee.

00;30;14;08 - 00;30;26;25
Host
Even after a 32 year law career. Because, you know, most people will just retire, you know, they've had a good run. They've they've been, you know, they've had a good practice. You said, no, let's start a whole new career. I said.

00;30;26;28 - 00;30;45;22
Judge McClarty
Yes, let's start a whole new career. And I say that because I felt that it was needed. And, I had the opportunity to do it. Apparently nobody else, had that opportunity, and I felt I had an opportunity to do so. I said, yeah, let's do this.

00;30;45;24 - 00;30;57;29
Host
I want to switch gears a little bit. You mentioned Justice Mickey Barker, who just recently passed away in 2023. Do you have any stories from your friendship with Justice Barker? Did he mentor you once you were appointed to the bench?

00;30;57;29 - 00;31;30;25
Judge McClarty
Justice Barker was the best friend of my mentor, Jerry Summers. Someone who gave me my first legal position and they were very close. So that means that when I started working with Jerry Summers, I came in contact with Mickey Barker also. And when Mickey Barker, took the bench as a circuit judge and helped the county attract many cases before him, even before he was on the bench, there was some cases that he may have had that, I may have had some involvement in.

00;31;30;25 - 00;31;57;10
Judge McClarty
So I got to know him very well. When he applied for the Court of Criminal Appeals. I was one of the ones that, he asked to go up and speak to the selection committee on his behalf. So I did that. And, when he got ready to retire, I can't prove this, but I've told him about it, and I wouldn't, I only talked to him about it.

00;31;57;17 - 00;32;10;09
Judge McClarty
I would not say, not say if it's anybody else, but I think him and Jerry Summers, got together and said. It's time for more McClarty to put the practice down and go on the bench.

00;32;10;11 - 00;32;11;25
Host
It's time to pull him out of the bullpen.

00;32;12;00 - 00;32;43;14
Judge McClarty
Yeah, and I think that's how I wound up, being even considered for, judicial position. I think he had something to do with, and even after I was after, during the process, he, I was aware that he made contact with some key people, in support of my appointment. And after I was appointed, of course, he was there, and him and I, have been still close.

00;32;43;16 - 00;32;49;07
Judge McClarty
Whenever there's something happened somewhere that he's going, we would go together, stuff like that.

00;32;49;11 - 00;33;01;29
Host
You recently received the Chief justice, William, Barker making Equal access to Justice Award. Tell me about coming full circle. You won the award based off one of your best friends and mentors.

00;33;02;01 - 00;33;32;22
Judge McClarty
This award, I consider this a life, achievement award. The chief justice William M Parker, equal access to justice award. It was given by the legal aid Society of East Tennessee. Okay, a think about it. When I received the award, it's just like me being, a completion of what I've done, quite frankly, over the years.

00;33;32;22 - 00;34;04;24
Judge McClarty
That's what I wanted to do. As a young boy, that was my dream of helping people to have access to justice, to resolve their problems. This confirms that I have completed that mission. But it also is almost like my life is going round in a circle. And this completes the circle, because the venue that I receive this award at, was only about a couple of blocks from where I lived when I was a child.

00;34;04;26 - 00;34;37;24
Judge McClarty
The name of the place now is Chattanooga Whiskey. The old west side of Chattanooga and all the houses, of course, have been demolished. And new buildings, it are built up. But I live right across, right around the street from. From where this venue is at. The other thing about it. And I told them this at the time they gave me the war at that venue, at that building where, Tennessee whiskey is that the church and I went to Macedonia Baptist Church was right on that site.

00;34;37;27 - 00;34;49;10
Judge McClarty
That building is, so I told them if there's a possibility that I could even, came up with this whole idea of being a lawyer right. Here.

00;34;49;12 - 00;35;03;16
Judge McClarty
Where this building is right at. And now, I get this award. Sure. That I completed that dream. Completed that. That's, a bill was just, like, coming full circle to me.

00;35;03;18 - 00;35;06;04
Host
Depends on what sermon was being taught that day, right?

00;35;06;07 - 00;35;12;11
Judge McClarty
Yeah. I could have been daydreaming in church about being a lawyer when I grew up.

00;35;12;14 - 00;35;35;12
Host
I want to switch gears to another friend of yours. The Metro Nashville Schools Trailblazer Award was named after Judge Richard Dinkins for the 2024 school year. He's also mentioned in your book. We were talking earlier about how long it took for Chattanooga schools to integrate, and there was a major lawsuit about that process. And Judge Dinkins, who was a lawyer at the time, was on that case, which lasted well over 20 years.

00;35;35;14 - 00;35;37;15
Host
What was your experience with Judge Dinkins?

00;35;37;17 - 00;36;02;22
Judge McClarty
I served with Judge Dinkins, as a colleague going to the Court of Appeals, who was the first African-American appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. I was the second. I did not really know him until I started going through this appointment process. But I found, learned him then and, basically we developed a very good friendship there.

00;36;02;24 - 00;36;31;21
Judge McClarty
I had tremendous respect for him. And, I think that judge Dinkins, has done a tremendous job, not only in Nashville, but, throughout the state of Tennessee and the cases that he have handled. And as a judge, has done a tremendous job. This someone to me is, an icon. He is, he is special.

00;36;31;24 - 00;36;34;06
Host
What made you want to write this book?

00;36;34;08 - 00;37;09;27
Judge McClarty
I have, on occasion, mentor and talk with other, judges. I have talked to, other young attorneys, too, as they have gotten started out, and, that was one of the reasons that I wrote the book, to give someone some encouragement that, whatever they dreamed of, whether it be, lawyer, judge, doctor or whatever it is, if they would work hard, their dreams still be fulfilled.

00;37;09;29 - 00;37;33;07
Judge McClarty
You got to be consistent and you got to work hard. And that's why I wrote the book. To give somebody some encouragement, let them know that I did it. And I came a long way. I paid for my own college. When I got out of law school, I did not have it available. And it's educational bills to pay.

00;37;33;09 - 00;37;59;01
Judge McClarty
And I worked my way through school. I don't encourage anyone to try to work like I did. As far as the hours that I work, I think, that's over the top, so to speak. So I don't think curates that, but I do encourage people to, to, to work. I think you have to work hard, and I think you have to study hard and be willing to learn.

00;37;59;03 - 00;38;16;08
Judge McClarty
And I think you have to, put down that attitude of, I knew it all, and be willing in the open for new ideas and, and I think you can allow yourself to develop yourself into whatever you want to be.

00;38;16;10 - 00;38;32;02
Host
There's so much more detail of your life. And I encourage all of our listeners to seek out this book that have some great stories of your long career and the people in your life that created the judge McLarty that I, and the state of Tennessee know today. You can buy it on Amazon, and I believe it's in Barnes and Nobles as well.

00;38;32;05 - 00;38;35;20
Host
Thank you so much for joining me today on this episode of Tennessee Court Talk.