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. Guest thank you for having me three of them had met in high school. They had met before. They were not thinking about injustices, and how to push the movement along, but it was not until Joseph Mcneil is returning to school after christmas break in 1959 when he greyhound meal at a roof he is refused a meal at a greyhound terminal. Iss just trying to did he emboldened. He and his four friends decide theyre going to target the sit in ats and go segregated eating facilities in greensboro, North Carolina. What i find interesting is why woolworths . And dime. S was a five many people of a certain age probably still remember. It was a chain Discount Department store and it was recognizable because it is a chain across the United States. Replicate ad to similar movement, you could. Operated aoolworths very contradictory policy when it came to African Americans. They were free to enter, browse and purchase. However they were not allowed to eat at lunch counters. They could not use beauty shops. On or returnt try clothes. They were denied credit. They could be denied service at any moments. Woolworths becomes a place where its very visible for showcasing the Racial Discrimination of the time, of the country and for them, it could be one of the most ideal places to visibly dismantle the system of racial injustice. What was the state of segregation in 1960 . Were talking six years after round versus board of education brown v. Board of education. Momentthis is a huge when the brown versus board of education decision comes down outlawing racial segregation in Public Schools and it overturns the 1896 but to versus ferguson decision that essentially ruled that separate but equal is constitutional. After the plessy decision, the actual desegregation of schools is slow. Extremely slow. Very little is done. And then rosa parks initiates this movement, the montgomery bus boycott movement, which lasts a year. Between the end of that movement and 1960, very little had changed. I think that there is there was a generation of students and these are a generation of students who would have been the tt tillit till emme till was brutally lynched and murdered. They understand when they go in the store the rules for them are different. When they go to get something to eat the lunch counter in itself was a symbol of white supremacy. Theas a symbol of how country, and the marketplace, how these stores tried to keep them in second class citizenship. Guest,racy parker is our thestant professor in department of africanamerican studies at the university of massachusettsamherst. We are talking about the lunch counter protests in this hour. We are joined by our friends on cspan3. All phone are split up regionally. Our phones are split up regionally. We would love to hear from you as we go through this hour of washington journal. Professor parker, why did this movement become the one that is pointed movement innsboro particular this was not the first lunch counter protest. There had been other School Incidents going back to the 1940s and making 50s. Why is this the one that gets pointed to . Guest they are at an historical moment. Theres an energy and a desire for an media see among these young people. First we are in a moment after the second world war. The economy is prosperous. Toicanamericans are located urban centers. They are making more money. They are more educated. He time is right we have emmett sell, the boycott. Y bus they show us the tragedies of the movement, the everyday realities for africanamericans, but also the possibilities. I think for those young students, they were tired. They were frustrated. R know the greensboro fou mentioned they were not only motivated by the death of Emmett Montgomery bus boycott, but king had come to speak at their college and listening to him speak about nonviolence and the injustices of the world really motivated these young men. They were not alone. They are having this conversation at their university. There are women over at Bennett College, a historically black Womens College, they are having similar conversations. Theres an energy. There is a conversation going on and this seems to be the moment in which to do it. We are also at a moment where the federal government is arguably more supportive of civil rights than it had been, probably since reconstruction. Throughars between 1865 1877. How long did the greensboro sit in last . How much attention to get at the time . When did it spread to other cities . Is july 25. It is after woolworths much counter lost 200,000, which would be equivalent lunch counter lost 200,000, which would be equivalent to maybe 2 million today. Itecided to integrate was High School Students who took over the movement. The intensity continued. Finally the manager of woolworths decided he would have three of his black workers dress in their sunday best and sit down at the lunch counter and eat. Ideally when the College Students get back, business could return to normal. Minutes ago you mentioned the Womens College in greensboro. Who is esther terry . Dr. Esther terry was one of the participants of the greensboro sit him. She helped organize the sit in. She was a university students. Openly how shee was influenced not only by her colleagues, the other women, but also by her professor and the president of the university. There is a true support system. So she participates and she is a resident. Leader ofn to be a not called the necessarily being concerned about public accommodations, but about public universities. Making sure that there were more black faculty. And not only that, that it populatione diverse the university will have. There she earns phd in american literature. Sounds and eventually chairs department of