and here the idea of ordinary people becomes unequivocal. in other words, the folks that are going to engage, literally, in these thousands of demonstrations all across the south -- strike that. not just all across the south. all over the country. because there's going to be a civil rights movement right here in seattle, as some of you already know. and it's those ordinary people who were going to say, we want justice. we demand justice, and we're willing to take to the streets in order to bring about that justice. so let me talk about the sit-ins. let me talk about why the sit-ins would take place in the early 1960s and how that would lead to this nationwide campaign for -- to challenge segregation and racial discrimination. by 1960, the overall civil rights gains of the last six years were clearly recognized by a number of people, but especially by black students and black students in the south. black students, black color students in the colleges and universities in the south. they had seen segregation outlawed in public schools. they had seen, of course, the little rock situation, where federal troops came in to defend the rights of black children.

but they also saw in 1957, and this in some ways came out of little rock, they saw in 1957, the passage of a civil rights bill. now, as we look back on it now, that civil rights bill was very weak. as we look back on it now, the -- probably the major thing that came out of the civil rights bill was the u.s. civil rights commission, which is still in existence, still limping along. but on the other, in 1957, that civil rights bill was the first bill of its kind to be passed by the u.s. congress since 1875. which -- think about that. in other words, finally congress was beginning to act on the rights of blacks and other people of color throughout the country. also, by 1960, those students in the south saw the success -- had

witnessed the success of martin luther king. now, we won't -- we don't have time to talk about the montgomery bus boycott, but i think you're all familiar with it. i will say this. the montgomery bus boycott was a prime example of ordinary people. you know the story of rosa parks, okay? and you know that she's a brave woman, and you know there are monuments to her all over the country. what you probably don't know is the rest of the story. rosa parks, her symbolic act could not have been successful had it not been sustained by literally thousands of black folks in montgomery, alabama who chose to walk rather than ride. and they did so for well over a year. despite the fact that these were the people who depended upon public transportation, they decided that they were not going to use that transportation, because it was segregated, and they were essentially marginalized by this public transportation system, and to

make it very, very plain, they wanted dignity. very, very plain. they wanted dignity, and they decided that they wouldn't ride in order to gain that dignity. so students had seen the victories. they had seen the changes that were taking place in the south at the time. they had seen ordinary people again involved in these victories. ordinary people challenging the status quo. but what the students also saw in 1960 was essentially a wall of segregation that's -- even though it had gaping holes in it, was still standing. and some would say still proudly standing. let me give you some examples. this is public school segregation by state in 1954. there's the 19 -- there's the 1954 supreme court decision that makes all of this illegal. all of this is now outlawed, okay? except that here's the reality. by 1960, by 1960, 92% of the

black children in the south still remained in segregated schools. in other words, despite -- despite the supreme court decision that outlawed segregation, 92% of the kids in the south or kids in these states still went to segregated schools. well to put it more bluntly, more directly, what you see in this room today -- what you see in this room today would have been illegal, or at least would not have been allowed in a whole host of schools and a whole host of states, even as late as 1960, despite the supreme court decision. so these students, these colored students recognized there is a contradiction. there is something wrong. on one hand, there is a supreme

court decision, on the other hand, there is a reality that segregation is still very much alive. secondly, by 1960, these students also recognized that 65% of the south's eligible black voters were not allowed to vote. 65% of the south's eligible black voters were not allowed to vote. folks, that included my parents. in 1960, my parents were in their 40s. they had never voted. and some assumed they never would. that would change for them. and it would change for a lot of black folks in the south. but i want you to see the figures. in georgia, the figure is 76%. in alabama, it's 89%. in mississippi, 99%. in other words, 99% of the black folks eligible to vote were not allowed to vote in the state of mississippi in 1960. this was the reality. this was the reality that these students saw in 1960. thirdly, there were thousands -- thousands of private businesses

