Transcripts For CSPAN3 1960 Lunch Counter Sit-Ins 20240712

And i think bennett is a good place to be. I think bennett can become a haven for at least 900 little girls, to make them into big women. Thats what i work to do. And i dont plan to be here forever, to have another career, but its certainly a good thing to do on the days that i am here. Four africanamerican students sat down at a segregated woolworths lunch counter in greensboro, North Carolina. Over the next hour, American History tv and cspans washing at thernal, look back sit ins and protest during that time. Our guest joining us live is traci parker, author and university of massachusetts amherst professor. That is live in a moment here on cspan 3. At 1960 look at events in when we walked into the store, we wanted to prove that we were customers. And made a notebook sure to get receipts. We mulled around in the store, just trying to get some fix on where we work and what we were about to do. Anxiety having some would not get to hire me. I felt my temperature increase. I could feel my sweat coming off the side of my face. Didnt have to ask joe what he was thinking. We looked at each other and of bus looked at the counter at the same time. We just started to walk toward the counter. Without a single word. That is how it happened. Host traci parker joins us now for a discussion about the lunch counter sit ins of 1960. Traci parker, who with the greensboro four and why did they decide to sit down at that world works lunch count will worth woolworths lunch counter . Host those were young men who were just College Freshmen at North Carolina state university. Three of them had already met in high school. And so already had a report. They met the fourth as freshman in college. They had actually been thinking , how tocial injustices integrate, how to push the movement along for some time. Until Joseph Mcneil is returning to school after christmas break in 1959 when he is refused a meal at a greyhound train terminal. He is trying to buy a hotdog. Campusck to him and he is emboldened. He says, enough is enough. He and his four friends decide they are going to target the in inrths and stages said greensboro, North Carolina. What i find interesting is, why a woolworths . Woolworths was a five and dime. It was a chain Discount Department store. Itwas recognizable because is a chain across the United States to people. There is a way in which you can recognize it, you can see yourself in it, and if you wanted to replicate a similar movement, you could. Woolworths operated a very contradictory policy when it came to africanamericans. , browse, free to enter and purchase. However, there were not allowed to eat at lunch counters. They could not use beauty shops. They cannot try on or return close clothes. Unequalld be provided service at the whim of a sales worker. Woolworths becomes a place that is very visible for showcasing the Racial Discrimination and segregation of the time, of the country. Be one ofr them could the most ideal places to visibly dismantle this system of racial injustice. Host what was the state of segregation in 1960 . Six years after brown v. Board of education. What was that like in the retail and shopping realm . Guest in 1954 there is this huge we remember this this is a huge moment when brown v. Board of education comes down. Outlawing segregation in public schools. It overturns the 1896 plessy versus ferguson decision that had stipulated that separate but equal was constitutional. After the brown v. Board of education decision, the desegregation of schools is slow. Very little is done. Ofn we have in december 1955, rosa parks initiates this movement, which is the montgomery bus boycott movement. Between the end of that movement 1960, very little had changed. Athink that there is generation of students and these are generations of students that would have been the age of emmett till when emmett till was brutally lynched. Who had been shaped by watching the death of emmett till, watching the montgomery bus boycott, understanding that when they go into a store the rules for them are different. And they went to go get something to eat, the lunch counter itself was a symbol of white supremacy. Theas a symbol of how country, have the marketplace, how the stores try to keep them in secondclass citizenship. Parker is our guest. An assistant professor at the university of massachusetts amherst. We are talking about the 1960s lunch counter protest in this hour of washington journal, and being joined by our friends on American History tv. Inviting you to join the conversation. From lines split up recently regionally. 