1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:12,959 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy be Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. 4 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:19,959 Speaker 1: This year is the sixtieth anniversary of the Greensboro lunch 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,799 Speaker 1: Counter sit ins, and that was a critical moment in 6 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 1: the civil rights movement in the United States. On February 7 00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:30,480 Speaker 1: one of nineteen sixty four freshmen from Agricultural and Technical 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: College of North Carolina, which is now in North Carolina 9 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:36,720 Speaker 1: A and T State University sat down at a segregated 10 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 1: lunch counter at the F. W. Woolworth's Five and Dime 11 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,199 Speaker 1: in Greensboro, North Carolina. And on that first day, it 12 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: was just the four of them, but soon hundreds of 13 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,319 Speaker 1: people were joining the demonstrations in downtown Greensboro, and sit 14 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:51,920 Speaker 1: ins were also taking place in dozens of other cities 15 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: around the United States. This is frequently described as the 16 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: beginning of a movement, but really the Greensboro for cat 17 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 1: alized something that had been building in the years leading 18 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 1: up to that first day of sitting in. So that 19 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:07,840 Speaker 1: is the story we're going to tell today for a 20 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 1: brief recap on where the Civil rights movement was in 21 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:13,480 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty after the end of the reconstruction period that 22 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: followed the U. S. Civil War, many parts of the 23 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:20,520 Speaker 1: United States established systems of racial segregation. This is often 24 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: discussed in the context of separating the black population from 25 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 1: the white population, but in parts of the country that 26 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 1: we're home to other racial and ethnic minorities, segregation targeted 27 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,640 Speaker 1: those populations as well. The U. S. Supreme Court found 28 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: that this was legal as long as the separate facilities 29 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,680 Speaker 1: were equal in its decision in plus e versus Ferguson 30 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 1: in eight six. We did an episode on plus e 31 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 1: versus Ferguson on February. Yeah, if you have been listening 32 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:49,720 Speaker 1: to our show for a long time, none of this 33 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: is news to you, or if you've studied the civil 34 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: rights movement in other contexts, but we know not everyone has. 35 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 1: So people had been fighting for equal rights for racial 36 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:02,400 Speaker 1: and ethnic minority use before Lessie versus Ferguson, and they 37 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,160 Speaker 1: continued to do so afterward. But it wasn't until the 38 00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:08,320 Speaker 1: nineteen forties and fifties that some major changes really started 39 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 1: to happen in that regard. President Harry Truman issued Executive 40 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 1: Order one which desegregated the US Arms Services in nineteen. 41 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 1: That's come up in a lot of our previous episodes 42 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: that touch on the US military during World War Two. 43 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,080 Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty four, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled 44 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: that public school segregation was unconstitutional in Brown versus Board 45 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:34,080 Speaker 1: of Education of Topeka. Then the Montgomery bus boycott lasted 46 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: from December fifth nine to December twenty, nineteen fifty six. 47 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: The boycott led to another Supreme Court decision in which 48 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: the court upheld the ruling that Alabama state law requiring 49 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:50,520 Speaker 1: segregated busses was also unconstitutional. We have two part episodes 50 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 1: on Brown versus Board and on the Montgomery bus boycott 51 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,720 Speaker 1: in our archive as well. On September nine of nineteen 52 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:00,200 Speaker 1: fifty seven, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed to the Will 53 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:03,800 Speaker 1: Rights Act of nineteen fifty seven into law. The final 54 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: version of this law was a lot weaker than the 55 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: bill that was originally proposed, and South Carolina Senator Strom 56 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:14,359 Speaker 1: Thurman filibustered for more than twenty four hours to try 57 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: to prevent it from being passed at all. Even so, 58 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: this was the first federal civil rights legislation passed since 59 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: the Reconstruction era, and it established a Commission on Civil 60 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: Rights as well as some basic voter rights protections. There was, 61 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:30,880 Speaker 1: of course, a lot more to the civil rights movement 62 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:32,919 Speaker 1: than just that, but these were some of the key 63 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: moments that we're just using to set the stage. And 64 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: after nineteen fifty seven, many civil rights leaders in the 65 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,720 Speaker 1: US felt like the movement had started to stall. The 66 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: n double a c P, which had been established in 67 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,840 Speaker 1: nineteen o nine, was still working primarily through legal strategies. 68 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE, had been established 69 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: in nineteen forty two and was still focused on non 70 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: violent activism, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or SCLC 71 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: grew out of the Montgomery bus boycott and was formally 72 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: established in nineteen fifty seven. It helped coordinate and organize 73 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: among more local civil rights organizations across the US, also 74 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: with non violent activism. But while these and other organizations, 75 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,839 Speaker 1: along with individual people, were still hard at work, it 76 00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: just seemed like the movement wasn't seeing the visible activity 77 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,880 Speaker 1: and forward steps that it had in previous years. The 78 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: Supreme Court's decision in Brown versus Board had also led 79 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: to a massive backlash in which many communities took extreme 80 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,320 Speaker 1: steps to try to avoid integrating their schools. We talked 81 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,720 Speaker 1: about that in those earlier episodes as well. Civil rights 82 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:44,520 Speaker 1: advocates had faced intimidation, harassment, and violence throughout this movement, 83 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:46,880 Speaker 1: and that was part of that backlash to brown versus 84 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:50,720 Speaker 1: board as well. And this brings us to Greensboro, North Carolina, 85 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,680 Speaker 1: a city first established in eighteen o eight. North Carolina 86 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 1: in general considered itself to be more racially progressive than 87 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:00,719 Speaker 1: many of its neighbors, and this was a specially true 88 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:05,160 Speaker 1: in Greensboro. Overall, the white majority thought that race relations 89 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:08,200 Speaker 1: in the city were pretty good, especially compared to places 90 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: in the Deep South, it had become notorious for racism 91 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: and racist violence. Greensborough's kind of relative progressiveness and its 92 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:18,480 Speaker 1: attitude on this was thanks in part to a large 93 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,560 Speaker 1: Quaker community. As we've talked about on the show before, 94 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: the Religious Society of Friends became an active part of 95 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: the movement for the abolition of slavery, and it was 96 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:29,479 Speaker 1: also part of the civil rights movement after that point. 