INC NEWS - Marker commemorates pioneering Durham sit-in (UPI, WRAL, Herald-Sun, NBC-17, AP, ABC-11, News 14, local blogs, N&O)

[John Schelp]

Memorial Unveiled For Ice Cream Sit In
NBC-17, 23 June 2008 (By Paul Matadeen)

On Monday evening, some Durham members saw the culmination of 50 years of hard work. In 1957, a group of seven young African-American community members staged a sit-in at the Royal Ice Cream parlor off Roxboro Street. The demonstrators demanded equal treatment for all races.

Since that time, community activists have tried to get state recognition for the sit in with a historic marker. At least two times, their requests have failed, but months ago, state officials gave the OK for the marker.

"This is just exciting. It's like I'm on my way to Hollywood or something," said sit-in participant Virginia Williams. 

Monday marked the sit-in's 51st anniversary. The seven young men and women were arrested and charged as a result of their actions. Some say the demonstration set the stage for similar sit-ins, like in Greensboro and across the nation. 

Now, the sit-in has received state-wide recognition after years of asking and being denied.

"It is a legacy, and as we have attempted down through the years to come to this date, we have finally reached what we have been looking for," said local historian R. Kelly Bryant. Bryant has continued to petition for the marker for decades.

"It really does give me a sense that I can leave this world better than I found it," said Virginia Williams.

Some say the marker leaves a sense of accomplishment, that the historic moment is preserved for years to come.

"The legacy is tremendous, but most importantly it can serve as inspiration, but most importantly it recognizes those who put their lives on the line at a very critical point in time," said state senator Floyd McKissick.

Officials say they will put up the marker after construction is finished at the site of the old parlor. A new school is planned for the site.

-> See video... http://www.nbc17. com/midatlantic/ ncn/news. apx.-content- articles- NCN-2008- 06-23-0019. html

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Marker commemorates pioneering Durham sit-in
WRAL-TV, 23 June 2008 

A state historical marker was unveiled Monday night near the site of a Durham restaurant where protesters held a sit-in 51 years ago.

Rev. Douglas Moore, who was 28 at the time, led seven other young blacks into the segregated Royal Ice Cream Parlor on June 23, 1957, demanding to be served in the same way as whites.

"I said we need to as Christians really take this on," Moore said.

Royal Ice Cream, which was on North Roxboro Road, was targeted because it was in the heart of the black community, he said.

"I said, 'Man, if we can't knock this out, we can't go nowhere' because blacks were right there," he said. "I didn't know how wrong I was."

The waitress refused to serve the group, so they refused to leave.

"She said, 'We can't serve you.' I said, 'Why?' I said, 'I've got money. We've got money. What else you need?'" Moore said. "'But you are black,' (she said). I said, 'No, no, no, no, no.' I said, 'We are customers.'"

The protesters were arrested and cited for trespassing and violations of segregation laws.

The Durham action predated the protest by four college students at the Woolworth's lunch counter in downtown Greensboro. That sit-in on Feb. 1, 1960, is credited for helping to launch the civil-rights movement.

"It doesn't bother me because I didn't do it to get (publicity), " Moore said.

Still, he and other activists couldn't convince the state to recognize the historic significance of the Royal Ice Cream sit-in. Twice, they failed to persuade a state panel to approve a marker for the site.

"I just said somebody will find out 100 years from now," he said.

Instead, it took 50 years for the state to issue a historical marker. Three of the eight protesters were present Monday night when the marker was unveiled at Union Baptist Church, which owns the property where Royal Ice Cream once stood.

The new sign will be permanently installed later this year after Union Baptist finishes a school on the site.

"There are a lot of emotions that flood back," he said.

-> See video... http://www.wral. com/news/ state/story/ 3088736/

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Marker unveiled at site of ice cream parlor sit-in
By Lisa Rossi, Herald-Sun, 24 June 2008

They weren't nervous. They weren't afraid. They were just trying to get ice cream. 