and public accommodations across the south that either barred blacks all together or segregated them. again, the reality. this is -- yeah, i keep becoming personal here. i remember these signs. i remember growing up with these signs. they were in businesses throughout brownsville, tennessee where i grew up, and i suspect that they were on businesses throughout the south at that time, and maybe even in some places outside of the south. restaurants, hotels, theatres, drugstores, department stores, public parks, all segregated. all segregated. let me give you a sign that i do remember seeing. i'm going to get personal here. overton park zoo. i grew up in brownsville. and memphis was the big city. sort of like olympia and seattle. so you go to the big city for various recreation. so i would say every three months, the kids from my school would be put on a bus, and we

would go to memphis to the zoo. that's a great experience for kids. you know, you go to see the animals. but the zoo was segregated. thursday -- every thursday at the overton park zoo, this sign was put out. no whites were allowed in the overton park zoo, because this was negro day. this was negro day. in other words, this was the day -- this was the only day, but this was the day that african-americans were allowed to go to the zoo. negro day carried in a whole host of ways. there was a negro day for swimming pools, there was a negro day for department stores. in other words, we can only go to department stores and try on clothes on thursday, which was negro day. negro shopping day. sometimes it's called negro shopping day. that was the way of the world at that time. that was the nature of segregation. and that's the situation that those african-american students realized at that particular time. let me pull this image up,

because i think it's a very poignant description of segregation in 1960. i'll give you a minute, so you can read it. the question has always been raised, why 1960? why this date? why would things begin to change, or more specifically, why would students in the south begin to challenge segregation at that particular moment? first of all, that question is based upon an incorrect premise. it didn't simply start in 1960. there had been situations or developments taking place earlier that were going to lead up to this. actually, you can argue the entire african-american history class that i've been telling you about would lead up to this. but there were certain episodes, certain specific episodes, that would lead up to this. and i want to mention a couple of them. one of the ones i'm going to mention is an episode at the university of new mexico in 1948. now, this is not in your history

book. it's not in -- it's not in either of the books that you're reading. essentially, the university of new mexico itself wasn't segregated and had a handful of black students, including a guy named george long. george long started out as an undergraduate student, eventually becomes a law student and eventually practices in oakland. that's a different story. that's a side story. but george long was a 19-year-old at the university of new mexico in 1948. and he could not go to the favorite watering hole for the students, which was across the street from the campus. that watering hole was oklahoma joe's.

it was kind of a combination bar and restaurant. and it was considered the best place in albuquerque for the college students at that point. i don't know if you have watering holes anymore. i don't know if you have places that you go to. but this was a great place for college students to hang out. except if you were black. and so george long decided to challenge this. and not only did he challenge this, but he got the -- i guess it would be the associated students at the university of new mexico to join in the challenge. in other words, he persuaded them to vote to pass a resolution calling for all university of new mexico students to boycott oklahoma joe's. this was remarkable. this was remarkable. these were mostly white

students, overwhelming majority of white students who said this kind of racial practice is wrong. and that boycott was so successful, that not only was oklahoma joe's integrated, but indeed, long became the architect of a campaign to get a civil rights ordinance passed for albuquerque, new mexico. he did this while he was still in undergraduate school, and then while he was in law school, he helped to draft the legislation that would become the new mexico civil rights act. okay? the new mexico civil rights act was passed in 1955. what makes this story interesting is that some of the legal language of the new mexico act would eventually be integrated into the 1964 civil rights act that would govern the entire country. my point here is that george long, an ordinary college student, would begin a protest that would have ramifications far beyond -- far, far beyond new mexico. far beyond albuquerque.

