Ben West
Raphael Benjamin West (March 31, 1911 – November 20, 1974) was an American attorney and politician who served as mayor of Nashville from 1951 to 1963, and as a Tennessee state senator from 1949 to 1951. While a state senator, he supported a change from at-large to single-member district voting to the Nashville City Council. This broadened representation on the council, enabling the African-American minority to elect candidates of their choice; women also gained seats on the council.
For other people named Ben West, see Ben West (disambiguation).
Ben West
Beverly Briley (1st Mayor of Metropolitan Nashville)
20 November 1974 (aged 63)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Mary Humes Meadors
Ben West Jr. (son)
Jay West (son)
Early life and education[edit]
West was born in 1911 in Columbia, the county seat of Maury County, Tennessee; he was the son of Martha Melissa (née Wilson) and her husband James Watt West. He moved to Nashville as a boy with his family. When he was three years old, his parents moved to a working-class neighborhood in Flat Rock, now known as the Woodbine district of Davidson County. Working his way through college, West attended Vanderbilt University and Cumberland Law School.