202 7488001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. And a special line set aside for sitting participants and their family members. If you remember those days, 202 7488002 is the number. We would love to hear from you as we go about this hour of the washington journal. Professor parker, right did this movement become the one that gets pointed to, the greensboro protest . Why is that the one that started this new round of settings . This wasnt the first round. Sittings. Been other why is this the one that gets pointed to . Guest there is a historical moment and there is an energy and desire for immediacy among these young people. First we are in a moment after the second world war, the economy is prosperous, africanamericans have now located to urban centers, they they are more, educated. The time is right. Then we have the emmett till, the montgomery bus boycott. They show us both the tragedies of the movement, right . The everyday realities for africanamericans, but also the possibilities of a movement. Studentsor those young , they were tired, they were frustrated. I know that the greensboro four mentioned that they were not only motivated the death of emmett till, by the montgomery bus boycott, but also king had come to speak at their college in 1958. And listening to him speak about nonviolence and listening to him speak about the injustices of the world, really motivated these young men. They werent alone. While they are having this conversation at their university, the women at bennett college, which is a historically black Womens College, they are having similar conversations. There is an energy, there is a conversation going on. This seems to be the moment in which to do it. We are also at a moment whether federal government is arguably more supportive of civil rights than it had been, probably since reconstruction. Tose years between 1855 1877. Host how long did the greensboro said in last . How did it start spreading to other cities . Guest it lasted six months. Woolworths has 200 thousandately dollars, equivalent to roughly 2 million today. Decide to finally integrate while the College Students are on summer break. College students left on college break, it was High School Students who took over the reins of this movement. The intensity continued. Finally, the manager of woolworths decides hes going to have three of his black workers dressed in their sunday best and sit down at the lunch counter and eat. Ideally, by the time these College Students get back, business could return to normal. Mentionednute ago you the Womens College in greensboro. Who was esther terry . Esther terry was one of the participants. He helped organize the sit in she was a University Student at bennett college. Abouteaks quite openly how she was influenced, not only by her colleagues, the other women at her college, but also by her professor and by the president of the university. There was a support system at bennett college. And a true encouragement that they participate. She participates and is arrested for her participation. Be ar terry has gone on to leader of what historians call the second student movement, whereby students were not concerned necessarily about public accommodations, but about integrating universities. Making sure there were more black students at universities. That there was more black faculty at these universities. Not only that, but that the curriculum reflects the diverse population that they are hoping these universities will have. She eventually moves to massachusetts after earning a masters of arts degree. Inre she earned a phd american literature. And helps found and chairs the w. E. B. Dubois department of africanamerican studies, which i am a proud faculty member of. Thehelped found one of first black studies programs in the United States. Host one of the places esther terry spoke about her experiences in the greensboro protest is in an oral history interview with the library of congress. It is available online, but we want to show viewers clip of that interview. 8 00 video clip] asks that you dont sit down for coke. Woolworths was not close to black patrons. If you going to woolworths, you could buy what they sold. You just could not sit down and get a sandwich. You couldnt sit down there to eat. Youngk we might have been , because honestly i felt proud. Evert think my mother felt maybe she felt proud, but i think that was not her main feeling. I think she was terrified. I know that now because i have a child, shes not a child anymore, but even so i think is a mother i would be afraid. Im going to tell you, we were proud. I was proud to sit there. I was very, very proud. I will tell you something else. I never, ever understood the hatred that came. He was absolutely surprising because i did not understand why people would glare at us with such hatred. Was a little unnerving. But i was basically very proud to have done that. Esther terry. Traci parker, she talked about her mother being fearful of the danger she was in. Could you talk about the reaction to the lunch counter sit ins . Guest the reaction is mixed. When these men first get to the lunch counter on the very first day, they encounter a white waitress who tells them that we dont serve africanamericans here. Waitresse righteous gets frazzled, so she calls over a black waitress who quickly tells them that you are making trouble and instruct them to leave. By thatd assume statement that perhaps she was antiprotest. But i think in reality what she has is she is scared. She is scared of what could happen to these young men, she is scared of what could possibly happen to herself. You see that type of sentiment going on, but increasingly as the movement men, thishese four movement itself, receives immense support from surrounding community, from the black community. If they were not sitting in at the lunch counters i should say that this movement was not simply at the Woolworths Department store. It eventually