far beyond the campus of the university of new mexico at that time. but long is not the only one who was involved. let me give you another example. civil rights demonstrations in oklahoma city, oklahoma in 1958. very few people are familiar with this. those demonstrations were going to be led -- actually, there were two sets of demonstrations. i don't have a picture for wichita. but there were civil rights demonstrations in wichita, kansas and in oklahoma city, oklahoma. the civil rights demonstrations in wichita, kansas were led by 21-year-old college student named ron walters. the civil rights demonstrations in oklahoma city in 1958 were led by a 16-year-old high school student named barbara posely. barbara posely. ordinary people. maybe extraordinary people who just up until that point led ordinary lives and then became involved in the civil rights movement. yet i think we have to

understand that the protests in new mexico, the protests in oklahoma, the protests in wichita, didn't sort of catch on. they didn't catch far. they didn't grow as would be the case at the greensboro in 1960. and, of course, for that reason, we don't know very much about them. for that reason, they don't make the history books, or they don't stand out in history books, as much. by 1960, the situation would be different. by 1960, the protests would begin, and this time, they would continue. they would grow and they would spread and they would continue. and eventually, they would transform america. let me talk about the reasons or the background for those protests that began in 1960. first of all, there are a whole host of college students, white

college students, but even more importantly, young black college students who were going to school, partly because their parents had made money during world war ii. remember we talked about the rising tide of prosperity for african-americans in the second world war. well, that rising tide of prosperity means that a lot more kids, a lot more young black kids, will go to college. in other words, an emerging black middle class will send a wave, a huge wave of students to college. and unlike the earlier black college students, and there had always been some black college students, but unlike the earlier black college students that had mostly come from dire poverty, that is a background of dire poverty, these kids were upwardly mobile. these kids believed that they had a future, and they believed that if they could get rid of segregation, that future would be even brighter. in other words, for them, segregation -- for them, racial injustice stood in the way of both their own economic progress and growth and their full participation in american society. and so far them, it was very

important to challenge the system. i'm going to say something here, and i'm going to get myself in trouble again on national tv. but i think a lot of african-americans, and particularly young african-americans, have lost that. that a lot of young african-americans have come to the conclusion. i think it's a false conclusion, but they come to the conclusion that the situation is so bad, that it's just as bad as it was before, and that there's no hope. there's no way out. and that's a shame. because one of the things that was very important for the civil rights movement in the 1960s was this sense that one could change the world. as a matter of fact, it's almost an arrogance on the part of these people in terms of believing that they could change. i'll come back to that in a minute. but that optimism is very important. these were kids who felt that they really could -- these were college students who felt they really could change the world. secondly, these students did not

understand, and they were often impatient with the legalistic approach of the naacp. and the naacp for them, essentially was their elders. they wanted to do something. they wanted to do something dramatic, and they wanted to do something now in order to challenge segregation. you guys -- do you know where that is? anybody know? [ inaudible ] yeah, the university of washington, it's 15th. this is theoretically, this is a sympathy demonstration. in other words, these are college students at the university, black and white college students at the university of washington, supporting what's going on in nashville. and i'll pull up another one here. here's another one. this is another demonstration in seattle in 1960. a support demonstration. but i can tell you, although this is not part of the main lecture tonight, by 1961, these students will be in the streets, not protesting or not supporting

what's going on in nashville in terms of those protests. they will be in the streets protesting racial discrimination in seattle. okay? but in 1960, they're still at the -- let's see if i can go back. in 1960, they're still at the sympathy demonstration stage. that will change. that will change, and it will change dramatically. but the point here is that these young people, whether they're in seattle or whether they're in selma, they understand that something is wrong. they understand that racial injustice is rampant. and they want to do something. they want to employ the direct action approach of martin luther king and others in order to challenge racial segregation. again, i don't want to put people on the spot here. i mean, often when i talk about how these students -- these ordinary students were going to engage in civil rights activity, there's kind of a -- the unspoken word that somehow or

