Nashville sit-ins

Nonviolent protests against racial segregation in Tennessee (1960)

Nashville sit-ins

Part of the Sit-in movement
in the Civil Rights Movement

Nashville's sit-in campaign targeted downtown lunch counters such as this one at Walgreens drugstore.

Date| February 13 – May 10, 1960
(2 months, 3 weeks and 6 days)
Location|

Nashville, Tennessee

Caused by|

* Racial segregation in public accommodations
* Formation of Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC)
* Workshops on the philosophy and tactic of nonviolent resistance by James Lawson

Resulted in|

* Formation of Nashville Student Movement
* Initiation of Nashville merchant boycott
* Mass march towards City Hall
* Downtown businesses desegregate lunch counters

Parties

* Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC)
* Students from:
* American Baptist Theological Seminary
* Fisk University
* Meharry Medical College
* Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial
* Pearl High School
* Baptist Minister's Conference of Nashville (BMCN)

* Business lunch counters at:
* Woolworths
* S. H. Kress
* Harveys
* Cain-Sloan
* Walgreens
* McLellan
* Grants
* Moon-McGrath
* Greyhound
* Trailways

|

Lead figures

NCLC members

* James Lawson
* Kelly Miller Smith

Students

* Diane Nash
* James Bevel
* Bernard Lafayette
* John Lewis
* Marion Barry
* C. T. Vivian

Lawyers

* Z. Alexander Looby
* Robert E. Lillard
* Avon Williams
* Coyness Loyal Ennix Sr.

Businessmen

* Fred Harvey
* John Sloan

* v
* t
* e

Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee

City of Clinton

* McSwain v. Co. Board of Ed. of Anderson Co., Tenn.
* Clinton High School desegregation crisis
* Clinton High School bombing

City of Memphis

* Memphis sit-ins
* Watson v. City of Memphis
* Memphis sanitation strike
* Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

City of Nashville

* Kelly v. Board of Education
* Hattie Cotton Elementary School bombing
* Nashville sit-ins
* Nashville Student Movement
* Z. Alexander Looby residence bombing

Other localities

* Tent City
* Chattanooga sit-ins
* Knoxville sit-ins

The Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, were part of a protest to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The sit-in campaign, coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and the Nashville Christian Leadership Council, was notable for its early success and its emphasis on disciplined nonviolence. It was part of a broader sit-in movement that spread across the southern United States in the wake of the Greensboro sit-ins in North Carolina.[1]

Over the course of the Nashville sit-in campaign, sit-ins were staged at numerous stores in the central business district. Over 150 students were eventually arrested for refusing to vacate store lunch counters when ordered to do so by police. At trial, the students were represented by a group of 13 lawyers, headed by Z. Alexander Looby. On April 19, Looby's home was bombed, although he escaped uninjured.[1] Later that day, at least 3,000 people marched to City Hall to confront Mayor Ben West about the escalating violence.[2] When asked if he believed the lunch counters in Nashville should be desegregated, West agreed that they should.[3][1] After subsequent negotiations between the store owners and protest leaders, an agreement was reached during the first week of May. On May 10, six downtown stores began serving black customers at their lunch counters for the first time.[1]

Although the initial campaign successfully desegregated downtown lunch counters, sit-ins, pickets, and protests against other segregated facilities continued in Nashville until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended overt, legally sanctioned segregation nationwide. Many of the organizers of the Nashville sit-ins went on to become important leaders in the Civil Rights Movement.

## Background

[edit]

A sign on a restaurant window in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1938

Main article: Racial segregation in the United States

In 1896, the United States Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal". This decision led to the proliferation of Jim Crow laws throughout the United States. These laws mandated or explicitly allowed segregation in virtually all spheres of public life and allowed racial discrimination to flourish across the country, especially in the southern United States.[4][5]

In Nashville, like most Southern cities, African Americans were severely disadvantaged under the system of Jim Crow segregation. Besides being relegated to underfunded schools and barred from numerous public accommodations, African Americans had few prospects for skilled employment and were subject to constant discrimination from the white majority.[6][7]

Although serious efforts were made to oppose Jim Crow laws in Nashville as early as 1905,[note 1] it was not until 1958, with the formation of the Nashville Christian Leadership Council, that Nashville's African American community would lay the foundation for dismantling racial segregation.[8]

## Precursors and organization

[edit]

> "We decided with great fear and anticipation we would desegregate downtown Nashville. No group of black people or other people anywhere in the United States in the 20th century, against the rapaciousness of a segregated system, ever thought about desegregating downtown."

— James Lawson, 2020[9]

The Nashville Christian Leadership Council (or NCLC), was founded by the Reverend Kelly Miller Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill. This organization was an affiliate of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and was established to promote civil rights for African Americans through nonviolent civil disobedience. Smith believed that White Americans would be more sympathetic to desegregation if African Americans obtained their rights through peaceful demonstration rather than through the judicial system or violent confrontation.[10]

From March 26 to 28, 1958, the NCLC held the first of many workshops on using nonviolent tactics to challenge segregation.[8][11] These workshops were led by James Lawson, who had studied the principles of nonviolent resistance while working as a missionary in India. Later workshops were mainly attended by students from Fisk University, Tennessee A&I (later Tennessee State University), American Baptist Theological Seminary (later American Baptist College), and Meharry Medical College. Among those attending Lawson's sessions were students who would become significant leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, among them: Marion Barry, James Bevel, Bernard Lafayette, John Lewis, Diane Nash, and C. T. Vivian.[12]