97 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:33,280 Speaker 1: That attitude was also connected to a large population of 98 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:36,080 Speaker 1: students and academics thanks to the number of colleges and 99 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 1: universities in the city, the Society of Friends had established 100 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:42,960 Speaker 1: New Garden Boarding School, which was the state's first co 101 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:47,480 Speaker 1: educational boarding school, in eighteen thirty seven. The boarding school 102 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 1: was turned into a liberal arts college a few years 103 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,680 Speaker 1: later and as Guilford College today. As Greensboro grew, its 104 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:58,039 Speaker 1: educational institutions also came to include colleges and universities for 105 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: black students. This include had Bennett College, which was a 106 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: private college established for black women in eighteen seventy three. 107 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:09,200 Speaker 1: What's now North Carolina Anti State University was established in 108 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: Raleigh as a and m college for the colored race 109 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,279 Speaker 1: in eight one. It moved to Greensboro in eighteen nine three. 110 00:06:16,839 --> 00:06:19,800 Speaker 1: By the start of the twentieth century, Greensboro was home 111 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: to five colleges and universities, three for white students and 112 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: two for black students. Charlotte Hawkins Brown also established the 113 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: Palmer Memorial Institute, which was a prep school for black students, 114 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:34,640 Speaker 1: and that was outside the city proper, established in nineteen 115 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: o two. So all of this was contributing to that 116 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: overall sense that Greensboro was sort of a a nice 117 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: place to be in forward thinking and things were pretty 118 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 1: good there, uh, and that idea that Greensboro was pretty 119 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:50,320 Speaker 1: forward thinking on race continued into the civil rights movement. 120 00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: On May eighteenth of nineteen fifty four, the day after 121 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:56,920 Speaker 1: the U. S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Brown 122 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: versus Board of Education, the Greensboro School Board publicly announced 123 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,159 Speaker 1: its intention to comply with the ruling. This made it 124 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:06,800 Speaker 1: the first city in the Southeast to make that kind 125 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:10,720 Speaker 1: of public announcement, but actually following through with that announcement 126 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,200 Speaker 1: was another story. It took three years before any black 127 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 1: students were enrolled at a previously all white school in Greensboro, 128 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:21,840 Speaker 1: and for many years after that, school integration was really 129 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:24,760 Speaker 1: a token effort. It took well over a decade before 130 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: Greensboro schools were really integrated, and as has been the 131 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: case in so many parts of the US, patterns of 132 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: segregation have gradually returned since then. So by nineteen sixty, 133 00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:38,360 Speaker 1: even though Greensboro's white leadership thought of itself as a 134 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: fair and just city where race relations were overall positive, 135 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: school desegregation was barely getting started, and a lot of 136 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:50,080 Speaker 1: other public facilities were still segregated as well. The golf 137 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:53,239 Speaker 1: courses had been integrated thanks to a demonstration that started 138 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:56,560 Speaker 1: on December seven, nineteen fifty five, when six black men 139 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: were arrested while playing a round of golf at Greensboro's 140 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:03,320 Speaker 1: Why it's only Gillespie Golf Course, But the swimming pools 141 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: were still segregated in spite of demonstrations led by Edward Edmonds, 142 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 1: who taught sociology at Bennett College. Also still segregated were 143 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 1: restaurants and the more casual lunch counters found in variety 144 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:18,120 Speaker 1: stores and drug stores. That's what students in Greensboro we're 145 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:21,440 Speaker 1: trying to change in nineteen sixty. More about that after 146 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. Sitens like the ones that were carried 147 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 1: out in Greensboro in nineteen sixty are a form of 148 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:36,480 Speaker 1: direct action. This is a term that was coined in 149 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 1: the early twentieth century to describe actions like Boycott's or strikes, 150 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:43,560 Speaker 1: which are meant to help the demonstrators reached their goals 151 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,960 Speaker 1: directly in the most efficient and effective way possible. Although 152 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 1: direct action isn't always nonviolent, the direct action employed during 153 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:56,000 Speaker 1: a lot of the Civil rights movement generally was sit ins. 154 00:08:56,040 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: As a form of non violent direct action date back 155 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:01,760 Speaker 1: earlier than the Civil rights its movement, though one of 156 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 1: its precursors is the sit down strike. We have talked 157 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:07,120 Speaker 1: about a number of strikes that were part of the 158 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:09,680 Speaker 1: labor movement in the US and Europe in the nineteenth 159 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:14,600 Speaker 1: and twentieth centuries, and for many of these, striking workers picketed, demonstrated, 160 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:18,079 Speaker 1: held rallies, and tried to block replacement workers from getting 161 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:22,440 Speaker 1: into their workplace from outside. A sit down strike was different. 162 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:26,160 Speaker 1: Striking workers took over their workplaces and sat down inside, 163 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:30,160 Speaker 1: sometimes right at their workstations. One of the first large 164 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: scale sit down strikes was the Flint sit down strike, 165 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:37,120 Speaker 1: which started on December nine, thirty six, but it followed 166 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:41,800 Speaker 1: other smaller strikes at other factories. General Motors workers in Flint, 167 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: Michigan went on strike for recognition of the United Auto 168 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,600 Speaker 1: Workers as their collective bargaining agent and for better pay, 169 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,880 Speaker 1: grievance procedures, other workplace rights and protections, the same types 170 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:56,319 Speaker 1: of things that we've generally talked about in these previous episodes. 