spread to cress and company, another five and dime. In,those who arent sitting it may have been the parents who may have been their pastors, their teachers, those folks participate in the way of an economic boycott. Holdingy are doing is, their dollars from these stores until the stores make substantial change. Together it is the sit in, it is the notoriety that is being televised and reported, and it is the economic war, that is damaging store profits and reputations that is central, integral to making change in these places. Ast professor traci parker our guest this morning with the university of massachusetts amherst. Should also note, or book her book, Department Stores and the black Freedom Movement,. Host this hour of the washington journal and American History tv. We have that special line for sitin participants and family members. Bonnie is on that line out of miami. Caller good morning. I wanted to share with you a very vivid memory from when i was 14 years old. I was living in new york city. My friends and i had gone into town to see movies and shop and we came upon a large crowd outside a very popular woolworths. They were chanting, and immediately i signed on, join the chance. It was 1, 2, 3, 4, dont go into woolworths store. Southern woolworths segregate. At that young age i immediately knew, as a white girl, this was wrong. There was something wrong with our country, which unfortunately i would have to reiterate today. The certain people who started the movement back then and succeeded, of course, with the integration of the lunch counters, we need them again today. You so much. Host thanks for the memory. Traci parker . Guest i think that is a typical story. Woolworths using a is so important. That you could have such a broad reach from not simply the one woolworths you are protesting against, but also a could connect to others. Now you have a movement in new york city that is supportive, that is an alliance with those trying to integrate these public spaces in the south. Host what was the core and how much involvement that National Civil Rights Groups have in these sit ins . Guest the core with the congress of racial equality. It was founded in chicago and one of their major tactics was the sit in. They have been pulled employing the sit in. When the greensboro sit in began, it was local naacp members called the court. With a sense of how you train , toents to take the attacks stay nonviolent, to stay strong, and invited them in for support. Core is also building on is a tradition of black protests in the community. They are drawing not only on black history, but also the Labor Movement. The Labor Movement had been using sit ins in the 1930s not only to rail against unequal, unfair employment treatment, but also to desegregate restaurants as well. Some of them are part of the congress of industrial organizations, the cio. Host you talk about training. Could you talk about how that worked and what people who are going to sit down at these lunch counters, how they try to prepare . Guest i think nashville is arguably one of the most the students there were the most trained. They were quite meticulous in their preparation for the sit and. What they would do is hold classes. When i teach the sit in movement and my civil rights class, there is a clip in the movie the butler, where the students are in a basement and they are practicing, they are helping each other prepare. You have someone sitting in a chair and a friend of yours is going to act like they are a counterprotesters. And pushed the chair, spit on you, call you racial epithets. It is to prepare one for what could happen, right . We know that from various pictures, from film, from Television News reels that what these protesters went through was, frankly horrific. We have students who had hot coffee thrown in their faces. They were spit on. Milkshakes were thrown on them. Beaten. E violently they were arrested. They were preparing the students for the fact that it might not be physical harm or arrest. It could end in death. Host was the idea to not react and continue the tradition of nonviolent protest . Was the idea to hold that chair and stay in that seat for as long as possible . Talk to the goals a little bit when it came to that training. Guest the goal was to stay nonviolent. To adhere to these nonviolent principles that gandhi and Martin Luther king had been touting. Because again, this is important what moment we are in. We are in a moment in which television is big. We are showing students who are just in their sunday best. With their schoolbooks, often times, simply trying to get their schoolwork done. Staying polite, staying nonviolent, and just taking it. Then what the white segregationist look like, they look barbaric. They look angry. Something as simple as these young men and women wanting a coke or sandwich. Esults in this brutality it becomes a very convincing argument that africanamericans are in fact firstclass citizens. That they are respectable. That they are dignified. That they are human. ,hat is the work of doing making this all very visible. Host february 1, the dated greensboro lunch counter protest began. By april 1960, some 77 cities ins. Unch counter sit that is what we are talking about. Those lunch counterprotests in this hour of washington