During these workshops it was decided that the first target for the group's actions would be downtown lunch counters. At the time, African Americans were allowed to shop in downtown stores but were not allowed to eat in the stores' restaurants. The group felt that the lunch counters were a good objective because they were highly visible, easily accessible, and provided a stark example of the injustices black Southerners faced every day.[13]

In late 1959, James Lawson and other members of the NCLC's projects committee met with department store owners Fred Harvey and John Sloan, and asked them to voluntarily serve African Americans at their lunch counters. Both men declined, saying that they would lose more business than they would gain. The students then began doing reconnaissance for sit-in demonstrations. The first test took place at Harveys Department Store in downtown Nashville on November 28, followed by the Cain-Sloan store on December 5.[14][15] Small groups of students purchased items at the stores and then sat at their lunch counters and attempted to order food. Their goal was to try to sense the mood and degree of resistance in each store. Although they were refused service at both lunch counters, the reactions varied significantly. At Harveys, they received surprisingly polite responses, while at Cain-Sloan they were treated with contempt.[16][17] These reconnaissance actions were low-key and neither of the city's newspapers was notified of them.[18]

## Full-scale demonstrations

[edit]

Before the students in Nashville had a chance to formalize their plans, events elsewhere brought renewed urgency to the effort. During the first week of February 1960, a small sit-in demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina, grew into a significant protest with over eighty students participating by the third day. Although similar demonstrations had occurred previously in other cities, this was the first to attract substantial media attention and public notice.[19] When Lawson's group met the subsequent Friday night, about 500 new volunteers showed up to join the cause. Although Lawson and other adult organizers argued for delay, the student leaders insisted that the time had come for action.[20]

Downtown lunch counters targeted by the sit-ins included: 1. S. H. Kress; 2. McLellans; 3. Woolworths; 4. Harveys; 5. Walgreens; 6. Grants; 7. Cain-Sloan; 8. Greyhound; 9. Trailways; 10. Moon-McGrath

The first large-scale organized sit-in was on Saturday, February 13, 1960. At about 12:30 pm, 124 students, most of them black, walked into the downtown Woolworths, S. H. Kress, and McLellan stores and asked to be served at the lunch counters. After the staff refused to serve them, they sat in the stores for two hours and then left without incident.[21][22]

On the Monday following the first sit-in, the Baptist Minister's Conference of Nashville, representing 79 congregations, unanimously voted to support the student movement, thus throwing the weight of Nashville's black religious community behind the students.[23] Local religious leaders called on people of good will to boycott downtown merchants who practiced segregation. Nashville's black community strongly supported the boycott, causing economic hardship for the merchants.[24]

The second sit-in occurred on Thursday, February 18, when more than 200 students entered Woolworths, S. H. Kress, McLellan's, and Grants. The lunch counters were immediately closed. The students remained for about half an hour and then left, again without incident.[25][26] The third sit-in occurred on February 20 when about 350 students entered the previous four stores and the downtown Walgreens drugstore. As the students sat at the counters, crowds of white youths gathered in several of the stores. Police kept a watchful eye on all five locations, but no incidents of violence occurred. The students remained for nearly three hours until adjourning to a mass meeting at the First Baptist Church.[27][28]

On February 27, several sit-in participants, including Paul Laprad (pictured), were attacked by onlookers.

Tensions mounted over the following week as sit-in demonstrations spread to other cities and race riots broke out in nearby Chattanooga.[29][30] On February 27, the Nashville student activists held a fourth sit-in at the Woolworths, McLellan's, and Walgreens stores. Crowds of white youths again gathered in the stores to taunt and harass the demonstrators. This time, however, police were not present. Eventually, several of the sit-in demonstrators were attacked by hecklers in the McLellan's and Woolworths stores. Some were pulled from their seats and beaten, and one demonstrator was pushed down a flight of stairs. When police arrived, the white attackers fled and none were arrested.[31] Police then ordered the demonstrators at all three locations to leave the stores. When the demonstrators refused to leave, they were arrested and loaded into police vehicles as onlookers applauded. Eighty-one[note 2] students were arrested and charged with loitering and disorderly conduct.[32][33]

The arrests brought a surge of media coverage to the sit-in campaign, including national television news coverage,[34] front-page stories in both of Nashville's daily newspapers,[32][35] and an Associated Press story.[36] The students generally viewed any media coverage as helpful to their cause, especially when it illustrated their commitment to nonviolence.[37]

Several other sit-ins took place over the following two months, resulting in more arrests and further attacks against sit-in participants. Over 150 students were arrested.[38] Throughout the demonstrations, the student activists maintained a policy of disciplined nonviolence. Their written code of conduct became a model followed by demonstrators in other cities:[38]

> "Do not strike back or curse if abused. Do not laugh out. Do not hold conversations with the floor walker. Do not leave your seat until your leader has given you permission to do so. Do not block entrances to stores outside nor the aisles inside. Do show yourself courteous and friendly at all times. Do sit straight; always face the counter. Do report all serious incidents to your leader. Do refer information seekers to your leader in a polite manner. Remember the teachings of Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. Love and nonviolence is the way."[39]

## Trials and Lawson expulsion

[edit]