171 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: Striking workers stopped working, locked themselves in the bill holding 172 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:03,559 Speaker 1: and sat down at their stations, and this effectively shut 173 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:07,359 Speaker 1: down the plant. The striking workers weren't working and replacement 174 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:10,600 Speaker 1: workers couldn't get into work either. Within a few years, 175 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 1: civil rights activists had adopted a similar strategy in the 176 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 1: fight for racial equality. A restaurant could not make any 177 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: money if all of its seats were being occupied by 178 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:23,600 Speaker 1: black customers who the restaurant was refusing to serve, or 179 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,440 Speaker 1: supporters of other races who were taking up space but 180 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: refusing to place their orders unless the restaurants served those 181 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:33,400 Speaker 1: black customers who were waiting. Of course, picketing, rallies and 182 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:36,960 Speaker 1: other demonstrations, as well as legal actions and other tactics 183 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:39,320 Speaker 1: could be part of this kind of demonstration as well. 184 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:43,360 Speaker 1: There was at least one sit in style demonstration that 185 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:47,040 Speaker 1: happened earlier than this to protest segregation in another context, 186 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:50,439 Speaker 1: but when it comes to food service specifically, the first 187 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: documented sit ins protesting segregation happened in nine with multiple 188 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:59,000 Speaker 1: protests taking place that year. Polly Murray, who was a 189 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:03,000 Speaker 1: law student how University, organized a stool sitting by Howard 190 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:07,559 Speaker 1: students to protest segregation at the Little Palace cafeteria in Washington, 191 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: d C. Along with her other work and civil rights activism, 192 00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:14,199 Speaker 1: Murray went on to become the first African American woman 193 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:18,320 Speaker 1: to become an episcopal priest. Students at Howard also sat 194 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:21,240 Speaker 1: in at the United Cigar Store in Washington, d C. 195 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:25,760 Speaker 1: In ninety three after Ruth Powell, Marian Musgrave, and Wanting 196 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:30,480 Speaker 1: to Morrow experienced discrimination there. These three sophomores had ordered 197 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:33,680 Speaker 1: hot chocolate, and at first they were refused service. The 198 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:37,040 Speaker 1: staff at United Cigar Store called the police. The police 199 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:39,720 Speaker 1: say they didn't have any grounds to remove these three women, 200 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:43,160 Speaker 1: so they were served their hot chocolate, but when the 201 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:46,280 Speaker 1: bill came, they had been charged twenty five cents each 202 00:11:46,480 --> 00:11:49,400 Speaker 1: rather than the actual price of ten cents. When they 203 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:53,360 Speaker 1: refused to pay that extra amount, they were arrested. Howard 204 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: Student Chapter of the n double a CP organized a 205 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:59,400 Speaker 1: protest of the United Cigar Company and of DC area 206 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:03,240 Speaker 1: restaurants in the hope of ending their discriminatory practices and 207 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:06,760 Speaker 1: of getting civil rights legislation passed. In this case, the 208 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:11,200 Speaker 1: students at Howard ended their demonstrations after a lot of deliberation, 209 00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:14,599 Speaker 1: at the request of Dr Mordecai W. Johnson, who was 210 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 1: president of the university. This started out as more of 211 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: a temporary request for the students to suspend their protest 212 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:24,680 Speaker 1: while the university figured out what its policies were regarding 213 00:12:24,679 --> 00:12:28,440 Speaker 1: this kind of off campus demonstration, but the students eventually 214 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:31,840 Speaker 1: decided to stop the protest entirely because of the possibility 215 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: of the university losing its federal funding. Since Howard is 216 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:39,600 Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. There were concerns that legislators might 217 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:43,280 Speaker 1: feel like the student's behavior was antagonizing them and cut 218 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: off the school's budget. By that point, though, the students 219 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:48,559 Speaker 1: had gotten some of the restaurants in Washington, d C. 220 00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:52,440 Speaker 1: To stop their segregation policies, but they hadn't reached the 221 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:56,040 Speaker 1: goal of trying to get civil rights legislation passed. Activists 222 00:12:56,080 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 1: in Chicago held sit ins in nineteen as well. Jack 223 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:03,480 Speaker 1: Sprats Coffeehouse in Chicago had a reputation for treating black 224 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:08,160 Speaker 1: customers with rudeness and hostility, or denying them service outright. 225 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:12,679 Speaker 1: This included refusing service to James Farmer. In ninety two, 226 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,760 Speaker 1: Farmer helped organize inter racial groups, each with at least 227 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:19,200 Speaker 1: one black member, to take up seats at the diner. 228 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:23,160 Speaker 1: They'd all refused to leave until their black member was served. 229 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: The Committee of Racial Equality, which became the Congress of 230 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:29,920 Speaker 1: Racial Equality, grew out of this experience, with Farmer as 231 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 1: one of its founders. These are just examples from that 232 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:37,200 Speaker 1: first documented year of sit ins to protest segregation, and 233 00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:40,640 Speaker 1: sit ins continued to be organized and multiple cities throughout 234 00:13:40,640 --> 00:13:44,679 Speaker 1: the nineteen forties and fifties. In the three years leading 235 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:47,360 Speaker 1: up to the Greensboro sit ins of nineteen sixty there 236 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:51,520 Speaker 1: were organized sit ins and at least fifteen cities. Many 237 00:13:51,559 --> 00:13:54,520 Speaker 1: of them were organized by Core, either alone or working 238 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: in conjunction with the Double A c P, although other 239 00:13:57,559 --> 00:14:00,640 Speaker 1: community and church groups organized sit ins during those three 240 00:14:00,679 --> 00:14:04,560 Speaker 1: years as well. This included sit ins in North Carolina. 241 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:08,120 Speaker 1: On June nineteen fifty seven, the Reverend Douglas Moore and 242 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:11,080 Speaker 1: six others were arrested at the Royal Ice Cream Parlor 243 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,880 Speaker 1: in Durham, North Carolina for sitting in the whites only section. 244 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: Just as sit ins were not a brand new phenomenon 245 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,360 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty, A and T also had a long 246 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:25,480 Speaker 1: history of student political involvement and demonstrations by that point, 247 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: something that is of course true of a lot of 248 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:32,200 Speaker 1: other college campuses. Students had demonstrated, gone on strike, they 249 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:36,080 Speaker 1: had taken other actions in response to everything from administrative 250 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: policies that they wanted to change to the quality of 251 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:42,160 Speaker 1: the food in the cafeteria. In nineteen A and T 252 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:46,480 Speaker 1: students disrupted a speech by then North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges, 253 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:50,160 Speaker 1: who was in favor of voluntary segregation and whose language 254 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:53,880 Speaker 1: in that speech was belittling and racist. These demonstrations weren't 255 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:57,880 Speaker 1: limited to things related to campus life. In ninety seven, 256 00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:01,320 Speaker 1: students from A and T boycotted Green Burrows movie theaters 257 00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:05,480 Speaker 1: over the practice of deleting scenes with black characters from films. 