It had been six years since the landmark Brown V. Board of Education and segregation still reigned supreme. Practically none of the schools had integrated, and state-sponsored racism was still rampant. Then, on this date fifty years ago, these four men- known as The Greensboro Four, revitalized a waning civil rights movement. First, there were four; the next day, over twenty, and within five days, hundreds of students, activists, protesters and ordinary citizens sparked a movement across the American South that would continue until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
According to Franklin McCain, one of the four black teenagers who sat at the “whites only” stools:
“Some way through, an old white lady, who must have been 75 or 85, came over and put her hands on my shoulders and said, ‘Boys, I am so proud of you. You should have done this 10 years ago.'”
Their act of defiance changed history, set off the sit-in movement that swept the South and paved the way for a series of changes that transformed American society.
“The moments they sat in those chairs have had a lasting impact on our nation,” President Barack Obama said in an e-mail to the News & Record. “The lessons taught at that five-and-dime challenged us to consider who we are as a nation and what kind of future we want to build for our children.”
Full story from The News-Record
It had been six years since the landmark Brown V. Board of Education and segregation still reigned supreme. Practically none of the schools had integrated, and state-sponsored racism was still rampant. Then, on this date fifty years ago, these four men- known as The Greensboro Four, revitalized a waning civil rights movement. First, there were four; the next day, over twenty, and within five days, hundreds of students, activists, protesters and ordinary citizens sparked a movement across the American South that would continue until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
According to Franklin McCain, one of the four black teenagers who sat at the “whites only” stools:
“Some way through, an old white lady, who must have been 75 or 85, came over and put her hands on my shoulders and said, ‘Boys, I am so proud of you. You should have done this 10 years ago.'”
Their act of defiance changed history, set off the sit-in movement that swept the South and paved the way for a series of changes that transformed American society.
“The moments they sat in those chairs have had a lasting impact on our nation,” President Barack Obama said in an e-mail to the News & Record. “The lessons taught at that five-and-dime challenged us to consider who we are as a nation and what kind of future we want to build for our children.”
Full story from The News-Record