The trials of the sit-in participants attracted widespread interest throughout Nashville and the surrounding region. On February 29, the first day of the trials, a crowd of more than 2000 people lined the streets surrounding the city courthouse to show their support for the defendants.[40][41] A group of 13 lawyers, headed by Z. Alexander Looby, represented the students.[note 3] Initially, the trial was presided over by City Judge Andrew J. Doyle. Doyle dismissed the loitering charges against the students and then stepped down from the bench, turning the trial over to Special City Judge John I. Harris.[40]

Despite strong support from the black community, all the students who had been arrested were convicted of disorderly conduct and fined $50. The students refused to pay the fines, however, and chose instead to serve thirty-three days in the county workhouse.[41] Diane Nash issued a statement on behalf of the students explaining the decision: "We feel that if we pay these fines we would be contributing to and supporting the injustice and immoral practices that have been performed in the arrest and conviction of the defendants."[42]

The same day the trials began, a group of black ministers, including James Lawson, met with Mayor Ben West to discuss the sit-ins. Coverage of the meeting by the local press, including a scathing editorial in the Nashville Banner denouncing Lawson as a "flannel-mouth agitator",[43] brought Lawson's activities to the attention of Vanderbilt University where he was enrolled as a Divinity School student. The newspaper was owned by James G. Stahlman, a Vanderbilt trustee who was "strongly anti-integration";[44] it published misleading stories, including the suggestion that Lawson had incited others to "violate the law."[45] When Lawson was confronted by Vanderbilt's executive committee and told he would have to end his involvement with the sit-ins, Lawson refused. He was immediately expelled from the university by Chancellor Harvie Branscomb, and arrested the next day.[45][46][47] Dean J. Robert Nelson resigned in protest and paid Lawson's bail with three of his colleagues,[48] and the school was placed on probation for a year by the American Association of Theological Schools.[45]

## Biracial Committee

[edit]

Diane Nash and Kelly Miller Smith review a prepared statement in response to the Biracial Committee's recommendation to partially integrate store lunch counters.

On March 3, in an effort to defuse the racial tensions caused by the sit-ins, Mayor West announced the formation of a Biracial Committee to seek a solution to the city's racial strife. The committee included the presidents of two of the city's black universities, but did not include any representatives from the student movement.[49][50] The committee met several times over the next month and delivered its recommendations in a report on April 5. The committee recommended to partially integrating the city's lunch counters. Each store would have one section for whites only and another for whites and blacks. This solution was rejected by the student leaders, who considered the recommendations morally unacceptable and based upon a segregation policy.[50][51] Less than a week after the Biracial Committee issued its report, the sit-ins resumed, and the boycott of downtown businesses was intensified.[52][53]

## Looby residence bombing

[edit]

At 5:30 am on April 19, dynamite was thrown through a front window of Z. Alexander Looby's home in north Nashville,[54] apparently in retaliation for his support of the demonstrators. Although the explosion almost destroyed the house, Looby and his wife, who were asleep in a back bedroom, were not injured. The blast broke more than 140 windows in a nearby dormitory.[55]

Rather than discouraging the protesters, this event served as a catalyst for the movement. Within hours, news of the bombing had spread throughout the community. Around noon, nearly 4000 people marched silently to City Hall to confront the mayor.[56][57] Mayor West met the marchers at the courthouse steps. Reverend C. T. Vivian read a prepared statement accusing the mayor of ignoring the moral issues involved in segregation and turning a blind eye to violence and injustice. Diane Nash then asked the mayor if he felt it was wrong to discriminate against a person based solely on their race or skin color. West answered that he agreed it was wrong. Nash then asked him if he believed that lunch counters in the city should be desegregated. West answered, "Yes", then added, "That's up to the store managers, of course."[58][59]

Coverage of this event varied significantly between Nashville's two major newspapers. The Tennessean emphasized the mayor's agreement that lunch counters should be desegregated,[59] while the Nashville Banner emphasized the mayor's statement that it was up to the city's merchants to decide whether to desegregate.[60][61] This was largely indicative of the two papers' opposing stances on the issue.[62][63] Regardless, the mayor's response was later cited as an important turning point by both activists and Nashville business owners.[64]

The day after the bombing, Martin Luther King Jr. came to Nashville to speak at Fisk University. During the speech, he praised the Nashville sit-in movement as "the best organized and the most disciplined in the Southland." He further stated that he came to Nashville "not to bring inspiration but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community."[65]

## Desegregation

[edit]

After weeks of secret negotiations between merchants and protest leaders, an agreement was finally reached during the first week of May. According to the agreement, small, selected groups of African Americans would order food at the downtown lunch counters on a day known in advance to the merchants. The merchants would prepare their employees for the event and instruct them to serve the customers without trouble. This arrangement would continue in a controlled manner for a couple of weeks, and then all controls would be taken off, at which point the merchants and protest leaders would reconvene to evaluate the results. Also, as part of the agreement, the media was to be informed of the settlement and requested to provide only accurate, non-sensational coverage.[66]

On May 10, six downtown stores opened their lunch counters to black customers for the first time. The customers arrived in groups of two or three during the afternoon and were served without incident. At the same time, African Americans ended their six-week-old boycott of the downtown stores.[67][68] The plan continued successfully and the lunch counters were integrated without any further incidents of violence. Nashville thus became the first major city in the southern United States to begin desegregating its public facilities.[69][70]

Although the end of the sit-in campaign brought a brief respite for civil rights activists in Nashville, institutionalized racism remained a problem throughout the city. Over the next few years, further sit-ins, pickets, and other actions would take place at restaurants, movie theaters, public swimming pools, and other segregated facilities across Nashville.[70][71][72][73] These actions continued until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited segregation in public places throughout the United States.[4] In that year, many of the key figures of the sit-ins, including James Lawson and Kelly Miller Smith, were interviewed by Robert Penn Warren for his book Who Speaks for the Negro?, in which they reflected on their experiences.[74][75]

## Fiftieth anniversary

[edit]

A panel including John Seigenthaler (left) and James Lawson (center) discuss media coverage of the Nashville sit-ins.