258 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:08,960 Speaker 1: The theaters also required black patrons to enter through a 259 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:12,800 Speaker 1: separate door and to sit in a separate section. Based 260 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: on the history of political activism at the school, it's 261 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:18,400 Speaker 1: being about an hour away from Durham, and the overall 262 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:22,480 Speaker 1: interconnectedness of civil rights activists in the nineteen fifties, it's 263 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:25,000 Speaker 1: likely that students at A and T had heard about 264 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 1: the demonstrations in Durham and elsewhere. The Greensboro sit ins 265 00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:33,280 Speaker 1: started with four freshmen who became known as the Greensboro Four. 266 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:38,680 Speaker 1: These were Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, and Eazel 267 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:42,640 Speaker 1: Blair Jr. Who later became known as Jabrel Kazan. Some 268 00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:44,400 Speaker 1: of them had known one another when they were in 269 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: high school at Dudley High School in Greensboro before they 270 00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:50,000 Speaker 1: started college. In college, the four of them had become 271 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:53,200 Speaker 1: very close friends. They were all politically active and aware, 272 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:56,080 Speaker 1: and they tended to have conversations in the dorm late 273 00:15:56,120 --> 00:15:59,000 Speaker 1: into the night about topics like civil rights and racial justice. 274 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,000 Speaker 1: But the ration they cited for their sit in was 275 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:05,360 Speaker 1: the treatment Joseph McNeil received while traveling back to campus 276 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: by bus after the winter break in nineteen sixty. McNeil 277 00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 1: had been born in North Carolina, but had moved to 278 00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:14,640 Speaker 1: New York with his family before returning to Greensboro to 279 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:17,840 Speaker 1: attend A and T. He traveled between New York and 280 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:21,920 Speaker 1: Greensboro by bus. On these trips, he saw firsthand how 281 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,520 Speaker 1: his treatment changed based on how far south he had traveled. 282 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:28,160 Speaker 1: On this strip back to the school in nineteen sixty, 283 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 1: he was denied service at a restaurant at a Greyhound 284 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:34,400 Speaker 1: bus station, and from there he decided to change things. 285 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:37,200 Speaker 1: He convinced his three classmates that they should sit in 286 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:40,320 Speaker 1: at the F. W. Woolworth counter in downtown Greensboro. They 287 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:43,240 Speaker 1: set a date for doing this of February one. Although 288 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:46,440 Speaker 1: black customers were allowed to shop at the Woolworth Store. 289 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:49,400 Speaker 1: They could only buy food there at a stand up 290 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:53,040 Speaker 1: snack bar, not at the lunch counter, which had actual seating. 291 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,760 Speaker 1: In later years, all four men talked about being terrified 292 00:16:56,880 --> 00:16:58,800 Speaker 1: of what could happen to them if they did this. 293 00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:03,280 Speaker 1: All of them vividly remembered the nine lynching of Emmett Till, 294 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:06,040 Speaker 1: who had been brutally beaten and murdered after a white 295 00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:09,280 Speaker 1: woman said that he had whistled at and physically accosted her. 296 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:12,399 Speaker 1: She later admitted that this was false, and we talked 297 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:15,800 Speaker 1: more about that in detail in our seen episode titled 298 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:19,520 Speaker 1: The Motherhood of Mamie Till Mobley. Apart from the inherent 299 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:22,600 Speaker 1: horror of this murder, the Greensboro four were about the 300 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:24,800 Speaker 1: same age as Emmett had been when he was killed, 301 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:28,240 Speaker 1: so they were absolutely aware that they were putting themselves 302 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:30,760 Speaker 1: at risk in doing this, as was the case with 303 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,639 Speaker 1: the people who took on all of those earlier sit ins. 304 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,160 Speaker 1: On the afternoon of Monday, February one, they met up 305 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:41,280 Speaker 1: at Blueford Library on the Anti campus, wearing their Sunday best. 306 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,560 Speaker 1: McCain was in his r OTC uniform because he hadn't 307 00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:48,000 Speaker 1: had time to change. They did not expect that they 308 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,720 Speaker 1: would be coming back to campus that day. As McCain 309 00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:53,280 Speaker 1: described it later on, quote, if I were lucky, I 310 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:55,920 Speaker 1: would go to jail for a long long time. If 311 00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:57,720 Speaker 1: I were not quite so lucky, I would come back 312 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:00,480 Speaker 1: to my campus, but in a pine box. This was 313 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,560 Speaker 1: also really personal for the four of them. Also, in 314 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:07,920 Speaker 1: McCain's words from later in his life, quote manhood and dignity. 315 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:10,359 Speaker 1: That's what we were trying to get. We didn't go 316 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:13,000 Speaker 1: down to Woolworth to change the world. It was about 317 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,480 Speaker 1: a fifteen minute walk from the campus to Woolworth, and 318 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:18,240 Speaker 1: once they got there, they each bought a few small 319 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,159 Speaker 1: necessities in the store, and they kept their receipts so 320 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:23,639 Speaker 1: that they could prove that they were customers. Then they 321 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,560 Speaker 1: took seats at the lunch counter. The staff refused to 322 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,280 Speaker 1: serve them and told them to leave, but they stayed put, 323 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:32,320 Speaker 1: showing their receipts and asking why they could spend their 324 00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:34,760 Speaker 1: money in the store but not at the lunch counter. 325 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:38,680 Speaker 1: In their accounts, a black food service worker also told 326 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,959 Speaker 1: them to leave, saying that they shouldn't cause trouble. In 327 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,240 Speaker 1: later years, the men also told slightly different versions of 328 00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,359 Speaker 1: their encounter with an older white woman that first day 329 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:50,360 Speaker 1: that she either said that she was proud of them 330 00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:52,680 Speaker 1: for what they were doing and asked why it had 331 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:56,080 Speaker 1: taken so long, or some versions suggest that she was 332 00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:59,720 Speaker 1: disappointed in them because it had taken so long. Finally, 333 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:03,000 Speaker 1: the store manager, Clarence Harris, known as Curly, decided the 334 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:05,479 Speaker 1: best course of action was to close the store early. 