Speaking Volumes: Reliving sit-ins as civil rights movement starts to take shape
On Feb. 1, 1960, the country was stunned by the bravery of four black freshmen from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, in Greensboro, who quietly entered a Woolworth’s Department Store, purchased a few small items, and then requested service at the “white’s only” lunch counter, knowing that they would not be served.
After being refused service, they returned to the campus and shared their experience with other students. The next day, 20 more students joined the first four, and the protest increased daily.
Inspired by the attention given to the Greensboro students’ efforts, sit-ins were staged throughout the South.
In “Courage in the Moment: The Civil Rights Struggle, 1961-1964,” photographer Jim Wallace, then a student in Greensboro, captures the events and emotions of the time. “The Movement and the Sixties: Protest in America From Greensboro to Wounded Knee,” by Terry Anderson, describes the sit-ins, including the encouragement and impetus they gave to other civil rights actions.
Landmark as it was, the Greensboro sit-in was not the first. Twenty-one years earlier, the first sit-in took place in Alexandria, Virginia, at the town library. On Aug. 19, 1939, five black men individually entered the segregated building and requested library cards.
When their requests were denied, they each took a book off the shelf and sat down to read. After two hours, the library officials had them arrested for their act of “civil disobedience.”
Samuel Tucker, a local attorney, organized this event, basing it on Mahatma Gandhi’s practice of peaceful protest, explained in his book, “The Words of Gandhi” and Dennis Dalton’s book, “Mahatma Gandhi: Non-Violent Power in Action.”
Gandhi was influenced by civil disobedience proponent, Henry David Thoreau, who wrote in “Walden: and Other Writing of Henry David Thoreau” and “Civil Disobedience” that it was the duty of Americans to make known their disagreement or disapproval of their government’s policies or actions.
Both Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s “Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008” and the children’s book by Andrea Davis Pinkney, “Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down,” describe sit-ins in depth.
Unfortunately for the black Alexandria residents, the city went on to build a “blacks only” library filled with discarded books, and the protesters’ brave act of civil disobedience failed in the short term.
Seventy-five years later, however, in 2014, the Alexandria Library celebrated the anniversary of the historic sit-in and Rose T. Dawson, Alexandria’s first African American Library Director, stated “Due to the bravery of these men, 75 years later our library is a community hub that supports all individuals by providing equal access to books, technology, culture, and so much more.”
Information on local sit-ins is available in the Eaton Room at the Downtown Library.
For additional information, check our library catalog or ask one of our librarians for assistance.
Judy Mullen is an assistant supervisor at Braden River Branch Library. Speaking Volumes, written by Manatee County Public Library System staff members, is published each Sunday in the Bradenton Herald.