Several events were held in 2010 in order to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Nashville sit-ins.

* On January 20, Vanderbilt University hosted a panel discussion entitled "Veterans of the Nashville Sit-ins – The Struggle Continues".[76] The featured speakers were Kwame Leo Lillard and Matthew Walker Jr.[77]
* Tennessee State Museum hosted an exhibition from February 4 to May 16 entitled "We Shall Not Be Moved: The 50th Anniversary of Tennessee's Civil Rights Sit-Ins".[78]
* At Tennessee State University on February 10, the 29th annual Conference on African American History and Culture held a special commemoration of the sit-ins, with Diane Nash as the featured guest speaker.[79]
* On February 12, Vanderbilt University hosted a panel discussion on media coverage of the Nashville sit-ins. The featured speakers were James Lawson and John Seigenthaler.[80]
* The downtown Nashville library hosted a photography exhibit entitled "Visions & Voices: The Civil Rights Movement in Nashville & Tennessee" from February 9 to May 22.[81]
* Author and commentator Juan Williams led a forum to discuss civil rights issues at the downtown Nashville library auditorium on February 13.[82]

* 1960s portal

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Richard Henry Boyd, James Napier, Preston Taylor, and others organized a boycott against Nashville's segregated streetcar service that lasted from July 1905 until July 1906. More information about this strike can be found in Bobby Lovett's A Black Man's Dream.
2. ^ There are several conflicting sources on the number of students arrested on February 27: The initial story in The Tennessean claims 75 were arrested; a story in the Nashville Globe and Independent states that 79 were arrested; most later sources, such as Halberstam's The Children and Wynn's "The Dawning of a New Day", state that 81 students were arrested.
3. ^ According to Fisk News and Nashville Globe and Independent, the lawyers representing the students were: Z. Alexander Looby; Robert Lillard; Avon Williams; Coyness L. Ennix; A. J. Steel; J. F. McClellan; R. B. J. Campbell, Jr.; Adolph Birch; W. D. Hawkins, Jr.; Roscoe Hamby; William Blakemore; E. B. Lindsey; and Eugene White.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Wynn, Linda T. (1991). "The Dawning of a New Day. The Nashville Sit-Ins, February 13–May 10, 1960". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 50 (1): 42–54\. ISSN 0040-3261. JSTOR 42626921.
2. ^ "Nashville Banner". Banner. April 20, 1960.
3. ^ "Southern Regional Council". Southern School News. May 1960.
4. ^ a b Wynn, "The Dawning of a New Day", 42.
5. ^ Klarman, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, 3–289.
6. ^ Lovett, A Black Man's Dream, 160.
7. ^ Wynn, "The Dawning of a New Day", 43–44.
8. ^ a b Wynn, "The Dawning of a New Day", 44.
9. ^ "Rev. James Lawson: John Lewis's Life Is Call to Action Against U.S. Violence & Plantation Capitalism". Democracy Now!. July 31, 2020. Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
10. ^ Lovett, Profiles, 112.
11. ^ Lovett, Profiles, 96.
12. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 56, 95.
13. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 90–91.
14. ^ Glisson, The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement, 164–166.
15. ^ Wynn, "The Dawning of a New Day", 45.
16. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 92.
17. ^ Lewis, Walking with the Wind, 86–89.
18. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 91.
19. ^ Branch, Parting the Waters, 271–272.
20. ^ Branch, Parting the Waters, 274.
21. ^ Talley, James (February 14, 1960). "Lunch Counter Strikes Hit City". The Tennessean.
22. ^ Sumner, Local Press, 67.
23. ^ [Staff] (February 19, 1960). "Local Ministers To Support Student Movement". Nashville Globe and Independent.
24. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 177–179.
25. ^ Sumner, Local Press, 70.
26. ^ [Staff] (February 19, 1960). "Negroes 'Strike' Counters Again". The Tennessean.
27. ^ Sumner, Local Press, 71.
28. ^ [Staff] (February 21, 1960). "Lunch Counter 'Strike' Spreads". The Tennessean.
29. ^ Gilje, Paul A. (1999). Rioting in America. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 155.
30. ^ [Staff] (February 25, 1960). "'Won't Tolerate Violence,' Chattanooga Mayor Says". Nashville Banner. p. 49.
31. ^ Halberstam, David (March 9, 1960). "Students Reject 'Token' Service". The Tennessean.
32. ^ a b Talley, James (February 28, 1960). "75 Students Arrested Here". The Tennessean.
33. ^ Talley, James (February 29, 1960). "Negro Ministers Urge Meeting With Mayor". The Tennessean.
34. ^ Lewis, Walking with the Wind, 100.
35. ^ [Staff] (February 29, 1960). "Laws to be Enforced: West". Nashville Banner.
36. ^ Sumner, Local Press, 72–76.
37. ^ Sumner, David E. (1995). "Nashville, nonviolence, and the newspapers: The convergence of social goals with news values". Howard Journal of Communications. 6 (1 & 2): 102–113\. doi:10.1080/10646179509361687.
38. ^ a b Carson, In Struggle, 22.
39. ^ Hogan, Many Minds, One Heart, 28.
40. ^ a b Talley, James (March 1, 1960). "Judge Harris Ouster Sought; Prejudged 'Sitdowns,' Looby Says". The Tennessean.
41. ^ a b Wynn, "The Dawning of a New Day", 47.
42. ^ Harris, Mac (March 2, 1960). "75 Students Back in Jail". The Tennessean.
43. ^ [Staff] (March 1, 1960). "No Place in Nashville for Inciters of Strife". Nashville Banner.
44. ^ Emery, Theo (October 4, 2006). "Activist Ousted From Vanderbilt Is Back, as a Teacher". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
45. ^ a b c Sumner, David E. (Spring 1997). "The Publisher and the Preacher: Racial Conflict at Vanderbilt University". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 56 (1): 34–43\. JSTOR 42627327.
46. ^ Wynn, "The Dawning of a New Day", 47–49.
47. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 200–206.
48. ^ Cass, Michael (July 15, 2004). "Former Vanderbilt dean J. Robert Nelson dies at 84". The Tennessean. p. 3B. Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2017 - via Newspapers.com.
49. ^ Harris, Mac (March 4, 1960). "Mayor Names Biracial Group To Seek Peace". The Tennessean.
50. ^ a b Sumner, Local Press, 86.
51. ^ Halberstam, David (April 10, 1960). "Negros Reject Biracial Group's Suggestions". The Tennessean.
52. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 213.
53. ^ Sumner, Local Press, 91.
54. ^ Parsons, Clark (January 16, 1989). "They had a Dream". Nashville Banner.
55. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 228.
56. ^ Hogan, Many Minds, One Heart, 33.
57. ^ Phillips, Lyda (February 7, 2010). "Counter Culture". The City Paper. Archived from the original on February 12, 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
58. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 234.
59. ^ a b Halberstam, David (April 20, 1960). "Integrate Counters–Mayor". The Tennessean.
60. ^ [Staff] (April 20, 1960). "West Tells 2,000 Marchers City's Laws To Be Upheld". Nashville Banner.
61. ^ Sumner, Local Press, 126–127.
62. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 113–121.
63. ^ Sumner, Local Press, 156–170.
64. ^ Hampton, Voices of Freedom, 67.
65. ^ Fullerton, Garry (April 21, 1960). "King Delayed By Bomb Scare". The Tennessean.
66. ^ Westfeldt, Wallace. "Settling a Sit-In". Report for the Nashville Community Relations Council. Quoted in Sumner, The Local Press and the Nashville Student Movement, 1960, 130–131.
67. ^ Travis, Fred (May 11, 1960). "Six lunch counters in Nashville open service to Negro". Chattanooga Times. p. 1.
68. ^ [Staff] (May 11, 1960). "Negroes Win Dining Rights in Nashville". The Chicago Tribune.
69. ^ Lovett, Profiles, 97.
70. ^ a b Wynn, "The Dawning of a New Day", 53.
71. ^ Halberstam, The Children, 276–277.
72. ^ Houston, The Nashville Way, 124–126.
73. ^ Quillen, Terry (July 14, 2002). "The Summer They Closed the Pools". The Tennessean.
74. ^ Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. "James M. Lawson, Jr". Robert Penn Warren's Who Speaks for the Negro? Archive. Archived from the original on February 5, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
75. ^ Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. "Kelly Miller Smith". Robert Penn Warren's Who Speaks for the Negro? Archive. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
76. ^ "Speak Truth to Power: The Martin Luther King Jr. 2010 Commemorative Lecture Series". Vanderbilt University. Archived from the original on June 7, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2010.
77. ^ "2010 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Series & Living History Luncheon Series Presents: Veterans of the Nashville Sit-ins – The Struggle Continues". Vanderbilt University. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
78. ^ [Staff] (February 4, 2010). "Museum Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Sit-ins". The City Paper. Archived from the original on February 12, 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
79. ^ "Nashville Conference of African-American History and Culture". Metropolitan Historical Commission. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
80. ^ [Staff] (February 9, 2010). "King adviser to discuss media coverage of Nashville sit-ins". The City Paper. Archived from the original on February 12, 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
81. ^ "Resolution No. RS2010-1135". Metropolitan Clerk's Office, Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
82. ^ "February 13, 2010 Civil Rights Program Marks 50th Anniversary of Nashville Lunch Counter Sit-ins". Nashville Public Library. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved February 9, 2010.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Branch, Taylor (1988). Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–63. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-68742-5.
* Carson, Clayborne (1981). In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-44727-1.
* Glisson, Susan M. (2006). The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-4409-5.
* Halberstam, David (1998). The Children. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-449-00439-2.
* Hampton, Henry; Fayer, Steve (1990). Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s. Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-05734-0.
* Hogan, Wesley C. (2007). Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3074-1.
* Houston, Benjamin (2012). The Nashville Way: Racial Etiquette and the Struggle for Social Justice in a Southern City. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-4326-6.
* Klarman, Michael J. (2004). From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512903-2.
* Lewis, John (1998). Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-15-600708-8.
* Lovett, Bobby L. (1993). A Black Man's Dream: The First 100 Years: Richard Henry Boyd and the National Baptist Publishing Board. Nashville: Mega Publishing. ISBN 1-56742-032-X.
* Lovett, Bobby L.; Wynn, Linda T., eds. (1996). Profiles of African Americans in Tennessee. Nashville: Annual Local Conference on Afro-American Culture and History, Tennessee State University. LCCN 96137467.
* Sumner, David E. (1989). The Local Press and the Nashville Student Movement, 1960 (PhD thesis). Knoxville: University of Tennessee. ProQuest 303789628.
* Wynn, Linda T. (1991). "The dawning of a new day: The Nashville sit-ins, February 13, 1960 – May 10, 1960". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 50 (1): 42–54.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nashville sit-ins.