335 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:07,960 Speaker 1: When the four young men left, they said they would 336 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,760 Speaker 1: be back the next day. When they got back to campus, 337 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:14,600 Speaker 1: they formed a student Executive Committee for Justice to try 338 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:17,879 Speaker 1: to keep themselves and their classmates focused and to make 339 00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:21,200 Speaker 1: sure anyone who joined the sit in understood their standards 340 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:24,520 Speaker 1: for dress, behavior and non violence. They were to be 341 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:27,399 Speaker 1: neatly and nicely dressed, with men in coats and ties 342 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:30,679 Speaker 1: and women in dresses, stockings, and heels. They were to 343 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,680 Speaker 1: be gracious and polite, including not talking back if they 344 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:38,040 Speaker 1: were insulted or sworn at. We will have more on 345 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:47,879 Speaker 1: this after another quick sponsor break. When they planned their 346 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:50,959 Speaker 1: sit in at the Woolworth lunch counter, the Greensboro four 347 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,359 Speaker 1: had the support of Ralph John's, who was a white 348 00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:58,040 Speaker 1: business owner who opposed segregation. John's contacted the local press 349 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,879 Speaker 1: while they were sitting in. Photographer Jack Mobes of the 350 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,080 Speaker 1: Greensboro Record took a photo of the four young men 351 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:07,439 Speaker 1: on their way out of the store. The newspapers started 352 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,639 Speaker 1: covering the sit in right away. More reporters were on 353 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: hand on February two, and the student demonstrators had grown 354 00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,119 Speaker 1: from their those first four people to a total of 355 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:20,880 Speaker 1: about twenty. On Wednesday, the third, more than sixty students 356 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:24,560 Speaker 1: were sitting at the lunch counter. Crowd started forming before 357 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:28,480 Speaker 1: the store opened, with black students and white counter protesters, 358 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:31,000 Speaker 1: each trying to fill all of the seats at the 359 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:35,000 Speaker 1: lunch counter. White opponents to the sit in included members 360 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:38,439 Speaker 1: of the Ku Klux Klan. There is a documentary on 361 00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:42,240 Speaker 1: this called February one, and they tell stories about this 362 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:46,119 Speaker 1: kind of rush to try to get all the seats. Uh. 363 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:49,040 Speaker 1: And in some cases, like the white people who sat 364 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:52,040 Speaker 1: down were trying to keep the demonstrators from sitting down. 365 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: But then in other cases it was more like people 366 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 1: would sit down and us the you know, the staff 367 00:20:57,880 --> 00:20:59,920 Speaker 1: would come over to take their order and they would say, 368 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,080 Speaker 1: think he was here before me actually, and sort of 369 00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:06,040 Speaker 1: claimed the space in that way. So there was a 370 00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:10,119 Speaker 1: lot going on, uh. In terms of this rush for 371 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:13,280 Speaker 1: seats at the lunch counter. Women were also involved in 372 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:16,359 Speaker 1: this protest from its earliest days. Like A and T. 373 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,520 Speaker 1: Bennett College had a long and established history of civil 374 00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:23,080 Speaker 1: rights activism among its student body, including being part of 375 00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 1: the earlier Greensboro demonstrations that we talked about before the break. 376 00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: Women from Bennett who were nicknamed Bennett Bells are referenced 377 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,359 Speaker 1: in news reports from the fourth day of the demonstration, 378 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,800 Speaker 1: but they were probably there earlier. Bennett students were also 379 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,600 Speaker 1: a big part of the sit ins ongoing planning, and 380 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:42,600 Speaker 1: hundreds of them sat in at the lunch counters over 381 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,560 Speaker 1: the course of the sit ins. News reports also mentioned 382 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,200 Speaker 1: white women from Women's College which is now You and 383 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:51,400 Speaker 1: c G who joined. On the third day. On Thursday, 384 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,760 Speaker 1: February fourth, more than three hundred people made their way 385 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:57,840 Speaker 1: to downtown Greensboro, and the sit in spread from the 386 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,040 Speaker 1: Woolworth lunch counter to the counter at the nearby S. H. 387 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:04,879 Speaker 1: Crest store. The sit ins became national news, and people 388 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:08,360 Speaker 1: started organizing sit ins at lunch counters in other cities. 389 00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:12,159 Speaker 1: Nationally televised news coverage was one of the reasons that 390 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,560 Speaker 1: the Greensboro sit in sparked a more national movement when 391 00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 1: those earlier sit ins that we talked about really hadn't. 392 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:21,800 Speaker 1: But it was also because by nineteen sixty most major 393 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 1: cities were home to church leaders and civil rights activists 394 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,359 Speaker 1: who were trained in non violence and direct action. So 395 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:31,240 Speaker 1: when words started to spread of what was happening in Greensboro, 396 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:35,000 Speaker 1: people in other cities were already ready to go. People 397 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,840 Speaker 1: started picketing and boycotting at northern Woolworth locations that weren't 398 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:41,600 Speaker 1: segregating their lunch counters as well to try to get 399 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:45,400 Speaker 1: the whole chain to change its policies. On Friday, February five, 400 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:49,200 Speaker 1: the Greensboro sit in saw its first arrests, with three 401 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,679 Speaker 1: white men arrested for intimidation after setting a black man's 402 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 1: coat on fire at the counter. Then, on February six, 403 00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,879 Speaker 1: both Woolworth and Cress closed due to a bomb threat. 404 00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:03,960 Speaker 1: The student demonstrators agreed to a two week truce while 405 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,320 Speaker 1: the stores tried to work out a desegregation plan. As 406 00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:10,639 Speaker 1: that was happening, siden started in Winston Salem, about thirty 407 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:15,720 Speaker 1: miles from Greensboro on February eighth. February, students and civil 408 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,280 Speaker 1: rights leaders from Nashville Christian Leadership Conference started sitting in 409 00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:23,000 Speaker 1: at restaurants in Nashville, Tennessee. This was actually something they 410 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,119 Speaker 1: had already been working on. Just a few days before 411 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:29,760 Speaker 1: the Greensboro sit in started. Black students had visited lunch 412 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,399 Speaker 1: counters in Nashville to confirm that they would not be 413 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,240 Speaker 1: served there. As part of their planning of a series 414 00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,520 Speaker 1: of sit ins. More than a hundred and twenties students 415 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:42,199 Speaker 1: from American Baptist College, Fisk University, and Tennessee A and 416 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,760 Speaker 1: I State University sat in at three Nashville stores, all 417 00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:48,160 Speaker 1: of which wound up closing early on that first day. 418 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:51,399 Speaker 1: One of the student demonstrators in Nashville was John Lewis, 419 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 1: who was a student at American Baptist College at the time. 420 00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:58,440 Speaker 1: On February sixteenth, Martin Luther King Jr. Spoke at White 421 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:02,480 Speaker 1: Rock Baptist Church and during North Carolina. Afterwards, some of 422 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,359 Speaker 1: the Greensborough demonstrators were able to meet him, and he 423 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,800 Speaker 1: expressed his support for what they were doing. King also 424 00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,919 Speaker 1: credited the Greensboro sit ins with reinvigorating the movement. People, 425 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,680 Speaker 1: mostly students, kept organizing sit ins and more and more cities, 426 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: most of them in the South. We are not at 427 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: all touching on all of them. These are just some examples. 