Newspapers / Bennett College Student Newspaper / Feb. 24, 1994, edition 1 / Page 5
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FEBRUARY 24, 1994 • BENNETT BANNER • 5 Belles part of Woolworth sit-in history, too By Tammi McCall Banner Reporter In the deepest comer of the F.W. Woolworth in down town, Greensboro, four idle bar stools launched a civil rights movement that woiild place four NC A&T students in the national spotlight of history. What many don’t know is that those same bar stools represent the continu ation of a movement started by Bennett BeUes. Together the Bennett and A&T stu dents sparked a national pro test for equality and human rights. Six months before the ini tial lunch counter sit-in, the Bennett Student Gk)vemment Association in conjunction vdth A&Ts SGA conceived a plan that would allow blacks to be seated at the same lunch counter as whites in restau rants. Gloria Brovm Wise (now deceased), Bennett’s SGA presidentin 1960 wouldmake the connection that would link Bennett students to the 1960 sit-ins at 132 S. Elm St. In September 1959 at least 20 Beimett students be gan crossing the tracks to con spire with A&T students be fore the initial sit-ins took place. Among those students was Roslyn Cheagle, who wit nessed the historical event. She recalls why she was a part of the movement. “It was a way of life,” she said. “You don’t do it with expectations of becoming a part of history.” Cheagle said that blacks were weU aware of their his tory in the 1950s and 1960s. They knew about the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school desegregation and the Montgomery bus boycotts. Nothing was new to them. “It was survival,” Cheagle said. Cheagle knew that Bennett’s part in the protest would soon come. The stu dents met vnth Dr. Willa B. Player, Beimett’s president in 1960, to inform her of Bennett’s role in the protest. “There was no way she wouldn’t approve,” Cheagle reflected. “Bennett was there to pro vide a service. Brotherhood and peace were instilled into Oiu- minds, so of course we were in on it from the start,” Cheagle said. Feb. 1 was the day the students would make their move. However, Bennett stu dents would not take part in that first protest. According to EUease Colston, a 1953 Bennett graduate, the decision to eliminate BeUes from the Feb. 1 protest was based on con cern for the safety of the la dies. “The students felt as if they should test the waters first,” said Colston, who began her career at Bennett in 1954 and is currently director of Alum nae Affairs at Bennett. Colston said that the A&T students involved in organiz ing the protest, along with the Bennett students, agreed that it would not have been a safe move for the women to participate that first day. However, once the first four students laimched the sit-in movement as planned Bb-i- nett students joined in. “We all marched to Woolworth the next day. They closed the lunch coimter and we were jailed,” Cheagle said. Dr. Player contacted the students’ parents and inform them of their child’s impris onment and safety. Dr. Player negotiated vnth officials and within an hour the Bennett students were released from jail. “Oh, we (blacks) fiUed the jail. There was no more room for anyone, so students were soon processed in the county home on Burlington high way,” Colston said. Colston said that Dr. Player then met with the stu dents to calm them down for a few days so that she could do more negotiating. How ever, it wasn’t long before the students were back at it again. Students in Raleigh, Durham, Alabama and all over the south began to sit-in at res taurants to proclaim their freedom. Even students from Women’s College, now UNCG, participated in the movement. Marches began and then adults would join in the protests. Students of the 1960s en dured beatings and were doused with food as they sat at lunch counters studying and protesting non-violently at the same time. AH odds were against them. They still overcame. Today the Woolworth’s downtown has been desig nated as civil rights museum with the help of funding. An organization, Sit-In Move ment Incorporated, founded by County Commissioner Melvin “Skip” Alston and Greensboro City Council member EarlJones, currently have an option to buy the building from its owner, First Citizens Bank for $700,000. Plans for the biiilding in clude renovation and con struction of facUities such as research laboratories, work shop space, classrooms where college and high school stu dents may receive academic credit, a bookstore. The his torical lunch-counter will open as a working cafe, which will serve as a centerpiece for the museiom. As the four young men sat in protest at bar stools in the F.W. Woolworth lunch coimterFeb. 1,1960, a black waitress approached them and asked, “^at are you boys doing here? You know you are not supposed to sit here. You are a disgrace to our race!” Six months later on July 25, the F.W. Woolworth Com pany in Greensboro served its first blacks: Bennett Col lege women were there. photo by Phanalphis Rhue No more sitting around Woolworth patrons sit at the bar stools which mark a phenomenon in black history. The bar stools have been contributed to the Smithsonian Institute for preservation. Ivan Neal has put out -we aoevTioi ' A -r TO ^ OS A , v^^P0gMATicW Am. j » «** a lot of fires. He’s not firefighter- he’s a teacher. But to the kids he’s reached, he’s a hero BE A TEACHER. BE A HERO. Call J-800-45-TEACH. A PubUc 8«(vtc« o4 JgVf J Thl« PuWlc*tton Photo: Robin Sachs Haach tor th* Poww nn? A/^TJ
Bennett College Student Newspaper
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Feb. 24, 1994, edition 1
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