Sit Ins Case Study

The first case study to be looked at is that of the Sit In’s. Specifically the sit in’s that started in the February of 1960 at Woolworth’s Lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. A little known fact is that before these sit in’s there were ones that occurred in Wichita, Kansas in 1958. The sit ins that occurred were remarkably similar in that they were both peaceful and they both resulted in a chain effect of desegregation of stores. These sit ins started in July of 1958 and were done for the same purpose as the ones in Greensboro, African-American youth were tired of being demeaned by the white run society in the South. The Sit ins started by two members of a Wichita NAACP youth chapter entering Dockum’s Drug in downtown Wichita and

asking to be served Soda’s, and refusing to leave until served. Every day they would come in calm and respectful with a couple more people every day all insisting on being served until the 19th of August when the owner of the establishment finally agreed to serve them at the counter due to how much business he was loosing and a sort of domino effect occured. Other restaurants and lunch counters in Wichita slowly began to desegregate and eventually this pattern began to spread throughout Kansas, a state that was one of the Northern most southern states, and even dating back to the 1860’s as a one of the most progressive states. When it officially transitioned from just being a territory gained in the Louisiana Purchase to being a state in 1861, it was a free state meaning slavery was never allowed there. Eight days after the desegregation of Dockum’s drug store, members of a NAACP youth chapter in Oklahoma who had been in contact with Ron Walters, one of the two original members of sit in, heard of their success and began their own sit in’s in Oklahoma city. Less than two years later on February 1, 1960, the sit ins in Greensboro began. On that day four African-American students from North Carolina A&T College sat down at a segregated Woolworth’s (an American department store chain) Lunch Counter and were refused service and thus they peacefully refused to move from the counter and stayed until the store closed. The next day they returned with sixteen more students both black and white who refused to leave until they were served, on the second day there were News and TV reporters, by the third day 60 people had gone to the sit in on the third day and by the fourth day 300 people were present. A national movement was sparked.

Sit ins began to be organized in that all of those who chose to participate were never violent and remained peaceful even when heckled, and assaulted both mentally and physically. Protestors had things thrown at them, pulled off lunch counters, and were arrested by racially bias police for disorderly conduct. After 2 weeks there were protests occurring in Virginia and South Carolina and within 2 months there were sit-ins in 54 cities across 9 states. Student groups that were entirely white from Colombia university were even seen picketing Woolworth’s counters in New York city where segregation was illegal and hadn’t been occurring. Ultimately the movement was extremely successful in achieving its goal and even beyond. After 6 months many restaurants and lunch counters had been de-segregated including all of the Woolworth’s lunch counters in Nashville being open to all races by May 6. By the mid 1960’s hundreds of restaurants and lunch counters had followed suit. The reason for the movement being successful beyond its goal was due to the fact that the reform spread far beyond restaurants to everything from art galleries to beaches, even before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Why was

this? There had been sit ins even before the one’s in Wichita but there was a key difference between all those prior to the Greensboro sit ins and the Greensboro sit ins. They had no media presence. This is a truly interesting and plausible reason because in the research I have done, I found that only two local newspapers to Wichita wrote small articles on the topic but the articles were very brief as writing on such a topic could bring negative connotations to the paper as writing about such things was taboo at the time. The only other recognition they received was that from a more Senior NAACP chapter but no assistance financially or volunteer wise. However the inverse of this situation was what occurred at the Greensboro sit ins, by the second day there was nation wide media recognition and this encouraged and informed many other small civil right’s groups in other cities of the movement and thus encouraged them to get involved. Other groups had even been shown how to properly execute sit ins by more senior figures in the movement such as James Lawson. Even beyond national media recognition the cause was recognized and encouraged by the President at the time President Eisenhower. Thus as previously stated in this case student involvement was essential in the success of this particular movement within the Civil Rights Movement.

A second case study to look at in assessing the importance of student involvement in the Civil Rights Movement is Mississippi Burning. Three Civil rights activists Michael Schwerner a member of CORE and a high profile target of the KKK, due to his successful planning of the Meridan boycott and his continuous efforts to register black’s in Meridan to vote, James Chaney a CORE member and native Mississippian and a target of the KKK, and Andrew Goodman who was another CORE member and was with Chaney and Schwerner at the time of the incidence. CORE or Congress of Racial Equality was founded in the early 1940’s and is know to be one of most prominent organizations in the Civil Rights Movement they would have been a group that agreed more with Martin Luther King Jr than Malcom X as both believed in the teachings of Gandhi, that peaceful protest was essential in their success in attaining equality. CORE was responsible for things such as the freedom rides and helped organize the march on Washington.
Schwerner was so hated by the KKK that they had orchestrated an entire plan to kill him, it was known as plan 4.

In this attempt the KKK had tried to kill Michael Schwerner by showing up with shotguns and over thirty members at Mount Zion Church on June 16, 1964 where they believed him to be, however he along with Chaney and Goodman were in Ohio at a CORE conference and out of frustration at their failure they burnt down the church and badly beat many of the CORE members at the church. Being as the KKK was so engrained in the culture of Mississippi there were no repercussions for the KKK’s action as some of their members included powerful members of society and law enforcement officers. After the incident Schwerner returned to Neshoba County, Mississippi where the attempted assassination had occurred after he had heard about the church being burnt down. After going and speaking with attack victims and seeing what was once Mount Zion Church he learned that he had been the target of the attack. At this time he was cautioned that local KKK members were trying to find him. The next day driving on the highway Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were spotted driving by Deputy Sherriff Cecil Price and were pulled over and arrested. Charged as consipartors in the burning down of the church. After their arrest and obvious lack of attendance at the CORE event they were supposed to be attending, the country Jail was called by CORE. The office did not report they had any of the men in

Custody. 5 days after Schwerner attempted assassination on June 21, 1964 the men were arrested. It will never be known for sure what exactly occurred that night beyond that they were never seen alive after being arrest by officer Cecil Price. Much to the surprise to the Neshoba County KKK, the murders became national news, an FBI case, and along with that a National outrage. So much so that