africanamerican students, which i am a proud faculty member of. Host she spoke about with anating in this oral history interview with the library of congress. Its Available Online in its entirety, but i want to show viewers just a clip of that interview. [video clip] very important to know that woolworths became you know you could go into woolworths. Tolworths was not closed black patronage at all. You could go to woolworths. You could buy anything you wanted that they sold at woolworths if you have money. You just couldnt sit down and get a sandwich at the lunch counter. Youngk we might have been , because honestly i felt proud. Evert think my mother felt maybe she felt proud. But that was not her main feeling. That. I have a child. Mother i am going to be afraid, but im going to tell you 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. I did not understand why they would layer at us with such hatred. I was very proud to have done that. So, esther terry and that library of Congress Oral history. She talked of her mother being fearful of the danger. And you talk a little bit about the reaction to the lunch counter incidents . Can you talk a little bit about the reaction to the lunch counter incidents . Whenhe reaction these young men get to the lunch counter the very first day, they encounter a white waitress who tells them, we dont serve africanamericans here. She calls over a black waitress, genevieve dinsdale, who quickly tells them, you are making trouble and instructs them to leave. You would assume by that statement that she was antiprotest. But i think in reality what she is is she is scared. She is scared about what could happen to these young men. She is scared about what could possibly happen to herself. These four men receive immense support from the surrounding community. This movement was not simply at the woolworths Department Store. Dime. Nother five and increasingly there are more for anyone sitting , pastors, teachers, those people participate by way of an economic boycott. Together it is the sit in, the notoriety of the sit in. Boycott the economic Damaging Reputations that is central, that is angela groll to making a change in these places. Egral to making a change in these places. Professor tracy parker. We are taking your questions, your comments about the 1960 lunch counter citizens on washington journal and American History tv. We have that special line report sit and participants. Bonnie is on that line out of miami. At on he . Bonnie . Caller good morning. I wanted to share a memory. I was in new york city. My friends and i went into town and we came upon a large crowd outside our very popular woolworths. They were chanting. I signed on. I joined the chant. It was 1, 2, 3, 4, dont go into woolworths store, 5, 6, woolworths certain i knewt segregate. That something was wrong. Which unfortunately i would have to reiterate today. The people who started the movement back then and succeeded with the integration of the lunch counters, we need them again today, im afraid. Thank you so much. Host thank you. Tracy parker . Guest i think that is a typical story. I think that is why the using of is so broad, so you can connect to others and now in new yorkovement city that is an alliance with people trying to integrate these public spaces in the south. What was the core and how much involvement did National CivilRights Groups have . Ofst core was the congress racial equality. One of their major tactics was the sit in. They had been employing the sit in the 1940s and 1950s. They have a sense of how this , how they should take the attacks and invited them in four supports. Support is a tradition of black protest. Heres also the Labor Movement the Labor Movement had been using citizens in the 1930s, unfairy to rail against employment treatment, but also to desegregate restaurants as well. Some of them were part of industrial organizations. Host you talk about training. About howan you talk they tried to prepare for that experience . Can you talk about how they try to prepare for that experience . Guest sure. Nashville, they were the students that were the most trained. They were quite meticulous. What they would do is hold classes. This, i always use a clip in the movie the butler. The students, i believe they are in a basement and they are practicing. They are helping each other prepare. They are going to act like a counter protester, push the chair, spit on you, call you racial epithets. It is to prepare one for what could happen. We know through various pictures, film, that what these protesters went through was frankly horrific. Thrown inad coffee their faces. They were spent on. Milkshakes were thrown on them. They were violently beaten. They were arrested. They were preparing the students for the fact that it might not just be physical harm or arrest, but it could end in death. Was the whole idea to hold that chair and to stay in that seat as long as possible . Talk about the goal. Guest the goal was to stay nonviolent, to a here to these nonviolent principles that gandhi and Martin Luther king had been touting. This is important for the moment we are in. We are in a moment where television is big. We are showing students dressed in their sunday best sitting with their school books, oftentimes just trying to get their school work done. Staying polite, staying nonviolent, and just taking it,nd what the whites look like white segregation looks like, they look barbaric. They looked angry. Something as simple as these young men in women wanting a coke or a sandwich results in. Rutal this brutality it becomes a very convincing argument that africanamericans are respectable, but they are dignified, that they are human. Work ofpart of the making this all very visible. By april of 1960, some 