journal also taking your calls on lines split up regionally. Kathleen out of california. Good, you are next. Caller thank you. I am 68 years old. This is my history as well. I found the lunch counter demonstration so moving, so powerful, so effective, so glorious. Perspective i my wonder about the movement. I dont see nearly as many peaceful protests in a longer. Oft kathleen, why this form protest in particular . Why does it affect you so much . Guest because it was so noble. Caller because it was so noble. It is exactly what our society should look like. People should eat lunch regardless of their religion or anything. Martin luther king was noble. When i went to public school, who were trained on his words and he was noble. I find so much nobility. I thought we were finding success. From todays perspective, im troubled, very troubled. Host professor parker . Guest i think the sentiments that you express are quite common. It is an interesting place we are in. I think what students are doing now are picking up on what was unfinished. Of the Civil Rights Movement. The tactics they are employing are very much those of the 1960s, those of the students. Such as picket lines and sit ins. And really making their presence and voice heard. There are certainly outliers who have taken a different approach. Sentiments,the core the core philosophy of king and his supporters, and even of the young men and women participated in lunch counter sit ins, i very much see in protests today. Host tina is out of milwaukee, wisconsin. You are next. Caller good morning and thanks for cspan. Hat, parker, if i wore a my hat will be off to you. I appreciate your being on the program this morning. I am originally from the south, im from mississippi specifically. My contact that i want to bring. P is woolworths im not going into all of the details about my history, because im in the process of trying to write my memoirs. My experience came when i graduated from high school in jackson, mississippi and my mom cannot afford to send me to college. My dad had left the family. I ended up in chicago with my mothers older sister. Because she was the only one who could afford to send for me and bring me to a different location so i could have an opportunity to go to school. I got a job at woolworths. I thought i had died and gone to heaven. There was no such thing as a in the storeorking of any type in mississippi. I was put on the candy counter and i worked the cashier and everything on the candy counter was my responsibility. I felt really important. That is what really got been going. Giving me that confidence. I think that is what is happening nowadays with all of the animosity toward the races and all. Our children are losing confidence. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak this morning. I hope everything works out for everyone. Host thank you for sharing your memory. Professor parker . Guest im fascinated by this. I lived in chicago for many years. If you are talking about the wilbur ross on the south side of chicago, i have pictures at home. What you are also speaking about is the fact that in the south, the other part of discrimination, we speak often about the discrimination against there wasumers, but also discrimination against africanamerican workers. South, anths in the africanamerican could not hold a job as a sales worker or as a clerical worker. These were jobs reserved for women. These were status jobs, jobs that gave people a sense of responsibility, they gave people a sense of confidence, as the caller mentioned. So, some sitin movements and i dont have any evidence that happened with the greensboro sitin but there are others such as the one in charlotte, they not only advocated on behalf of africanamerican customers and the discrimination they faced, but also black workers. To ensure black workers eventually be promoted from janitor and cook and maids and elevator operators to positions such as a saleswoman at the in theounter or to work clothing department. Those were jobs that also were reflective of orchids showcase africanamericans respectability, their intellect. They were markers of a move towards their employment, and more racial equality in the marketplace. Side,back on the customer on that experience that black customers had in 1960, as you talk more about rules regarding trying on clothes or returning close . What did they face . Guest africanamericans were not permitted to try on or clothes. There were not permitted to use the beauty shops. They were not permitted to use the same water fountains. Many stores, i think for some folks to my students, for example, it is hard for them to remember a Department Store that had every amenity that you can possibly think of. In Department Stores they were beauty shops that africanamerican women were not allowed to attend or barbershops that africanamerican men were not allowed to use. Typically what is going on is that while they are able to shop in places, any place white americans believed that black ,eople could taint biologically africanamericans were not allowed to participate. Host doloress next out of trenton, new jersey, on that line for sitin participants. