Civil Rights Movement: Sit Ins

I never wanted any violence. Just change. And that was the way.

Back in 1960, my riskier days I'd like to think, I did something my parents would never have done. I was a part of CORE, or Congress of Racial Equality. We were black students, fighting for our rights with protest, but, not in the way you see protests these days. I didn’t have some sign or refuse to do my job, I sat at a lunch counter all day long, and waited to be served.

We were called Sit Ins. Organized by CORE, we would go into restaurants at the beginning of the day and sit ourselves down at the white only lunch counters. There, only whites could sit and be served, but as part of CORE, we were trying to make a statement.

We’d sit down, all together, blocking every seat from a white customer, and asked to be served. We were most always met with resistance from the restaurant. And usually, they never served us. We’d sit from the very moment the restaurant opened, until it closed for the night, without being served. In most cases, the whites grew angry and yelled and made threatening remarks at us. And we just sat there. The restaurant owners knew the only way to get rid of us was to serve us, but they couldn’t bring themselves to do that. If they served us, they would without a doubt loose customers. By serving us alone, these restaurant owners would show their approval of equality, which to those stubborn whites, would mean the end of their customer loyalty. So, we sat. And we waited.

Sometimes, the whites would get really angry and form mobs with hundreds of angry citizens! They’d just toss us right from our seats! They didn’t care if they hurt us, they were just too preoccupied with being unequal. But, we knew this would happen. As soon as we’d be thrown out, more of us would run into the restaurant, and fill up the seats. Those whites would throw us out, turn around, walk back into the restaurant, only to find themselves in the same predicament.

The whole point of these Sit Ins was to fight for our Civil Rights. We wanted to be treated equally! To have the same opportunities - whether it be at the lunch counter, in schools, or in the voting registration.

Overall, I believe we accomplished this. By having us sit in at these lunch counters, eventually, owners had to feed us, otherwise they wouldn’t make any money. And at the end of the day, money is money, no matter who it came from, right? Well, we definitely helped these owners see that. With us there, most restaurants were forced to turn into integrated restaurants, and soon, these same ideas would reverberate throughout other public areas, and eventually, the entire country.

 CORE was able to use the sit ins as a spark toward integration. We didn’t use violence, but sat and made our points. We were respectful, we didn’t talk back, we sat down for what we believed in.

Citations:

"Sit Ins." Sit Ins. [CORE- Congress of Racial Equality]. Web. 31 May 2012. <http://www.core-online.org/History/sit_ins.htm>

"Home Page." Home Page. Web. 31 May 2012. <http://www.core-online.org/>
Web. 31 May 2012. <http://tucsoncitizen.com/retroflections/files/2010/02/Greensboro-sit-ins.jpg>
Web. 31 May 2012. <http://greensborositins.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/greensboro-sit-in.jpg>