Integration Report (1960) (Part 2) Featuring a Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Watch the full film: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/08/integration-report-civil-rights.html

On February 1, 1960, four African American students Ezell A. Blair Jr. , David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain from Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, a historically black college, sat at a segregated lunch counter in the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth's store. This lunch counter only had chairs/stools for whites, while blacks had to stand and eat. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter. The four students were aware that Woolworths would not serve blacks at their lunch counter but they sat down anyway, engaging themselves in a plan they had been discussing for a month prior to the sit-in.

When notified by one of the waitresses of the events that were occurring in his store that February afternoon, the stores manager Clarence Harris first told his staff to leave the students alone, hoping they would eventually leave. However, Harris grew nervous that violence would soon ensue so he went to the police. Although he did not have the men arrested, assuming their demonstration would soon end, he did have several police officers stationed in the store.

Contrary to the manager's assumptions, the following morning the four students, along with 23 other men and 4 women showed up at Woolworths to protest. As the days went on, more and more students from the Agricultural and Technical State University as well as Bennett College and Dudley High School (all with a dominantly African American student population) participated in the Woolworth sit-in.

The number of students grew so large that by February 5, four days after the sit-in began, 300 students arrived at Woolworths to take part in the peaceful protest. On February 6, tensions mounted between the blacks and whites at the lunch counter. The football team from the university arrived in hopes of using their size to threaten anyone who tried to stop the protest. As white reaction to the demonstration grew more violent, a bomb scare forced the protesters out of Woolworth's and C.L. Harris closed his store for over two weeks.

Although the phone call that announced the bomb threat did occur, many people were suspicious of the caller's identity, believing that the person was not anonymous and that it was an attempt to halt the protest. The sit-in that had begun with only four students had sparked a massive movement throughout the Southern states as more and more protesters engaged in this type of demonstration. This protest sparked sit-ins and economic boycotts that became a hallmark of the American civil rights movement.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• African-American
• Civil
• Rights
• Movement
• Doug
• McAdam
• Douglas
• Moore
• Esau
• Jenkins
• Eugene
• Bull
• Fellowship
• of
• Reconciliation
• Floyd
• McKissick
• Franklin
• Frazier
• Fred
• Shuttlesworth
• Freedom
• Rides
• Greensboro
• sit-ins
• halfway
• houses
• Highlander
• Folk
• School
• Hosea
• Williams
• Howard
• Zinn
• Ibid
• James
• Bevel
• Farmer
• Forman
• Lawson
• Robinson
• Jemison
• Johns
• Island
• Joseph
• Lowery
• Julian
• Bond
• Kelly
• Miller
• Smith
• Kirkpatrick
• Sale
• Ku
• Klux
• Klan
• Lerone
• Bennett
• Louisiana
• Marion
• Barry
• Martin
• Luther
• King

[koberpat]

humans are so stupid

[peter8099]

I wish I was over there.

[chairmanofthebored1]

What a brave man.

[osafileah1]

yo he got waves

[dankugler]

Thank you so much for posting this.

[egf68]

great video wow!