people often talk about selma and birmingham and montgomery, but the incubator of it all was tennessee where james lawson started teaching his lessons about nonlessons. teaching people like james louis and. >> dan: nash how to not swing back if somebody hits you with a nightstick. >> we actually practiced sitting in. some took the role of students who were sitting at a lunch counter, and others took the role of white thugs. we were practicing how to remain non-violent even in the face of violence. >> there had been other sit-ins in those early months of 1960, but no one is centrally organizing or coordinating this like the student group from nashville.