Orlandus Cobbins Sr. was known to his friends as “Bull,” and was a positive influence on young people on the westside of Covington, Tennessee, until he was murdered on February 20, 2012 by two men who were attempting to rob him. Every summer, the Black community of Covington comes together in Frazier Park to celebrate Bull Day, a day of food, family, fellowship, vendors and live music held in his memory and intended to promote peace in the community.
This year, the featured band was CJ Soul and his band, performing a number of good southern soul and blues hits, a few originals, and one gospel tune, “The Lord’s Been Good To Me.” The park filled up with Slingshots and motorcycles, and was packed with several hundred people. Among the stranger food offerings was barbecued alligator! Older men were playing corn hole, and younger guys were playing basketball, and the day was beautiful and not marred by any fights or violence.
However, toward the end of the evening a tense situation developed when some people tried to leave and find that their cars had been blocked in. The police were called, and they in turn called a tow truck, but when the tow truck arrived, the driver found that the car he was called to tow was already being moved by its owner. He tried to demand that the owner get out of the car and allow it to be towed, which led to a confrontation between the car’s owner and the tow truck driver, and then between both of them and the police. A crowd of young people soon gathered, and they became angry at the tow truck driver and the police. The car’s owner told the police that he understood that they had a job to do but that he was not going to let the tow truck operator talk to him “any kind of way.” Eventually the CPD officers convinced the tow truck driver to leave without towing the car, and the situation was defused. All in all it was a good day of good fun, in honor of a very worthy man. And funds were raised for his son to go to college as well.