428 00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:26,719 Speaker 1: On February, students in Orangeburg, South Carolina, sat in at 429 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:31,040 Speaker 1: the Crest lunch counter. On February seven, the number of 430 00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:35,760 Speaker 1: student demonstrators in Nashville, Tennessee, swelled to four hundred. They 431 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:39,640 Speaker 1: were attacked by white counter protesters that day. The demonstrating 432 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,840 Speaker 1: students were beaten and burned with cigarettes, and eighty one 433 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:47,040 Speaker 1: of them were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, even 434 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:49,480 Speaker 1: though they were not the instigators and had not fought back. 435 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:53,520 Speaker 1: The arrested students bail was set at a hundred dollars, 436 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:56,080 Speaker 1: but they opted to remain in jail even after that 437 00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: amount was lowered. That actually was a strategy and a 438 00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:03,000 Speaker 1: lot to this movement, that to choose jail rather than bail. 439 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:05,879 Speaker 1: One of the organizers of the Nashville sit ins was 440 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:09,639 Speaker 1: the Reverend James Lawson, who was pursuing graduate studies at 441 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:15,040 Speaker 1: the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt's divinity program was integrated. 442 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,240 Speaker 1: Lawson had been incarcerated as a conscientious objector during the 443 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:22,639 Speaker 1: Korean War and had studied Gandhi's principles of non violent 444 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:27,080 Speaker 1: activism in India. The media in Nashville framed him as 445 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:31,680 Speaker 1: an outside agitator who was advocating lawlessness. On March three, 446 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:35,159 Speaker 1: the Board of trust at Vanderbilt met to discuss the situation, 447 00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:38,600 Speaker 1: and they ultimately offered him the choice of withdrawing from 448 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:42,600 Speaker 1: the Divinity School or being expelled, and he chose expulsion, 449 00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:46,480 Speaker 1: which led to widespread student demonstrations at Vanderbilt and the 450 00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:51,200 Speaker 1: resignations of nearly all the Divinity School faculty. On March fifteen, 451 00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:54,520 Speaker 1: about a thousand students in Orangeburg, South Carolina, held a 452 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:58,119 Speaker 1: march to protest segregation in Orangeburg and to support the 453 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 1: sit ins that were happening in other parts of South Carolina. 454 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:05,000 Speaker 1: On March seven, students from Southern University sat in at 455 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,880 Speaker 1: the Crest Counter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. All of them 456 00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,600 Speaker 1: were arrested and their bail was set at fifteen hundred 457 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:15,960 Speaker 1: dollars each. Civil rights leader Reverend T. J. Jemison headed 458 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:18,680 Speaker 1: the effort to raise funds for them. The next day, 459 00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:21,439 Speaker 1: there were sit ins at Steimond's drug store in Baton Rouge, 460 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:24,439 Speaker 1: as well as the Greyhound station, and students from Southern 461 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,400 Speaker 1: University walked out of class to march to the capitol. 462 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:32,600 Speaker 1: Sixteen students were arrested and suspended from school. Many were convicted, 463 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 1: with the U. S. Supreme Court overturning those convictions. Later 464 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,400 Speaker 1: on on April one, sit ins and other demonstrations resumed 465 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:43,600 Speaker 1: in Greensboro. That two weeks suspension and demonstrations had dragged on, 466 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 1: it had become clear that these negotiations to actually integrate 467 00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,679 Speaker 1: the lunch counters were going nowhere. Demonstrators also started asking 468 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,920 Speaker 1: people to boycott the downtown stores, and even people who 469 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:59,000 Speaker 1: didn't support integration had started avoiding the whole area because 470 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:02,800 Speaker 1: of the sit ins the other demonstrations. On that same day, 471 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,680 Speaker 1: students from Burke High School sat in at the Crest 472 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:10,399 Speaker 1: lunch Counter in Charleston, South Carolina. This demonstration lasted for 473 00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:12,960 Speaker 1: only a day, as all of the students who participated 474 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,840 Speaker 1: were arrested in Double A CP Branch president Jay Arthur 475 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:20,720 Speaker 1: Brown paid their bail of ten dollars each. Also in April, 476 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,080 Speaker 1: Ella Baker, who was active in the Double A c 477 00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,560 Speaker 1: P and had helped organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 478 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:31,200 Speaker 1: held a meeting for student activists at Shaw University and Raleigh. 479 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,840 Speaker 1: The result of that meeting was the establishment of the 480 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,880 Speaker 1: Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee or SNICK. SNICK has its 481 00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,000 Speaker 1: own history beyond this sit in movement. Parts of that 482 00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:44,359 Speaker 1: history are contentious, but it became a major organization in 483 00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:47,400 Speaker 1: the civil rights movement in the nineteen sixties, especially when 484 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:51,359 Speaker 1: it came to young people's activism. On April nineteenth, in Nashville, 485 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,480 Speaker 1: the home of the student demonstrator's defense lawyer was bombed, 486 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:58,160 Speaker 1: causing extensive damage to it and the surrounding buildings, but 487 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,200 Speaker 1: thankfully not causing any injury. These are deaths. In response, 488 00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:05,240 Speaker 1: students led a silent march of about three thousand people. 