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, dolores. Caller i just wanted to say that i went to morgan state college, it was called college at the time in 1950 nine. I started as a freshman there. Demonstrated at a Shopping Center down the street. He couldnt eat at the counter, as you said we could buy anything but we could not sit down at the counter. The company was a Department Store. We couldnt try on the close there. Mitchellnamed clarence , whose uncle became representative from baltimore, clarence organized us. He instructed us not to interact with any of the people that would say anything to us. Signs that we held up. It was a wonderful experience for me. I could cry right now thing about it thinking about it. They eventually opened up that we could sit down and the Department Store. Im so proud of you because you are saying all of the things we experienced at that time. I think you for letting me host do you remember how long that protest lasted and how quickly you said it eventually changed, how long did that take . Say,r i dont want to because i dont exactly remember. But i know that while i was there, and i was only there for a year and a half and then i transferred to virginia union, but it opened up while i was there. Host dolores, thanks for the call. Baltimore, som the story of morgan state students doing network, i have benefited from that. So i must thank you for that. Meaninguming you are the northwood Shopping Center that morgan state students had tried to integrate and were successful at doing so. Those students were well organized. They planned everything very well. And that is another protest movement that not simply leveraged picketing and sit ins, but also the use of the economic boycott. Host greensboro, North Carolina as next. Paul. Caller good morning to you. I just wanted to chime in and say that, both my parents were graduates of North Carolina and my father in particular was on the Football Team. Those guys staged their placement within that time period and it was always amazing to me to hear my dad tell the stories about being on the sidewalks and the antiprotesters spitting on them and yelling up thats yelling epithets. He was amazing and i do remember i ended up going to the university of North Carolina chapel hill. I do remember that reading in my history book, they were talking about the Football Team in. Oolworths i remember at the time being 19 writing in the margins of the book that this was my dad. You sell those books back and i was hoping somewhere down the line someone would see that and be inspired. I would also say that david richmond, his sun and die are good friends. We completed competed against each other in high school athletics. He is a great guy and a great legacy to his father. Guest thats wonderful to hear, thank you for your story. Some wonderful images of the Football Players helping to protect other protesters as they were trying to leave and they would circle around, particularly female protesters, circle around them so they could safely exit the woolworths without getting injured. I dont know whether you have time, but there are some wonderful imagery that was used in newspapers and on television. The Football Players were very much a part of that movement. Host the caller mentioned david richmond. What eventually happens with the greensboro four . Do they go on to become leaders in the wider Civil Rights Movement . Guest it depends on how you are defining the movement. They all to some degree had a difficult time. After the protest, they are labeled radicals. In some ways, they are somewhat blackballerom from locald opportunities. Richmond ended up becoming a janitor at a nursing home, fusing to leave North Carolina because his family was there. His parents in particular, his children. Greensborover left and are still around. Some of them have gone on to have strong careers in military service, that wouldve been Joseph Mcneil. There is another im blinking. Blair, he moved to massachusetts. Did some postgraduate schooling, it eventually became a teacher, a counselor. He does oral histories. In a way, these men have cap the legacy alive and have passed along their understanding of racial equality, their ideologies, onto a subsequent generation, their children. Argue,s been, i would essential to how we end up at a moment like this, when people are once again employing similar tactics to what we see in the 1960s to advance a movement that may have gotten slightly offtrack by the 1980s. Host virginia, this is sue. Caller morning. I want to thank American History tv for having such great programs like this. I have a question for professor parker. When she mentioned the protest going on for a long period of time, how long did it take from when it started to it ended . Was it continuous . Did they sub in people . City begangreensboro february 1, it ended july 25. It is continuous. There is a twoweek moratorium. This is an agreement made between protesters and the city. The idea is that they would spend that two weeks trying to negotiate a plan of action. How to integrate the stores. That fails. That is a tactic that has been used for decades, we often call it the use of persuasion. These backdoor meetings with management to create change. That doesnt work, and as a result the protests pick up again. When the students leave for college vacation, it is local High Schoolers who decide to fill their