Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / May 20, 2010, edition 1 / Page 2
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W-S sit-in movement to be spotlighted Tuesday SPtC lAt TO THt C HKONKXfc The firs! sit-in victory in North Carolina that led to the desegregation of lunch counters in Winston-Salem 50 sears ago will be celebrated in a series of events on Tuesday. May 25 The celebration begins at 9 :30 a m with an assembly at Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy Students from local high schools will present excerpts from original essays, dramatic and dance performances in tribute to the sit in participants. The individuals who challenged lunch-counter segregation through the sit-ins will be the honored guests at the assembly. At noon, a ceremony will be held at the comer of 4th and Liberty streets, at the site of the S H Kress i store where the sit-ins in Winston-Salem started At 6 p m . the documentary I'm Not My Brother's Keeper"' will be shown at the Anderson Center on the campus of Winston-Salem State University. The documentary was produced by WaK.e Forest professors Mary Dalton and Susan Faust After the screening, the audience will have the opportunity to engage in a question-and-answer ses sion with the sit-in participants The Winston-Salem sit-in movement Local sit-in hero Carl Matthews, sec ond from right. was initiated by Carl Matthew, a grad uate of V, inston-Salem Teacher* College, on Feb X. I%(i Matthews inspired by the sit-in in Greensboro that began eight days earlier About 25 other black supporters, drawn by radio news reports of his protest, eventually joined Matthews, effectively closing down the lunch counter The protests immediate!) spread to other lunch counters in the cit> and attracted the support of sympathetic white students j( wake Forest Lniversity On Feb 23. II African American students and 10 white stu dents held a joint sit-in at the Wool worth'-, lunch counter and were arretted, jailed, and found guilty of tres passing when the) refused to lease The student arretted from W inston- Salem Teachers College were Royal Joe Abbitt. Hserette L Dudley. Deloris M Reeves. Victor Johnson Jr.. William Andrew Bright. Bruce Gaither. Jefferson Davis Diggs 111. Algemenia Giles. Donald C Bradley. Lafayette A Cook Jr and L'ly?ses Grant Green, and from Wake forest University were Linda G Cohen. Linda Guy. Margaret Ann Dutton. Bill Stevens. Joe Chandler. Don F Bailey. Paul Watson. Anthony VVayland Johnson. George Williamson, and Jerry Wilson The arrests sparked further sit-ins and picketing, leading Mayor Marshall Rurfees to appoint a "Goodwill Committee ' of 10 white and 10 black citi/ens to devise a peaceful end to the protests After consulting with the lunch-counter owners, the committee announced a desegregation agreement and on May 25. Carl Matthews returned to the Kress lunch counter and was served It was the first sit-in victory in North Carolina YVFL from pugr \l the graduates. ".. In times like these. we need you more than ever because you bring to the table what you have learned here . . a concrete understanding of what we can accomplish when we work together ." Before thousands in a packed Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Chenault. one of just a hand ful on blacks at the helm of a Fortune MX) Company, spoke of the challenges his genera tion faced in the height of the Civil Rights and Women's Liberation movements, and of the unique challenges that lie ahead for leaders in today's world. He urged the students to remain steadfast in their quests for the greater good. "My generation believed very strongly in our country 's ideals: we knew they were sound." he said. "But we also knew that we had an obliga tion .. to question w hether or not we were living up to those ideals." Some of the graduates in attendance didn't wait until graduation to begin living out the ideals the university espoused. Twenty -one year-old Christopher Smyre. a native of Statesv i lie. started a serv ice organization for African American youth as an under grad Smyre. the second of four children, says the idea for the organization, which he dubbed Mv Brother's Keeper, came to him while he was still in high school. Smyre. the first WFU stu dent to graduate w ith a degree in biochemistry and bio physics. attended several dif ferent high schools during the course of his scholastic career, and noticed that the attitudes of the students he encountered varied based on the expecta tions they were held to. "In the public schools. you didn't see everyone assuming and planning on (going to) college." explained Smyre. who served as