489 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,480 Speaker 1: The day after the march, Martin Luther King Jr. Spoke 490 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,040 Speaker 1: at Fisk University, and that address was also delayed because 491 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:15,240 Speaker 1: of the bomb threats. On May tenth, nearly all the 492 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,840 Speaker 1: stores that students had targeted in Nashville started integrating their 493 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:23,119 Speaker 1: lunch counters. Back in Greensboro, Kress had closed its lunch 494 00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:25,520 Speaker 1: counter entirely for a while to try to avoid this 495 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,439 Speaker 1: whole situation, and when it reopened, it roped off the 496 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 1: counter to try to allow staff to control who could 497 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,760 Speaker 1: or couldn't get in when black students walked past the 498 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 1: rope and sat down anyway. Police arrested more than forty people, 499 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,360 Speaker 1: including three of the Greensboro four. At this point, the 500 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 1: end of the academic year was approaching, and in some cities, 501 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,720 Speaker 1: store owners and local authorities we're hoping that things would 502 00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:51,080 Speaker 1: kind of just blow over, or at least calm down 503 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:54,920 Speaker 1: when students went home for the summer. In Greensboro, Curly 504 00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:58,400 Speaker 1: Harris had gotten a memo from Woolworth's regional headquarters to 505 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,200 Speaker 1: integrate the lunch counter, but had left it up to 506 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:03,200 Speaker 1: him as to when to do it, and so he 507 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,480 Speaker 1: decided to do it on July, when school was no 508 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:11,560 Speaker 1: longer in session. He chose four employees, Geneva Tisdale, Susie Morrison, 509 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,200 Speaker 1: and Nathan Jones and Charles Best to be the first 510 00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:16,959 Speaker 1: black customers served at the lunch counter. He asked them 511 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:18,680 Speaker 1: to bring a change of clothes with them to work 512 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:20,479 Speaker 1: that day so they would be in street clothes when 513 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,080 Speaker 1: they ate. He also advised them that if they did 514 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,240 Speaker 1: not want their picture in the paper, they should eat 515 00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:28,240 Speaker 1: as quickly as they could. Those are the names that 516 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: I have found for the four employees, but there are 517 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:32,240 Speaker 1: some sources that you'll find that say it was three 518 00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:36,080 Speaker 1: employees rather than four. When college students returned in the fall, 519 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,200 Speaker 1: some did go to the store to test out whether 520 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:41,360 Speaker 1: integration really was happening at the lunch counter, but it 521 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,520 Speaker 1: did not become like the go to place for students 522 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:46,600 Speaker 1: that been at or A and T to eat. By 523 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,080 Speaker 1: the end of nineteen sixty, there had been sit ins 524 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:51,920 Speaker 1: in at least one hundred cities and at least seventy 525 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:56,280 Speaker 1: thousand people had participated. A year after that initial February 526 00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,000 Speaker 1: first protest, at least one hundred forty cities had desegregated 527 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: their lunch counters, both in response to sit ins in 528 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: those cities and also out of fear that they could 529 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:08,760 Speaker 1: be targeted next. This wasn't at all the end of 530 00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,560 Speaker 1: the sit in movement. The sit ins are often credited 531 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,960 Speaker 1: with reviving the civil rights movement, as we've mentioned earlier, 532 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:18,400 Speaker 1: and they're also credited with training a new generation of 533 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:23,280 Speaker 1: civil rights activists who participated in them. Moving beyond nineteen sixty, 534 00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:25,960 Speaker 1: students and others started turning their focus to things like 535 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:31,400 Speaker 1: segregated movie theaters, restaurants, and other facilities. Those demonstrations were 536 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:35,840 Speaker 1: met with similar waves of counter demonstrations, arrests, and violence. 537 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:40,280 Speaker 1: This included wade ends in Biloxi, Mississippi, which started in 538 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:43,680 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine and then recurred several times through nineteen 539 00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:47,160 Speaker 1: sixty three, although it was another four years after that 540 00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: before a federal appeals court ruled that the public beaches 541 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:53,320 Speaker 1: had to desegregate. Back at the top of the show, 542 00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:58,360 Speaker 1: we mentioned school desegregation and bus desegregation. In those cases, 543 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,960 Speaker 1: the U. S. Supreme Court had ruled their racial segregation 544 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:05,760 Speaker 1: in public schools and state laws requiring bus segregation were unconstitutional, 545 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:08,760 Speaker 1: but the Supreme Court did not make a similar ruling 546 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,959 Speaker 1: about privately owned businesses that are also open to the public, 547 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:16,400 Speaker 1: such as movie theaters, stores, and lunch counters. Between nineteen 548 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:20,040 Speaker 1: sixty one and nineteen sixty four, waves of appeals made 549 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:22,720 Speaker 1: their way to the U. S. Supreme Court as students 550 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,640 Speaker 1: fought their convictions for trespassing, disturbing the peace, and similar 551 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:30,120 Speaker 1: charges in conjunction with their involvements in the sit in movement. 552 00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:33,080 Speaker 1: For the most part, the Supreme Court found in favor 553 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,360 Speaker 1: of the students in these cases and overturned their convictions, 554 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,960 Speaker 1: but the Court generally did so on pretty narrow grounds. 555 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:44,520 Speaker 1: The decisions cited things like procedural issues or, in some cases, 556 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,360 Speaker 1: local or state non discrimination laws that had been passed 557 00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:52,480 Speaker 1: since the students were first convicted. The Supreme Court really 558 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:58,080 Speaker 1: did not answer the broader constitutional question in these rulings. However, 559 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:01,320 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, President Didn't be Johnson signed the 560 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:04,720 Speaker 1: Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, which was legislation 561 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:08,280 Speaker 1: that President John F. Kennedy had advocated before his assassination 562 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:12,680 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three. This Act outlawed discrimination on the 563 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,920 Speaker 1: basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It 564 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:20,960 Speaker 1: also required equal access to public places and employment regardless 565 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,720 Speaker 1: of race, among other protections. Of course, this did not 566 00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,960 Speaker 1: fix racism or discrimination, but it was the nation's first 567 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,160 Speaker 1: broad civil rights law since the Reconstruction era, offering more 568 00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,480 Speaker 1: protections than the Civil Rights Act of nineteen fifty seven had. 569 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:40,760 Speaker 1: Regarding the Greensboro four, after they graduated from ant all 570 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 1: of them found it difficult to get work in Greensboro 571 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,800 Speaker 1: because of their involvement in the sit ins. All of them, 572 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:50,760 Speaker 1: except for David Richmond, ultimately left the city. Richmond sent 573 00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:53,800 Speaker 1: spent a few years living in western North Carolina before 574 00:32:53,840 --> 00:32:56,760 Speaker 1: going back to Greensboro to take care of his aging parents. 