another i'm castigating or criticizing young students for the lack of activism now. i'm not, okay? i'm not. but what i am saying is that there is a particular moment -- there is a particular moment in history when, if you will, the stars line up, it's an overworked cliche, but the stars line up, and those students were in the middle of the constellation. those young students, students who were no older than those of you in this room, were in the middle of those stars lining up at that moment. but there are other factors. and let me talk about those other factors. there's a presidential campaign going on in 1960. and actually, in early 1960, in february of 1960, there are presidential primaries, and there is an intense -- guess what, there is an intense battle going on in the democratic party to see who is going to get the nomination. the two leading candidates at that time on the democratic side were the senator from minnesota, hubert humphrey, who had a long

civil rights record, and young senator from massachusetts, named john kennedy, who hadn't had as much of a civil rights record. but they were going to do battle, and they were going to engage in rhetoric. as john kennedy does here with adam clayton powell and eleanor roosevelt in harlem. they were going to talk about what they would do to promote civil rights. now, as we look back on their words now, as we look back at the transcript of their speeches, they really weren't making much of a commitment. but the students saw an identification with their cause. the students saw these presidential candidates as saying, we are with you. we want to try to change america. we want to challenge racial injustice in american society, just like you do. and this was heartening to the students. or at least students took this as heartening. and they said, this is another reason why we should go forward with our civil rights activity. in other words, there is something out there. there is this sense, this

tangible sense, that -- this atmosphere, as it were, that says that political leaders -- or at least the political leaders in the democratic party, are in favor of civil rights. and as a result, they -- the students should move forward. but there is something else. in the late 1950s and through the early 1960s, country after country after country was becoming independent. these countries were sometimes involved in violent struggle. more often, they were involved in nonviolent struggle, the kind of nonviolent struggle that african-american students would be engaged in. and the political leaders like kwame nkrumah or benjamin azikiwe were heroes, because these men -- almost all men, very few women involved -- but these were men leading their nations to independence. and the assumption was before african corruption rose, the assumption was that once these nations become independent, they will be democratic, they will

show the way. they will show that black people can participate in the political process. they will change the world dynamic. that was the hope. and i can say this, because i was one of those people who naively had that hope. i was -- okay, i'll just go on record here. i was proud of every new african nation. i was excited every time a new flag went up showing that there was a new african nation, because i identified with that. and i said that this was going to be part of the freedom struggle. because they are engaged in a struggle for freedom. and they are successful. and others ought to be. others in the united states ought to be and will be engaged in that same struggle. there is one other thing i should mention, because i don't want to take too much time on this. but there is -- what -- what i call the arrogance of youth. the very beginning of the baby boom generation. now, they -- the people who took place -- excuse me.

the people who took part in civil rights demonstrations in 1960 were really -- unless they were -- you know, 14 or 15, they really weren't technically part of the baby boom generation. but just wait for a couple of years. as more and more of these young people came of age, those people would become participants in civil rights struggles. and i -- you know, it's hard to sort of explain now, but there was a particular arrogance, and i'm speaking of myself and my own generation now, so i'm indicting myself, guys. but there was a particular arrogance on the part of that generation, of my generation. we really did believe we were going to change the world. we really did believe that we could do anything. and we really were impatient with the political leadership that had come before us. we knew that we would do better. we were wrong. as everybody has figured out at

this point. but at that moment, we really believed that we would do better. i am going to go so far as to suggest that i believe that some of you may feel the same way. okay. don't answer that. don't answer that at all. but the point here is that in the 1960s, there were a lot of young people -- there were just a lot of young people, okay, more young people than there had been in the past because of the baby boom generation. and it's the very numbers, the sheer numbers of the people that created this sense, atmosphere, that by the very fact that they were young people -- yeah, i know this is naive. but young people by the very fact that they were young people were going to change america. by the very fact that they were -- they were young and they were eager and they were active and they were energetic, and all of this dynamism somehow or another would change america for the better. okay. we all got old and we all got cynical. but that's the way we looked at the world in the 1960s. and that becomes a very important factor in terms of civil rights activity.

