ALL DELIBERATE SPEED

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The Brown decision which found segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, was handed down on May 17 , 1954.
The Supreme Court ordered desegregation to proceed with all deliberate speed” It was February 1960 and not only had the
schools not desegregated, but the ppor conditions in the African American school-s continued.

Further the authorities in Prince Edwards County Virginia had closed all the public schools black and white and used public
funds to set up private academies for white students only.

The video audio of Attorney Robert Carter: ” The problem with the all deliberate speed was that it compromised the court’s integrity. That was a corrupt decision. When you have a Constitutional right it vest immediately. And what they did with that one, was because of race. They said this over time. A racist decision meant I suppose to ease the south’s acceptance of it. As it turned out it didn’t do that.”

No it did not do that, but it led to the defiance by one woman who was fed up with the Jim Crow laws. The arrest of
Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man triggered a year long bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama.

The Boycott ended when the Supreme Court ordered desegregation of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Four years later, that movement led to some defiant teens Wichita, Kansas to take the initiative without the NAACP’ s support to integrate the Dockum drugstore lunch counter.

Nineteen months later, four defiant freshmen students from North Carolina A&T State University have the attention of
the entire country with their sit-in movement at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro’ N.C.

Their movement caught on like wildfire, sparking similar protests and support throughout the country.

The white citizens of Greensboro, NC continued their massive resistance to integration. They would come in on a daily basis, occupying all the seats at the lunch county. They would relinquish their seat only to another white individual. They also tried to intimidate the NC. A&T protesters.

The entire N.C. A&T State University campus was now behind the movement using non-violence as a tactic. The young black students would come in with their text books take their seat at the counter. With textbooks open, they would study.

The store would continued to serve their white patrons. However this became impossible as the lunch counter seats began to f i l l with the black protesting students. At this point, the lunch counter would cease its’ operation for the rest of the day.

Soon the Bennett college students, known affectionately as the Bennett Bells joined the protest.

Although the students were faced with mass resistance and intimidation by the white citizens, the students continued
their non-violent protest on a daily basis.

The African American protesters eventually found an ally in the all white female school Women College in Greensboro. The Women College students were able to attain seats from other whites. They in turn, would give their seats to a waiting A&T student.

Now it was an integrated Protest.

Join us tomorrow as we continue to explore the non-violent
protest.

For Spanish and hearing impaired versions, please go to the Febone1960.net Black History Month Calendar

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Tags: Dockum Drug Store, Febone1960.net, febone1960.net black history month calendar, Mayor Valencia Thomas, North arolina A&T State University, Prince Edward county Virginia, Robert Carter, Woolworth lunch counter