shoes. It is continuous but it ebbs and flows in different ways in the use of tactics and momentum. Host on this idea of how long it took from lunch counter sit into change coming in for an greensboro, but this is from an oral history interview from a graduate who participated in some of the citizens in richmond. From her library of Congress Oral history interview. I thought the world was going to change. I was so naive. The Police Person was very nice to me. When we were arrested, he held my hand and helped me up into the paddy wagon. I thought that was so nice. My aunt called me, she says i see you on the news being helping to the paddy wagon. He mentioned there were some students that didnt participate. How was angry with them, because they lived in virginia. When we got arrested we went to a courthouse im sorry, went to jail. They put us in this cell and it was smelly. Not even0 venice a clean sell. The court was segregated. In ght, am i only mi hell . N a junker came in. And i thought why did the judges have to come in . It is going downhill fast. I thought, am i losing my mind . Horrible. But i just thought, ok, now that n, we have these attorneys and everything is going to be right and is not going to be any longer. But you can change laws, but you cant change people. Through yourout doing, individually. Her Gloria Grenell from library of Congress Oral history interview. Traci parker on what she remembered. Guest shes right. I think that there is, or some protesters there was this notion that this would happen and they would be immediate change. , there has to be some sort of consistent pressure on merchants, on goal governments to ensure that they held their word. While citizens may have ended in some places, what that meant however was that africanamerican Movement Groups thee core, whether it was southern christian leadership conference, the naacp, or even c, these students are doing constant check ins with businesses to ensure that they are following the new rules. A democracy of equality is being practiced. The difficulty too is that you could target one store and that one store could integrate, but that doesnt mean the store next door is going to integrate. Often times visited businesses would say woolworths integrated, i dont want to be next so i will quietly integrate. It is a movement that is difficult because it is a constant there is no true uniformity or an umbrella organization, even with woolworths. Woolworths was a chain and their philosophy was from their corporate headquarters, was that of theow the customs location in occupy. The racial politics, racial practices in greensboro could be drastically different then one that was in richmond, for example. Host jacquelines next out of new orleans. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well. It is your question or comment . Is more likenk it two statements. I have several but im going to try to be as fast as i can. I want to mention to you that my job in the waltons on canal street. Dh holmes. Ame was it is like at dillards today. My mother got a job there and my mother worked for a very few days and it was a weekend and when she went to work that monday the person that hired her says, i thought i saw you . He asked aware and said, it couldnt have been you because the man you are walking with was a black man. My mom said that was my husband. My mother was not a white lady but she is very bright. They fired her immediately. Woolworthslk about employing black people, i understand that. Know, whened to theye did boycotts, when stopped spending their money, that is what made those people change their minds. They didnt change their hearts, because the dollars was not coming in. It is sad you have to hurt a person in their pocket before they have a change of reaction. I want people to really think about that. We should not have to boycott and not spend our money for you to change your policies. Andst want to say thank you these last three months, i am 55 years old, i have learned more about black history ever. The schools are not teaching it and i hope and pray that this will get through the United States government. We need to have black history in every school in the United States of america. It should be mandatory. Thank you for your time and god bless you. I appreciate cspan for allowing us to say what we need to say. Host thanks. Professor parker . Guest thank you. You are right, the story about being fired after an employer learning that one is black was actually quite common. This is something that started as early as when Department Stores were in business. Storyfamily there was a where there is a great aunt who was very fair and had gotten a job in downtown baltimore. It was well known that when her daughter might see her on the street, her daughter could not speak to her because if her employer found out she was in fact a black woman, she would be fired. So that is actually quite common. It is so disappointing. With regards to businesses and change,nts making usually that change comes from because their pockets are hurt, that is the truth of the matter. Very few times the seeing businesses change because of humanitarian efforts. Even as early as the 1940s, 1950s, the quakers, the American Friends Service committee was going around throughout the country