* Nashville Sit-ins Archived April 12, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, Tennessee4me.org maintained by the Tennessee State Museum
* American Experience – Eyes on the Prize: "Ain't Scared of Your Jails (1960–1961)", pbs.org
* Nashville Student Movement (1960–1964), Civil Rights Movement Archive, crmvet.org

* v
* t
* e

Sit-in movement

Before 1960|

* Alexandria Library sit-in (1939)
* Chicago sit-ins (1943)
* Baltimore sit-ins (1953)
* Dresden sit-ins (1954)
* Read's Drug Store sit-in (1955)
* Royal Ice Cream sit-in (1957)
* Dockum Drug Store sit-in (1958)
* Oklahoma City sit-ins (1958)
* Katz Drug Store sit-in
* Miami sit-ins (1959)

During 1960|

* Greensboro sit-ins (Feb. 1)
* Durham sit-ins (Feb. 8)
* Fayetteville sit-ins (Feb. 8)
* Winston-Salem sit-ins (Feb. 8)
* Charlotte sit-ins (Feb. 9)
* Concord sit-ins (Feb. 9)
* Elizabeth City sit-ins (Feb. 9)
* Henderson sit-ins (Feb. 9)
* High Point sit-ins (Feb. 9)
* Raleigh sit-ins (Feb. 10)
* Hampton sit-ins (Feb. 11)
* Portsmouth sit-ins (Feb. 11)
* Rock Hill sit-ins (Feb. 12)
* Norfolk sit-ins (Feb. 12)
* Nashville sit-ins (Feb. 13)
* Tallahassee sit-ins (Feb. 13)
* Sumter sit-ins (Feb. 14)
* Salisbury sit-ins (Feb. 16)
* Chapel Hill sit-ins (Feb. 17)
* Charleston sit-ins (Feb. 18)
* Shelby sit-ins (Feb. 18)
* Chattanooga sit-ins (Feb. 19)
* Richmond sit-ins (Feb. 20)
* Baltimore sit-ins (Feb. 22)
* Frankfort sit-ins (Feb. 22)
* Montgomery sit-ins (Feb. 25)
* Orangeburg sit-ins (Feb. 25)
* Lexington sit-ins (Feb. 26)
* Petersburg sit-ins (Feb. 26)
* Tuskegee sit-ins (Feb. 26)
* Tampa sit-ins (Feb. 27)
* Columbia sit-ins (Mar. 2)
* Daytona Beach sit-ins (Mar. 2)
* St. Petersburg sit-ins (Mar. 2)
* Houston sit-ins (Mar. 4)
* Miami sit-ins (Mar. 4)
* Knoxville sit-ins (Mar. 7)
* New Orleans sit-ins (Mar. 8)
* Little Rock sit-ins (Mar. 10)
* Austin sit-ins (Mar. 11)
* Galveston sit-ins (Mar. 11)
* Jacksonville sit-ins (Mar. 12)
* San Antonio sit-ins (Mar. 13)
* Atlanta sit-ins (Mar. 15)
* Corpus Christi sit-ins (Mar. 15)
* St. Augustine sit-ins (Mar. 15)
* Statesville sit-ins (Mar. 15)
* Savannah sit-ins (Mar. 16)
* New Bern sit-ins (Mar. 17)
* Memphis sit-ins (Mar. 19)
* Wilmington sit-ins (Mar. 19)
* Arlington sit-ins (Mar. 19)
* Lynchburg sit-ins (Mar. 26)
* Baton Rouge sit-ins (Mar. 28)
* Marshall sit-ins (Mar. 29)
* Birmingham sit-ins (Mar. 31)
* Danville sit-ins (Apr. 2)
* Darlington sit-ins (Apr. 4)
* Augusta sit-ins (Apr. 9)
* Biloxi sit-ins (Apr. 17)
* Starkville sit-ins (Apr. 23)
* Dallas sit-ins (Apr. 28)

After 1960|

* Rock Hill sit-ins (1961)
* Sewanee sit-ins (1962)
* University of Chicago sit-ins (1962)
* Woolworth's sit-ins (1963)
* Audubon Regional Library sit-in (1964)

Related|

| Organizations|

* Nashville Student Movement
* Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
* Atlanta Student Movement
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

|

Sit-in cases|

* Gober v. City of Birmingham (1963)
* Peterson v. City of Greenville (1963)
* Lombard v. Louisiana (1963)
* Avent v. North Carolina (1963)
* Bouie v. City of Columbia (1964)
* Griffin v. Maryland (1964)
* Bell v. Maryland (1964)
* Robinson v. Florida (1964)
* Barr v. City of Columbia (1964)
* Hamm v. City of Rock Hill (1964)

