WEBVTT - 082623 Way Black History Fact - The First Sit-In Protest of a Whites-Only Library

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<v Speaker 1>For now, though, it is time for the Way Black

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<v Speaker 1>History Fact. Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by

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<v Speaker 1>Underground Beach Club. From the Streets to the Beach. For

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<v Speaker 1>the latest in beachware, visit Underground Beachclub dot com. And

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<v Speaker 1>today we're talking about the first sit in protest of

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<v Speaker 1>a white's only library. This reading comes from Zen Education Project.

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<v Speaker 1>On August twenty first, nineteen thirty nine, twenty six year

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<v Speaker 1>old Samuel Wilbert Tucker, an innovative civil rights lawyer, launched

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<v Speaker 1>a sit in aimed at protesting the white's only policy

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<v Speaker 1>at the segregated Alexandria, Virginia Public Library. Earlier in the year,

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<v Speaker 1>Tucker and an acquaintance, retired Army sergeant George Wilson, had

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<v Speaker 1>been rejected in their attempts to apply for library cards

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<v Speaker 1>and were told by an assistant librarian that the library's

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<v Speaker 1>library boards policy was not to issue cards to colored persons.

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<v Speaker 1>According to historian Jay Douglas Smith, author of Managing White Supremacy, Race, Politics,

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<v Speaker 1>and Citizenship in jen Crow, Virginia, Tucker There we Go

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<v Speaker 1>foiled a lawsuit on behalf of Wilson, arguing that taxes

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<v Speaker 1>paid by black citizens helped operate the library, so blacks

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<v Speaker 1>therefore had a right to use its facilities. Corporation Court

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<v Speaker 1>Judge William Wools held off on his ruling to give

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<v Speaker 1>the city and library time to solve the issue with

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<v Speaker 1>actions such as creating a separate branch library for African Americans. Tucker, though,

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<v Speaker 1>decided to force a confrontation. According to Smith, he recruited

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<v Speaker 1>five black men otto Tucker, Edward Gaddis Morris, Murray, William Evans,

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<v Speaker 1>and Clarence Strange, all between eighteen and twenty two years

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<v Speaker 1>of age, to go one by one into the library,

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<v Speaker 1>well dressed and ask to apply for borrowers cards. Anticipating

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<v Speaker 1>that they would be rebuffed, Tucker had instructed the young

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<v Speaker 1>men to select books from the shows and quietly sit

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<v Speaker 1>down to read each at a different table and after

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<v Speaker 1>being refused. The action was an early attempt at non

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<v Speaker 1>violent protests, preceding by two decades the civil rights lunch

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<v Speaker 1>counter sit ins that began in Oklahoma City in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>fifty eight. In Greensboro, North Carolina, in nineteen sixty, when

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<v Speaker 1>the men did not stand up and vacate the library

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<v Speaker 1>at the librarian's request, police were summoned. They told the

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<v Speaker 1>men they would be arrested if they did not leave.

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<v Speaker 1>Men politely refused. Over an hour later, they went peacefully

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<v Speaker 1>with the police. When they left the library, the men

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<v Speaker 1>encountered an audience of two to three hundred people, plus

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<v Speaker 1>news reporters and photographers waiting outside. The crowd had been

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<v Speaker 1>gathered by Tucker to witness the discrimination and arrest. Although everyone,

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<v Speaker 1>including the police, remained calm, City Manager Carl Budweski, ordered

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<v Speaker 1>the police to charge the men with disorderly conduct the

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<v Speaker 1>next day, and hearing before Police Court Judge James Rhese Duncan,

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<v Speaker 1>Tucker's questioning led the police officers to concede there was

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<v Speaker 1>no disorder. Tucker accused the city of assuming that the

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<v Speaker 1>men were disorderly because they were black. City Attorney Armstead

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<v Speaker 1>Booth then requested the judge to postpone the case while

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<v Speaker 1>the charges were reconsidered. The disorderly case dragged on through

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<v Speaker 1>the fall of nineteen thirty nine, with Judge Duncan allowing

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<v Speaker 1>multiple continuance is but never officially ending the matter in court. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>Tucker's lawsuit on behalf of Sergeant George Wilson proceeded in

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<v Speaker 1>Judge Woolve's court, and Wolves finally ruled on January tenth,

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen forty, when he issued a split decision. He denied

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<v Speaker 1>Wilson's petition for a library card on a technicality that

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<v Speaker 1>Tucker was the one who actually filled out the application

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<v Speaker 1>for him, But Wolves also ruled that Alexandria must permit

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<v Speaker 1>black residents to use the white library because there was

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<v Speaker 1>no other separate library for non whites. Two days after

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<v Speaker 1>Wolve's ruling, the Alexandra City Council undermined any thought of

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<v Speaker 1>having an integrated library by approving money for a separate

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<v Speaker 1>library for black residents. Tucker denounced the council's action as

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<v Speaker 1>pouring insult into injury. He wrote to city Librarian Catherine

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<v Speaker 1>Skaggin to say, I refuse and will always refuse to

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<v Speaker 1>accept a card that could be used only at the

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<v Speaker 1>forthcoming black library, and that is our way. Black History

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<v Speaker 1>fact for the day