president ot the school's Mortar Board honors society during his senior year '* ...To. me. it seemed like without that goal and that idea . people didn't work as hard as thev could have." As a sophomore. Smyre joined forces with a handful of fellow Wake students to mentor young men at his alma mater. Statesville High School The program focused on developing students aca demically. spiritually and socially, explained Smyre. who also serves as youth pas tor at his church. The Father's House of Glory in Salisbury. The volunteers met with the students at the high school twice a month. Smyre said "This past year, we moved it to the (WF) campus and I think that was a good thing. Some of them had never seen a college campus before, and coming here really inspired them." he related "...(Leading the program) was very rewarding. I think the kids gained a realization that college is a possibility and that they can do it." Smyre. who is headed to divinity and medical school at the University of Chicago, has ended My Brothers Keeper because of his relocation, but Christopher Smyre Janelle Summerville says he hopes to launch a sim ilar program in the future. Psychology major Janelle Summerville also spent much of her college career in serv ice to others. The 22 year-old Wake Forest choreographer traveled to 12 European nations during her college career, including a semester in Barcelona. Spain and another in Auckland. New Zealand Though she enjoyed visiting each country, Summerville says it was a research trip to Kenya in the summer of 2(X)9 that had the most profound effect on her life "Kenya just complete!) bleu my mind." said Summerville. who traveled to the West African nation to studv the self esteem of young girls who were orphaned by AIDS. "I'd never been to a place before w ith that amount of poverty and that amount of suffering," When she came home to Wake Forest weeks later, Summerville says her per spective had changed drasti cally. *1 was so shell shocked." related Summerville. a native of Stafford. Va. "I kept think ing about the children that I worked with. It was definitely a jolting experience." Summerville says she needed to do something. She assembled a committee of 28 students and created the cam pus charity Wake Up! The organi/ation's goal was to raise funds to benefit the Kenya Kids Can program, which Summers ille sa)s leeds over 20.000 Kenyan children a day. Through three innovative fundraisers. Summerville and her partners were able to raise over for the effort, enough to feed over 100.000 children "It was just wonderful see ing the people that came out to support it. That was something that gave me a lot of hope." Summerville. the third of four children, said of Wake Up! "This experience has taught me that there arc a lot of peo ple who do care ... (and that) optimism, with hard work and focus, is unbeatable." WFV Phm m W illiam Conner, professor of biology, hoods Ken Chenault. Rep. Larry Womble NC House of Representatives 71st District Tel (336) 784-9373 Fax (336)784-1626 E-Mail: LWistm? aul.com Home Address 1 294 Salem Lake Road Winston-Salem. NC 27107 Legal Http For Your Detrt Probtomt DONALD R. BL'IE, Attorney At Law www.donaldrbuie.com * Free Initial Consultation # Stop Repossession & Foreclosure Hie l.aw Office of Donald K. Buie ft a federal!) designated l)ehl Relief \geno under Title II I nited States ( ode Section 528<?l. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the hankrupto code. 773-1398 823 West 5th Street Jessie Draft & Associates LLC Jessie Draft/Broker CRS. GRI. REALTOR RNJDRAFT@MSN.COM 3750 Beeson Dairy Rd Winston-Salem. NC 27105 (336) 403-1254 Business (336) 748-0871 Fax MULTIMILUON DOLLAR PRODUCER The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published even Thursday by W inston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co. Inc.. 617 N. Liberty Street. Winston-Salem. N.C. 27101. Periodicals postage paid at Winston-Salem. N.C. Annual subscription price is S30.72. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle. P.O. Box 1636 Winston-Salem. NC 27102-1636 Most people dream of the perfect first home. We dream of the perfect first loan. Buying your first house is an exciting but daunting time, which is why Piedmont Federal has a First-Time Homebuyers Program that offers financial assurance. First-time buyers can take advantage of a program that eliminates many fees so you can keep more money in your pocket. Plus, our loan officers don't work on commission, which means they're working for you to moke your first home a reality. With the perfect first loan, of course. 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