575 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:00,520 Speaker 1: Even then, when years had passed, he struggled to find work, 576 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:03,720 Speaker 1: and he faced ongoing issues with his physical and mental health, 577 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:07,000 Speaker 1: as well as alcohol abuse, which the people around him 578 00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:09,120 Speaker 1: attributed to the way he had been traded for his 579 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:12,400 Speaker 1: civil rights work. He died on December seventh of nineteen 580 00:33:12,440 --> 00:33:16,080 Speaker 1: ninety at the age of forty nine. Franklin McCain died 581 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:19,200 Speaker 1: on January nine, fourteen, at the age of seventy three. 582 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:23,479 Speaker 1: As of when we're recording this, Joseph McNeil and Jabral Kazan, 583 00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,600 Speaker 1: who was known during the sit ins as Ezel Blair Jr. 584 00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:30,160 Speaker 1: Are still living in our close friends. The Greensboro Woolworth 585 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:34,040 Speaker 1: store closed in nineteen three. At that point, the Smithsonian 586 00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,760 Speaker 1: acquired a length of the lunch counter with four stools, 587 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,560 Speaker 1: which is in the National Museum of American History. Also 588 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,840 Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three, an organization called sit In Movement 589 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:47,800 Speaker 1: Incorporated was established to buy the Woolworth building and converted 590 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,680 Speaker 1: into a museum today that is the International Civil Rights 591 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:55,240 Speaker 1: Center and Museum. On February second of two thousand two, 592 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,560 Speaker 1: a statue of the Greensboro four was unveiled in front 593 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:02,480 Speaker 1: of Anti State University Dudley Building. It's modeled after the 594 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:04,800 Speaker 1: photo that was taken to the foreman as they left 595 00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:07,480 Speaker 1: Woolworth on that first day of the sit ins. It's 596 00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:11,320 Speaker 1: inscription reads quote, these four A and T freshman envisioned 597 00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:14,000 Speaker 1: and carried out the lunch counter sit in of February one, 598 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:18,280 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty in downtown Greensboro. Their courageous act against social 599 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:22,280 Speaker 1: injustice inspired similar progress across the nation and is remembered 600 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:25,360 Speaker 1: as a defining moment in the struggle for civil rights. 601 00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:28,239 Speaker 1: Do you have a little bit of listener mail for us? 602 00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:32,600 Speaker 1: I do um? It is actually a listener Facebook comment 603 00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:37,880 Speaker 1: from Alice that is about our recent episode on Murasaki 604 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,600 Speaker 1: Shikibu and the Tale of Genji, and Alice says I 605 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:45,080 Speaker 1: have a professional Japanese to English translator, so it was 606 00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:48,520 Speaker 1: fun to hear an episode that touched on translation. Han 607 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:52,759 Speaker 1: Era Japanese is definitely difficult to translate and difficult for 608 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,120 Speaker 1: today's Japanese person to read. The question of what the 609 00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:59,520 Speaker 1: subject or object of a specific Genji sentence is supposed 610 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:02,440 Speaker 1: to be is something I've seen my Japanese colleagues argue 611 00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:05,520 Speaker 1: about pretty heatedly. But I should note that this what's 612 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,840 Speaker 1: the subject slash object can under him didn't end with 613 00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:13,480 Speaker 1: flowery classical Japanese. Although a Japanese writer today will include 614 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:18,000 Speaker 1: subjects and sentences more often than Murasaki Shikibu did, the 615 00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:20,680 Speaker 1: subject will still be left out. If a good half 616 00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:24,359 Speaker 1: of sentences and both spoken and written Japanese today, your 617 00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,000 Speaker 1: quote just supposed to know. So if you get a 618 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:29,439 Speaker 1: bunch of translators in a room to analyze a book 619 00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:33,200 Speaker 1: or manga written in you'll still inevitably get to see 620 00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:36,200 Speaker 1: them argue over who or what some sentence or other 621 00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:40,560 Speaker 1: is really talking about. Thanks for covering, lady Murasaki. Thanks 622 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,279 Speaker 1: for that note, Alice. That's pretty cool. I did not 623 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 1: realize that that was still as present in Japanese today. Um, 624 00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:51,680 Speaker 1: which is funny because I'm not trying to throw my 625 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,520 Speaker 1: husband under the bus, but he speaks Japanese and has 626 00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:57,960 Speaker 1: lived in Japan and is a person that I will 627 00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:01,959 Speaker 1: ask various Japanese lange which things of from time to time. 628 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:04,680 Speaker 1: And we were talking about that episode. I don't think 629 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:09,080 Speaker 1: that particular detail about Japanese came up. It also reminds 630 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:13,120 Speaker 1: me a bit of h A lot of authors that 631 00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:17,560 Speaker 1: I follow have talked about trying to um write their 632 00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:20,719 Speaker 1: work in a way that it works really well from 633 00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:24,440 Speaker 1: the page and also works really well as an audio book, 634 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,799 Speaker 1: and a lot of times that involves leaving off the 635 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:30,880 Speaker 1: attribution of like he said and she said in dialogue, 636 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:34,120 Speaker 1: which as a reader you can pretty much keep up 637 00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:37,160 Speaker 1: with if you're paying attention, but also lead to some 638 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:42,160 Speaker 1: similar moments of like who said that sentence right? And 639 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:46,360 Speaker 1: the I mean I I know very little about Japanese language, 640 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:49,040 Speaker 1: but my understanding too is that because of the syntax 641 00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:52,479 Speaker 1: of it is so different, sometimes it's just tricky. There's 642 00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:56,480 Speaker 1: no one to one to translate to English language, like, 643 00:36:56,520 --> 00:37:00,160 Speaker 1: there's really a lot of nuance and interpretation the the 644 00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:04,480 Speaker 1: interpreter has to do. Yeah, so yeah, so thank you again. 645 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:06,520 Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us about this 646 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:08,840 Speaker 1: or any other podcast or at History Podcasts at I 647 00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:12,520 Speaker 1: Heart radio dot com. We're also all over social media 648 00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:16,360 Speaker 1: at mss in History. That's where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, 649 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:21,360 Speaker 1: and Instagram. You can also subscribe to our show on app, podcast, 650 00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:23,880 Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, and anywhere else you like 651 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:31,320 Speaker 1: to get your podcasts. Stuff You Missed in History Class 652 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,000 Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radios How Stuff Works. 653 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:36,760 Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart 654 00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:39,839 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 655 00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:40,520 Speaker 1: favorite shows.