On February 1, 1960, four black men sat at the Woolworth store’s segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, NC; they were refused service. White hecklers noticed. So did the press. The time was right. That bold action became a landmark event in the Civil Rights movement, sparking other sit-ins across the South. But the seeds for the sit-in campaign had been planted in the 1940s. Here are the stories of three black women who led the way.
RUTH POWELL’S ONE-WOMAN CAMPAIGN
When Ruth Powell arrived in D.C. in 1941, she was warned not to expect to eat in the downtown area. Raised in a Boston suburb, she had no experience with the Jim Crow South. The warning barely registered. The young student was excited about attending Howard University in the nation’s capital.
She assumed the warning only applied to restaurants, so when her sandwich order was ignored at a lunch counter in a drugstore where she’d been able to purchase other items, she blurted out, “But why?!” Humiliated, she ran back to her dorm in tears and didn’t venture off campus again for days.
Her anger simmered until the U.S. entered WWII. Sixty-five Howard men dramatically marched off campus together to enlist. That’s when Ruth began her one-woman “sittings.” She wanted her country to be worthy of their sacrifice.
Hers was a prolonged, one-woman campaign. Powell would enter luncheonettes in downtown D.C. and wait to be served … and wait and wait and wait. Sometimes, she’d stare, expressionless, at one waiter. If management approached to explain their “whites-only” policy, Powell would simply ask, “But, why?” in a low, calm voice. Her goal, she confided to friends, was not to be served, (although, that would have been nice). Rather, she hoped to inspire an “awakening process.”
One January day in 1943, Ruth and two other coeds ordered hot chocolates at a store on Pennsylvania Avenue. At first, they were refused service. When the three women didn’t move, the police were called. To the women’s surprise, the cops ordered the waitress to bring the hot drinks. The catch came at the end: instead of being charged ten cents each, the drinks were billed at 25 cents. Ruth and her friends protested the overcharge and left the correct amount on the counter. That’s when they were arrested, taken to jail in a police wagon, and held under suspicion of being “subversive agents.”
Although the charges were dropped, the arrest sparked a reaction throughout the university, especially in the law classes. Soon, everyone knew about Ruth Powell’s long, lonely crusade and the hot chocolate incident.
PAULI MURRAY AND THE HOWARD STUDENT SIT-INS
Good news! One activist can inspire another. Ruth Powell inspired her fellow Howard U. classmate Pauli Murray (1910-1985). A diminutive, cross-dressing, woman-loving, radical black activist ahead of her time, Murray not only imagined the power of a sit-in campaign long before it caught on in the 1960s, but she coined the term “Jane Crow” to describe the varieties of oppression faced by black women, was arrested in the 1940s for not moving to the back of the bus, won the deep respect and friendship of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was a co-founder, with Bayard Rustin, of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and NOW (National Organization for Women), became a lawyer, and, eventually, the first black woman Episcopal priest. In 2012, 27 years after her death, she was named an Episcopal saint.
In 1943, inspired by her classmate’s “sittings,” she began to hold nightly bull sessions in Sojourner Truth Hall, the freshmen women’s dorm, where a decision was made to protest the Little Palace Cafeteria. Segregation at this small, “whites-only” cafe was especially galling because it was in the heart of the black section of town.
For weeks, the women met to plan every detail of the nonviolent action. They raised funds, led campus pep rallies, organized poster-making sessions, held a forum on civil rights, and ran training sessions on Gandhian nonviolent tactics.
On Friday, April 17, a rainy Saturday, twelve women and seven men led by Pauli Murray walked to the cafeteria in groups of four. Three from each group entered, while one remained outside as an “observer.” When the students were denied service, they found places at the tables, opened their textbooks, and quietly began to study. Outside, their friends marched in a picket line, carrying signs, “OUR BROTHERS ARE FIGHTING FOR YOU! WHY CAN’T WE EAT HERE?” and “THERE’S NO SEGREGATION LAW IN D.C. WHAT’S YOUR STORY, LITTLE PALACE?”