77 sites had lunch counter ins is what we are talking. Bout, looking back 60 years this is on washington journal and American History tv. We are also taking your phone calls, the lines of split up regionally and we also the special line for sit in resistance and their family members. Kathleen. Good morning. Caller good morning. Sit in the lunch counter demonstration so powerful, so effective, so glorious, and i do not see nearly as many peaceful protest any longer. Host kathleen, why this particular form of protest . Why did this affect you so much . It was socause normal. It was exactly what our society should look like. Be free to go eat lunch regardless of their religion, their color, anything. That was noble. Martin luther king was notable. I went to public school. We were trained on his words and they were noble. I find so much nobility and i thought we were finding success. Todays perspective, i am troubled. Very troubled. Host professor parker . Guest i think the sentiments that you express a quite common. It is an interesting place we are in. I think what students are doing are picking up what is unfinished in the Civil Rights Movement. Arelieve the tactics they employing are very much the astics of the 1960s, such picket lines and really making their presence and their voice heard. And they are certainly outliers who have taken a different approach. , the coreview sentiments the core philosophy of king and his supporters and the young men and women who participated are very much seen in the protests today. Good morning. Wisconsin. Your next with professor parker. Caller good morning. Cspan. I would put my hat off to you. I appreciate you being on bee program this morning. I am originally from the south. Mississippis is typically. Specifically. Ppi but my contact i want to bring up is well worth. Im not going to go into all of historyils of my because i am in the process of trying to write my memoirs. My experience with woolworths came when i graduated from high school in jackson, mississippi and my mom could not afford to send me to college. My dad have left the family. I ended up in chicago with my mothers oldest sister and i ended up there because she was the only one that could afford to send me and bring me to a different location so i had an opportunity to go to school. I got a job at woolworths. And gone tohad died heaven because there was no such thing as a young black Woman Working at a store of any type in mississippi. I was put on the candy counter and i worked the cashier and everything on the candy counter. That was my responsibility. I felt really important. And thats what really got me going in life. That gave me that confidence. And i think that is what is happening nowadays with all of the animosity toward the races and everything, our children are losing confidence. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak this morning and i hope that everything works out for everyone. Host thank you for sharing your memories. St what you are speaking im fascinated with. I lived in chicago for many years. If you are talking about the southside of chicago, i have pictures at home of the location. But what youre also speaking about is the fact that in the south, right the other part of discrimination we speak often about the discrimination against lacked consumers and black customers, but there was also discrimination against African American against black customers and black consumers, but the results of the discrimination against African American workers. They could not hold a job as a sales worker. These were status jobs. They gave people a sense of responsibility. That gave people a sense of confidence, as the caller mentioned. One of the movements i do not have any evidence that this happened with the greensboro incident, but there are other one such is the one in charlotte, North Carolina, they not only advocated on behalf of , butanamerican customers also black workers and to ensure black workers could be promoted and cook an elevator operators to positions such as sales woman at the candy counter or to work in the clothing department. Those were jobs that also were reflective of orchid showcase African American risk showcasee of order africanamerican respectability. And they were markers of a move fair employment and more racial equality in the marketplace. ,ost back on the customer side on that experience black customers had, can you talk more about trying on clothes, returning clothes, what did they face . Guest africanamericans were not permitted to try on or return clothes. They were not permitted to hold credit lines. They were not permitted to use the beauty shops. They were not permitted to use the same water fountains. Many of the Department Stores i think for some folks my students, for example, that generation, its hard for them to remember a Department Store you had every amenity that could possibly think of. In Department Stores there were beauty shops that africanamericans were not able to attend or barbershops africanamerican men were not allowed to use. Typically while they are able to shop in places, any that white americans believed black people could taint biologically, africanamericans were not allowed to purchase a paid. To participate. Dolores is next on that line for good morning. I just want to say that i went to Morgan State College at the time in 1959, started as a freshman there. We demonstrated at a little Shopping Center down the street, we could not eat at the counter, as you said. We could buy anything we wanted there, but we could sit down at the counter and then the Hecht Company was a Department Store and we couldnt try on the clothes there. A fellow named clarence mitchell, whose uncle i think became representative for baltimore. Clarence organized