Defendants|

* Richmond 34
* Friendship Nine
* Tougaloo Nine
* Greenville Eight

Other|

* Sit-in
* Wade-in
* Biloxi wade-ins
* International Civil Rights Center and Museum
* Jail-in
* Tallahassee jail-in
* Pray-in
* Study-in
* Jail, No Bail
* Biracial committee
* Nonviolence
* Direct action

* v
* t
* e

Civil rights movement (1954–1968)

Events
(timeline)|

| Prior to 1954|

* Journey of Reconciliation
* Executive Order 9981
* Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore
* Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
* McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
* Baton Rouge bus boycott

|

1954–1959|

* Brown v. Board of Education
* Bolling v. Sharpe
* Briggs v. Elliott
* Davis v. Prince Edward County
* Gebhart v. Belton
* Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company
* Emmett Till
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle
* Tallahassee bus boycott
* Mansfield school desegregation
* 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
* "Give Us the Ballot"
* Royal Ice Cream sit-in
* Little Rock Nine
* Cooper v. Aaron
* Civil Rights Act of 1957
* Ministers' Manifesto
* Katz Drug Store sit-in
* Kissing Case
* Biloxi wade-ins

1960–1963|

* New Year's Day March
* Sit-in movement
* Greensboro sit-ins
* Nashville sit-ins
* Sibley Commission
* Atlanta sit-ins
* Savannah Protest Movement
* Greenville Eight
* Civil Rights Act of 1960
* Ax Handle Saturday
* Gomillion v. Lightfoot
* Boynton v. Virginia
* University of Georgia desegregation riot
* Rock Hill sit-ins
* Robert F. Kennedy's Law Day Address
* Freedom Rides
* Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks
* Garner v. Louisiana
* Albany Movement
* Cambridge movement
* University of Chicago sit-ins
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot
* Atlanta's Berlin Wall
* "Segregation now, segregation forever"
* Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
* 1963 Birmingham campaign
* Letter from Birmingham Jail
* Children's Crusade
* Birmingham riot
* 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
* John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights
* Detroit Walk to Freedom
* March on Washington
* "I Have a Dream"
* Big Six
* St. Augustine movement

1964–1968|

* Twenty-fourth Amendment
* Chester school protests
* Bloody Tuesday
* 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests
* Freedom Summer
* workers' murders
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States
* Katzenbach v. McClung
* 1964–1965 Scripto strike
* 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
* "How Long, Not Long"
* SCOPE Project
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
* March Against Fear
* White House Conference on Civil Rights
* Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement
* Loving v. Virginia
* Memphis sanitation strike
* King assassination
* funeral
* riots
* Civil Rights Act of 1968
* Poor People's Campaign
* Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
* Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
* 1968 Olympics Black Power salute

Activist
groups|

* Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
* American Friends Service Committee
* Atlanta Negro Voters League
* Atlanta Student Movement
* Black Panther Party
* Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* Committee for Freedom Now
* Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
* An Appeal for Human Rights
* Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
* Council of Federated Organizations
* Dallas County Voters League
* Deacons for Defense and Justice
* Georgia Council on Human Relations
* Highlander Folk School
* Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
* Lowndes County Freedom Organization
* Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
* Montgomery Improvement Association
* NAACP
* Youth Council
* Nashville Student Movement
* Nation of Islam
* Northern Student Movement
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Urban League
* Operation Breadbasket
* Regional Council of Negro Leadership
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Southern Regional Council
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* The Freedom Singers
* United Auto Workers (UAW)
* Wednesdays in Mississippi
* Women's Political Council