in large cities doing surveys of customers as they were walking out the store. They would do these surveys with white customers and asked, to be bothered if a black person was your salesperson when you made your purchase . Overwhelmingly these white customers would say, i wouldnt be bothered. Im really only in their for the goods i need. I would tolerate it, it would be fine. I wouldnt find a new store to shop in. Still, managers, Business Owners were so fearful of alienating their desired clientele, the white and middle upper classes, that they still refused to do so. Host about 15 minutes left with professor traci parker, author of Department Stores and the black Freedom Movement. Considering your post at the yourrsity, i wonder position on schools not teaching black history . We the problem is problem to my mind is that teaching history in middle school and high schools is a political project. Ist we are teaching students to be citizens in the ways in which Larger Forces want us to understand citizenship. As a result, what africanamerican students learn is that they are secondclass citizens. It is not until they get to colleges, universities again, this is so important why we need africanamerican studies departments, women and gender and sexuality departments. I hear overwhelmingly when i teach my class on the history of the Civil Rights Movement that students are craving for this information. Not is statements made by only black students, but white students, by my latino and asian students, that they are craving to know this history and they are able to see how important this history is for this moment. Im teaching an online civil rights class right now and we were having a discussion and the connections the students are making between what happened in the sitin movement or what 1963ned in birmingham in and making these parallels to what is going on right now in all honesty, a lot of the awe. Nts were so in they were impressed, but they were also encouraged and motivated to take part and do something to change the racial politics of our country. Host if that craving is there, why cant schools in this country bring what you are talking about down to the High School Level . Guest thats a good question. I dont work with High Schoolers, i dont know. Is probablyat there a variety of reasons. This is probably issues of funding, this is probably the issue of feeling like you are. Eaching to a test system three is also a blatant desire not to teach it. It would be, i do think that if students have a stronger understanding about where everyone in this country has come from, to understand the diverse backgrounds, to understand the influence of slavery and the legacy of slavery in this country, to understand the history of black protests in this country, and the influence of lack protests and other movements such as the lgbtq movement, such as the womens movement, that native americans had their own Freedom Movement and continue to have one, that this is important for understanding who we are as citizens. Host brooklyn, new york. This is ellen. Good morning. Caller good morning. Mentioned she was active in baltimore. That brought back a memory to me. I was very active in a group from goucher college. We were a group of white students combined with the group of students from oregon state. We were in the Civic Interest Group and did some sit ins in baltimore. On the hostile conditions. Under very hostile conditions. I wanted to add that to the mix and i believe it was Clarence Mitchell who, i dont know if that name is familiar to you, i think he later went on and become a politician. Two things remain with me. And i was on these picket lines, a white man came up to me and he said to me with great hatred, id rather see my daughter dead than on a picket line. I think up to that point i hadnt realized the emotional dimension of what we were attempting. The second thing was, we were arrested. We were put into a police van and taken for a wild and bumpy ride through baltimore. When the freddie gray case came up, that rang a bell. They had done the same thing. They had speeded up and knocked him around because the same thing happened to us. This was a link 1960. I just wanted to share this. Host thanks for the call and the memories. Professor parker . Guest thank you for that comment. What you are also pointing out is the interracial nature of these protests. I mentioned it was a youth movement, i also mentioned it was intergenerational with, if you think about it is the generation of emmett till, but it is also his mothers generation. There is also the fact that the citizens had white supporters. Many of whom were white College Students. These were white numbers of religious communities. Many times you had white College Students coming down from the north. 