Black History Month, Civil Rights & Student Protest
By On Feb. 1, 1960, four African-American students sat down at the whites only section of the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C.
If you visited D.C. while it was running, I hope you were able to see the live presentation at the National Museum of American History.
If not, here’s a video. Hopefully it will be a permanent exhibit when the National Museum of African American History & Culture opens up.
It’s fun to imagine what today’s pseudoliberal critics of protest would have said yesterday!
- “I agree with them of course, but there’s a better way to make their grievances known.”
- “Students! Always complaining about the least little thing. Furthermore harumph harumph et puis harumph!”
- “Why are they focused on lunch counter segregation when [other form of discrimination] still exists?”
- “Tuh! Sorry, real injustice doesn’t exist in the U.S.”
- “Why are they harassing the people who work there?? They did nothing wrong.”
- “Oooo, it’s so disruptive!”
- “Kids today are so sensitive.”
- Before May 1960: “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wouldn’t approve!” After: “Mahatma Ghandi never staged a lunch counter sit-in.”
- “I used to agree with them, but this sort of aggressive behavior has caused me to rethink my gibber skree Chappaquiddick!”
- Etcetera.
