The Nashville Sit-Ins were among the earliest non-violent direct action campaigns that targeted Southern racial segregation in the 1960s. The sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, sought to desegregate downtown lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. The protests were coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and the Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC), primarily consisting of students from Fisk University, Baptist Theological Seminary, and Tennessee State University. Diane Nash and John Lewis, who were both students at Fisk University, emerged as the major leaders of the local movement.
On February 13, 1960, twelve days after the Greensboro, North Carolina sit-ins began, Nashville college students entered Kress (now K-Mart), Woolworth’s, and McClellan stores at 12:40 p.m. After making their purchases, the students sat down at the lunch counters. Store owners initially refused to serve the students and closed the counters, claiming it was their “moral right” to determine whom they would or would not serve. The students continued the sit-ins over the next three months, expanding their targets to include lunch counters at the Greyhound and Trailways bus terminals, Grant’s Variety Store, Walgreens Drugstore, and major Nashville department stores, Cain-Sloan and Harvey.
The first violent response to the protests came on February 27, which James Lawson, Jr., another protest leader called “big Saturday.” The protesters that day were attacked by a white group opposing desegregation. The police arrested eighty-one protesters but none of the attackers. Those arrested were found guilty of disorderly conduct. They all decided to serve time in jail rather than pay fines.
As racial tension grew in Nashville, Mayor Ben West appointed a biracial committee to investigate segregation in the city. Despite the committee’s numerous attempts at a compromise, the students declared that they would accept nothing less than the acknowledgement of their rights to sit at the store lunch counters along with white customers. On April 5, the committee suggested that the counters be divided into black and white sections. The NCLC and the Nashville Student Movement rejected the proposal, arguing that segregation of the counters was no better than black exclusion from them.
On April 19, a bomb destroyed the home of Z. Alexander Looby, the defense attorney representing many of the protesters. The bombing of Lobby’s home triggered a mass march to city hall where 2,500 protesters demanded answers from Mayor West. Diane Nash pointedly asked Mayor West if it was wrong for a citizen of Nashville to discriminate against his fellow citizens because of his race or skin color. The mayor admitted that it was wrong, giving the students an important symbolic victory in their campaign. Nash then asked the mayor if the lunch counters in Nashville should be desegregated. They mayor said they should.
After weeks of secret negotiations between merchants and protest leaders, an agreement was finally reached during the first week of May. On May 10, six downtown stores opened their lunch counters to black customers for the first time; the customers arrived in groups of two or three during the afternoon and were served without incident. With that agreement, Nashville became the first major southern city to begin desegregating public facilities. The Nashville campaign became a model for other civil rights protests in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Today in my life...
It would be very bad op sec to mention the vicissitude. I'll just say I'm very grumpy and annoyed with myself. I envy the libs. They put their entire lives online if they want.
This morning the recycling truck driver was particularly noisy. Due to his crazy speed - he created a ruckus. If recycling truck collection was an Olympic event - he'd be in medal contention. He sped to the next bin (rrrrrr!) and then pumped on the brakes (sqlllll!). And he operated the arm thing at an amazing rate (ptttttttttt-grt-grt-grt-grt-ptttttttttt!). I wonder if he breaks bins occasionally. I assume he does. The bins are obviously designed for abuse but everything has a limit. Usually collections aren't notable. But sometimes they're noisy. I wonder how many drivers are like him. Is he the only one?
I nearly stepped on and totally squashed a female brown crab spider on my wooden floor. She was very well camouflaged. I only saw her in the nick of time. The little buggers have a death wish. The last time I saw one it was also a nick-of-time deal. I almost burned her to a crisp. She was perched on a oven burner I was about to turn on. [Ninja edit. The males are much smaller.]
When I opened the front door to go the little food pantry there was a rabbit right there. I always like seeing them. In other little food pantry news - it's back to normal.
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The spiders I saw were ~10mm.
Those itsy bitsy little crab spiders are cute :3
I'm not ~~at all~~ squeamish about spiders. But there's something about that large, bulbous abdomen that's somehow - I dunno - too spidery or something.
Ninja edit. I realized I contradicted myself.