Activists|

* Juanita Abernathy
* Ralph Abernathy
* Victoria Gray Adams
* Zev Aelony
* Mathew Ahmann
* Muhammad Ali
* William G. Anderson
* Gwendolyn Armstrong
* Arnold Aronson
* Ella Baker
* James Baldwin
* Marion Barry
* Daisy Bates
* Harry Belafonte
* James Bevel
* Claude Black
* Gloria Blackwell
* Randolph Blackwell
* Unita Blackwell
* Ezell Blair Jr.
* Joanne Bland
* Julian Bond
* Joseph E. Boone
* William Holmes Borders
* Amelia Boynton
* Bruce Boynton
* Raylawni Branch
* Stanley Branche
* Ruby Bridges
* Aurelia Browder
* H. Rap Brown
* Ralph Bunche
* John H. Calhoun
* Guy Carawan
* Stokely Carmichael
* Johnnie Carr
* James Chaney
* J. L. Chestnut
* Shirley Chisholm
* Colia Lafayette Clark
* Ramsey Clark
* Septima Clark
* Xernona Clayton
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Kathleen Cleaver
* Josephine Dobbs Clement
* Charles E. Cobb Jr.
* Annie Lee Cooper
* Dorothy Cotton
* Claudette Colvin
* Vernon Dahmer
* Jonathan Daniels
* Abraham Lincoln Davis
* Angela Davis
* Joseph DeLaine
* Dave Dennis
* Annie Bell Robinson Devine
* John Wesley Dobbs
* Patricia Stephens Due
* Joseph Ellwanger
* Charles Evers
* Medgar Evers
* Myrlie Evers-Williams
* Chuck Fager
* James Farmer
* Walter Fauntroy
* James Forman
* Marie Foster
* Golden Frinks
* Andrew Goodman
* Robert Graetz
* Fred Gray
* Jack Greenberg
* Dick Gregory
* Lawrence Guyot
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Fred Hampton
* William E. Harbour
* Vincent Harding
* Dorothy Height
* Audrey Faye Hendricks
* Lola Hendricks
* Aaron Henry
* Oliver Hill
* Donald L. Hollowell
* James Hood
* Myles Horton
* Zilphia Horton
* T. R. M. Howard
* Ruby Hurley
* Cecil Ivory
* Jesse Jackson
* Jimmie Lee Jackson
* Richie Jean Jackson
* T. J. Jemison
* Esau Jenkins
* Barbara Rose Johns
* Vernon Johns
* Frank Minis Johnson
* Clarence Jones
* J. Charles Jones
* Matthew Jones
* Vernon Jordan
* Tom Kahn
* Clyde Kennard
* A. D. King
* C.B. King
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Martin Luther King Sr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Bernard Lee
* Sanford R. Leigh
* Jim Letherer
* Stanley Levison
* John Lewis
* Viola Liuzzo
* Z. Alexander Looby
* Joseph Lowery
* Clara Luper
* Danny Lyon
* Malcolm X
* Mae Mallory
* Vivian Malone
* Bob Mants
* Thurgood Marshall
* Benjamin Mays
* Franklin McCain
* Charles McDew
* Ralph McGill
* Floyd McKissick
* Joseph McNeil
* James Meredith
* William Ming
* Jack Minnis
* Amzie Moore
* Cecil B. Moore
* Douglas E. Moore
* Harriette Moore
* Harry T. Moore
* Queen Mother Moore
* William Lewis Moore
* Irene Morgan
* Bob Moses
* William Moyer
* Elijah Muhammad
* Diane Nash
* Charles Neblett
* Huey P. Newton
* Edgar Nixon
* Jack O'Dell
* James Orange
* Rosa Parks
* James Peck
* Charles Person
* Homer Plessy
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Fay Bellamy Powell
* Rodney N. Powell
* Al Raby
* Lincoln Ragsdale
* A. Philip Randolph
* George Raymond
* George Raymond Jr.
* Bernice Johnson Reagon
* Cordell Reagon
* James Reeb
* Frederick D. Reese
* Walter Reuther
* Gloria Richardson
* David Richmond
* Bernice Robinson
* Jo Ann Robinson
* Angela Russell
* Bayard Rustin
* Bernie Sanders
* Michael Schwerner
* Bobby Seale
* Pete Seeger
* Cleveland Sellers
* Charles Sherrod
* Alexander D. Shimkin
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Modjeska Monteith Simkins
* Glenn E. Smiley
* A. Maceo Smith
* Kelly Miller Smith
* Mary Louise Smith
* Maxine Smith
* Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
* Charles Kenzie Steele
* Hank Thomas
* Dorothy Tillman
* A. P. Tureaud
* Hartman Turnbow
* Albert Turner
* C. T. Vivian
* A. T. Walden
* Wyatt Tee Walker
* Hollis Watkins
* Walter Francis White
* Roy Wilkins
* Hosea Williams
* Kale Williams
* Robert F. Williams
* Q. V. Williamson
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young
* Sammy Younge Jr.
* Bob Zellner
* James Zwerg

By region|

* Omaha, Nebraska
* South Carolina

Movement
songs|

* "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
* "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
* "Kumbaya"
* "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
* "Oh, Freedom"
* "This Little Light of Mine"
* "We Shall Not Be Moved"
* "We Shall Overcome"
* "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"

Influences|

* Nonviolence
* Padayatra
* Sermon on the Mount
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Ahimsa
* Satyagraha
* The Kingdom of God Is Within You
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Mary McLeod Bethune

Related|

* Lyndon B. Johnson
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching in the United States
* Plessy v. Ferguson
* Separate but equal
* Buchanan v. Warley
* Hocutt v. Wilson
* Sweatt v. Painter
* Hernandez v. Texas
* Loving v. Virginia
* African-American women in the movement
* Jews in the civil rights movement
* Fifth Circuit Four
* 16th Street Baptist Church
* Kelly Ingram Park
* A.G. Gaston Motel
* Bethel Baptist Church
* Brown Chapel
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* Holt Street Baptist Church
* Edmund Pettus Bridge
* March on Washington Movement
* African-American churches attacked
* List of lynching victims in the United States
* Freedom Schools
* Freedom songs
* Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
* Voter Education Project
* 1960s counterculture
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Eyes on the Prize

Legacy|

* In popular culture
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
* Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
* Civil Rights Memorial
* Civil Rights Movement Archive
* Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
* Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
* Freedom Rides Museum
* Freedom Riders National Monument
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* other King memorials
* Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
* National Civil Rights Museum
* National Voting Rights Museum
* St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
* Olympic Black Power Statue

Noted
historians|

* Taylor Branch
* Clayborne Carson
* John Dittmer
* Michael Eric Dyson
* Chuck Fager
* Adam Fairclough
* David Garrow
* David Halberstam
* Vincent Harding
* Steven F. Lawson
* Doug McAdam
* Diane McWhorter
* Charles M. Payne
* Thomas E. Ricks
* Timothy Tyson
* Akinyele Umoja
* Movement photographers

Civil rights movement portal
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