it becomes a very important factor in terms of those young people coming into those demonstrations. let me shift here to the demonstrations themselves. and let me go back to the very first one, the father of them all, which was the greensboro sit-in 1960. the sit-in at woolworth's at greensboro, north carolina in 1960. how many of you have heard of this sit-in before this class, honestly? okay. most of you. most of you. this is considered the red letter date, one of the red letter dates in the civil rights movement. i'll list those men, because i'm going to list their names in a minute. but i want to again -- again, i want to provide a context for you to understand what happened. ordinary people. very ordinary people.

these are four college students. they were college students at north carolina agricultural and technical university in greensboro, north carolina. they weren't the brightest students, they weren't the best students. they shared a couple dormitory rooms. and they would get together for these -- okay. i'm trying to look for a better word than -- well, okay, i'll just say it on national tv. they got together for bull sessions. have you guys ever heard of a bull session? okay. some of us are old enough to remember this. essentially, student -- don't students get together in their dormitory -- no, you guys go on facebook now. but before there was facebook, people actually got together, and they sat down, and they talked about life and issues and what they were going to do, what their futures were going to be. in this instance, these students talked about racial segregation. they talked about all those other things, but they also said, you know, we don't like the fact that woolworth's and other schools -- excuse me, other stores, in downtown greensboro, or are segregated. a lot of people said before, we don't like they're segregated. this time, they decided to do something about it.

there is no grand strategy, okay? these guys aren't a member of some kind of organization, okay? these are just plain college students who decide we're going to do something, we're going to engage in a protest that will challenge racial segregation. just a side note. at the time -- i don't know if this is a major factor. but at the time, the student body president was jesse jackson. okay? but they were -- they were all kids who said, we want to do something. they were freshmen. they were freshmen. so they were just barely in the school. but they knew they wanted to do something about the situation. so on february 1st, 1960, these four freshmen, ezell blair, joseph mcneil, david richmond and franklin mccain decided after a conversation in the

dormitory room the night before that they not only did not like the fact that woolworth's was segregated, but they were going to do something about it. and so they walked -- they didn't even march, they walked down to woolworth's the next day, and they decided to stage a sit-in. and i don't know where they got the idea of the sit-in. there had been sit-ins before, but they decided, this is a way of nonviolently protesting the segregation of the woolworth's store. they walked in, and they had no idea what they were going to expect. they had no idea what greeting was going to meet them. they sat at the stools, and, of course, here's the problem. according to the segregationist ordinances, black folks are not supposed to come in and sit at the lunch counter. they're supposed to come and give an order and then get whatever they get and leave. usually at a back door. but these kids decided they were going to come and they were going to sit at the lunch counter. they did.

and at first -- and i'll show you how ironic this is. at first, the black counter person -- yes, there were black people working at woolworth's. the black counter person said, look, you guys get out of here. if you don't get out of here, you're going to cost me my job, because the counter person, his responsibility was to serve whites. he understood if they were being served and if he was seen as somehow being involved in this, then he would lose his position. so they said, we're not here to harm you, we're not here to challenge you. we are here for justice, whatever the term was at that time that they used. and they just sat. and they weren't served. and they continued to sit. and they weren't served. and an hour turned into two hours. and finally, one of the people, mccain, said "maybe they can't do --" i'm going to use his direct quote. "maybe they can't do anything to us. maybe we can keep this up."

and they just sat there until woolworth's closed until 5:00 that evening. that's the beginning of the movement. it's as simple as that. they thought they were going to be arrested. the manager thought -- contemplated having them arrested. there were cops that came outside. but nobody moved against them. nobody attempted to arrest them. nobody attempted to attack them at that particular point. at that point, they went back to their dormitory rooms, confident they had actually won a victory. that they had actually gone in, they had protested, they hadn't been served, but they had managed to protest without getting arrested. and so what happens the next day? they bring friends. they bring a lot of friends. okay? and these friends sit. and then for the next couple of days, other friends come. and the protest continues.