The cafeteria closed early that day. When it opened again on Monday, the picket line was ready. Within 48-hours, management agreed to serve black customers! Success!
The following spring, however, the students met with disappointment after initial success at integrating Thompson’s cafeteria, part of a national chain located in downtown D.C., open 24 hours a day.
On April 22, 1944, a gray Saturday afternoon, the cherry trees were in bloom, and the city was thick with tourists and soldiers on leave. Howard students slipped into Thompson’s cafeteria, two or three at a time, after months of planning and civil disobedience training. Everyone who joined the action signed a pledge to remain true to Gandhian nonviolence. Again, when refused service, they sat quietly studying. Outside, a picket line formed in solidarity with the sit-in. One young man held a sign: “WE DIE TOGETHER. WHY CAN’T WE EAT TOGETHER?”
Usually a bustling place at dinnertime, Thompson’s became quiet. Customers didn’t want to cross the picket line or wade through the loud, hostile crowd just to eat dinner, so they took their business down the street. Finally, panicking over lost profits, the manager received an order from the chain’s national headquarters to serve the students. Success?
Murray later wrote, “It is difficult to describe the exhilaration of that brief moment of victory.” How heartbreaking it was, then, when the press ignored this successful nonviolent action, and Howard University administrators ordered the students to refrain from further protests. Thompson’s soon returned to whites-only service.
EDNA GRIFFIN, THE ROSA PARKS OF IOWA
Like Powell, Edna Griffin (1909-2000) was a New Englander. After graduating from Fisk University in Tennessee, she moved to Iowa in 1947 with her husband, a med student.
One hot July afternoon in 1948, with her 1-year-old daughter in tow, she and two friends went to Katz Drug Store in downtown Des Moines for ice cream sodas. Moments later, they were told that the store “did not serve coloreds.” Griffin and her friends asked to speak to the manager. Maurice Katz informed them that the store “was not equipped to serve colored people.” Griffin was stunned.
She and her friends took Katz to court, filing both criminal charges and a civil suit. As it turned out, Iowa had passed a Civil Rights Act in 1884, making it a crime to discriminate in public accommodations. Katz was found guilty. Eventually, Griffin was awarded $1 in damages.
While waiting for the trial, she organized Saturday afternoon sit-ins and picket lines at the drug store. These actions generated significant press coverage and helped raise consciousness about racism. She also secured signatures throughout Iowa on a petition to the governor, asking him to uphold Iowa’s Civil Rights law.
Griffin remained an activist all her life. She served as co-chair of Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 run for the presidency, and, at age 75, sat in the middle of a Nebraska highway with Quaker friends to protest nuclear arms.
Here’s the best part: In 1998, the building that housed Katz Drug Store was renamed the Edna Griffin Building, and, in 2004, a pedestrian bridge in downtown Des Moines was named in her honor. By then, Griffin was known as the “Rosa Parks of Iowa.”
TO GO DEEPER
Song In a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage by Pauli Murray (Harper & Row, 1987) Beautifully written memoir, full of activist details.
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrations by Jerome Lagarrigue (Dial, 2004) Picture book discussion of segregation from a little girl’s POV
“Pauli Murray: Queer Saint Who Stood for Racial and Gender Equality” July 1, 2013, on Jesus In Love blog
“Saint Pauli Murray” by Carr Harkrader, Huffington Post, 8/20/12
“Face Up: Telling Stories of Community Life” — About Brett Cook and the Pauli Murray Project murals, a very cool community project in Durham, NC (9:33 mins.)
“NC NOW ~ Pauli Murray Project” Interview with Barbara Lau and Lynden Harris (9:20 minutes)
Feature: “Pauli Murray Roots & Soul” mural in Durham, NC, part of the Pauli Murray Project, led by artist Brett Cook http://paulimurrayproject.org/pauli-murray/faceup-mural-project/
See also the Brett Cook website at http://www.brett-cook.com/www.brett-cook.com/Brett_Cook.html