1960. Singly after to help out with voter registration, to help out with desegregation, to help out with the education of africanamerican southerners. It is quite important. And i love the story, so im going to be really brief, but when the four men sat down at the lunch counter on that very first day and they are getting these looks from onlookers of white people sitting at the counter and they are fearful that they might be physically harmed or killed, an elderly white woman came up to one of them and put her arm on his shoulder and said that she was sheroud of them and that had wished Something Like this had been done 10 years prior. The amount of white support comes in a variety of ways. It is not simply white College Students who come in the case of greensboro. They are coming from the Womens College at unc or in the case of ofkson, the jackson sitin 1963, reverend white king, a White College student participated and sat alongside moody. Coming from awas variety of places. In the montgomery bus boycott you had white female employers driving their domestics to work because their black domestic was not taking the bus out of protest. The interracial nature of this movement in the 1960s is very important. Really important to the movement that is going on right now. The diversity of the protesters out there. Two 10 00 a. M. , i did want to ask you what happened to that will work and that lunch counter . What exists in greensboro today there . Guest woolworths has closed down throughout the country, that woolworths is now a museum. Its fabulous. It is very multimedia. Of somee some actors sort who detail what happened at the lunch counter sit ins. I havent been in some time, but it is definitely worth seeing. I will say, a couple of the lunch counter stools are in the smithsonian. In black History Museum washington, d. C. , if you are interested in seeing that. Host just down the street from our studio here. Time for one or two more calls. Chester on that line for sitin participants. Caller kansas city, kansas. Good morning. In june 1960 there were four females and two males who participated in a setting. Not at all works, data restaurant. A not at a woolworths, but at restaurant. Call tonaacp sent out a protest what they were doing, we are in free kansas and that is where we got involved. It touched on the Civil Rights Movement in kansas city, kansas. Old, i wasm 87 years on my way to korea. I had been sent to korea. Kansas,ansas city, which was as segregated as birmingham or greensboro, i went to a store which was a store similar to woolworths. They had a counter, but africanamericans had to sit in the back. I could dine korea, i could die in kansas city, kansas. ,n kansas city, kansas woolworths, the branch refused to picket in front of woolworths, which really touched off the Civil Rights Movement. Kansas city became the laughingstock as far as the naacp was concerned. Some of the people that sat on the sidelines got involved. We started working on the Department Stores because they would not hire lacks. Committee had all of the documents, but even today persons in kansas city, kansas do not like to be reminded, because there was only a handful of us got involved here. I might emphasize this. Namedople, my sister was francis haywood, who lived in california. It is still very active in the Civil Rights Movement. Host that is chester in kansas city, kansas. Traci parker . Guest im going to make sure i got this correctly. Earpieces going out a little bit. From what i understand, local naacp was reluctant to participate in a protest movement against what works . Host that sounded like what he was talking about. Guest that is not surprising. I believe he was talking about in the early 1950s . Host yes. Naacps agenda and the 1950s was to take more litigation approach. Hence why the brown v. Board of education case and cases around the integration of schools. They were reluctant to do thing that would involved involve direct confrontation. They sort of jump on the bandwagon or become more comfortable with it by the time we get to the student sit in movement, in part because they see how effective it is. King himself even articulated the effectiveness of doing sit ins and direct confrontation. At that point in time in the 1950s, and in the midst of the feltwar, i think the naacp they did not want to make any missteps whereby they might be labeled communist. Time wasl goal at that to approach civil rights through the courts. Host about a minute and a half left. I want to give it to you to answer the question, the legacy of those citizens of 1960 . Ins of 1960 . St the citizens continue sit and continue into the 1960s. At the time you get to the mid 60s, late 60s, in washington, d. C. And maryland, we see sit ins used in conjunction with an economic boycott to racially integrate workplaces, to ensure that africanamericans can be. Ired in skill positions i feel strongly that the sit in Movement Really helped facilitate the creation and implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title ii of which outlaws discrimination of public accommodation. Despite these major legal moments, brown v. Board of education being one of them, public accommodations are one of the most integrated places in america today. Schools and housing remain quite segregated. A lot can be said about the success and longevity of that success when it comes to public accommodations and the efforts of those sit ins. We appreciate your time this morning. Guest thank you. For those who missed any of this program, this segment will reair tonight at 6 00 p. M. Eastern and 10 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan three. For our viewers who have joined us on American History tv, up next, you will see the awardwinning film february 1, which documents