That's how Durham resident Virginia Williams described the historic day she and six others participated in the first-ever sit-in at a racially segregated restaurant. 

It was June 23, 1957, at the segregated Royal Ice Cream parlor at 1000 N. Roxboro St. 

Their efforts were hailed Monday when three surviving members of the sit-in seven unveiled an N.C. Highway Historical Marker commemorating the day Williams and the others ordered ice cream and sat in the whites-only dining section of the now-defunct business. 

"It really is a glorious day," Williams said. "I'm very glad I was one of the seven." 

At the time, black patrons were limited to entering through the back of the business. Williams' group -- Williams, Mary Elizabeth Clyburn Hooks, the Rev. Douglas Moore, Vivian Jones, Claude Glenn, Jesse Gray and Melvin Willis -- were refused after sitting down and asking to be served. After refusing to leave, they were arrested and charged with trespassing. They were later found guilty and fined $10 each. 

About 200 people attended Union Baptist Church Monday evening to celebrate the new historical marker, which gives the protesters credit for leading to court case testing of dual racial facilities. 

The case was appealed through the state courts -- unsuccessfully -- and ultimately referred to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it. 

Three of the seven protesters -- including Williams -- helped slide the veil off the historical marker, to the sounds of cheering. 

"It sent a lot of chills through my spine," said Germaine Walker, a Durham resident. 

The new marker will be placed near the former site of the Royal Ice Cream parlor, a brick building at North Roxboro and Dowd streets torn down in 2006, later this year. Nearby Union Baptist Church has plans to build a school on the site of the razed building -- most recently home to a market known as Charlie Dunham's. 

The Royal Ice Cream site became a flashpoint for civil rights protests into the 1960s. 

Several of those who celebrated the new historical marker hailed the recognition of the ice cream protest, which was overshadowed, publicity-wise, by a Feb. 1, 1960, protest in downtown Greensboro, where four black college students sat down at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth's and asked to be served. 

They were refused, and were credited for launching sit-ins across North Carolina and the South as a nonviolent protest against segregation. 

"[The Royal Ice Cream protesters] took the simple act of ordering ice cream and turned it into an outward act of bravery and immense symbolism," said Durham City Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden. 

R. Kelly Bryant, one of the advocates for the historical marker, said requests for such a marker were turned down several times by state officials until advocates filed an application after last year's 50th anniversary of the sit-in. 

Mike Hill, with the N.C. Highway Historical Marker Program, said even though the Royal Ice Cream sit-in was later overshadowed by the Greensboro Woolworth's protest, "both were significant landmarks in the state's civil rights history." 

The historical marker program is co-sponsored by the state Department of Transportation, Hill said. 

Charles Carr, a Durham resident, said the monument honoring the Royal Ice Cream sit-in symbolizes a message of struggle. He also said it celebrates human rights. 

"It makes it worth it in the end," he said. "As hard as the struggle was, it shows the work wasn't in vain." 

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Durham sit-in protesters honored
News 14, 24 June 2008

It's been more than 50 years and now a permanent marker commemorates civil rights history in North Carolina. In 1957, the case of the Royal Ice Cream protestors went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I don't think it's really sinking in yet. It may be awhile," said Virginia Williams. 

It hasn't sunk in for her that a sign is going up to mark her place in American history.

"I never thought this would come," she said.

Williams was only 20 years old in 1957. Police arrested her and six other black people after they refused to leave the white's only section of the Royal Ice Cream Parlor at the corner of Dowd and Roxboro streets in Durham.

"It was a good feeling. We were definitely not frightened," she said at the marker's unveiling at Union Baptist Church in Durham Monday night.

The case of the "Royal Ice Cream Seven" went all the way to the Supreme Court before it was dismissed, but those in Durham at the time say the impact was huge.

"You had the feeling that it was a long time coming, and these people were not only brave, but they had tenacity," said R. Kelly Bryant Jr. He has worked for years to put up the historical marker.

Some in the Bull City have tried for a long time to get a sign to mark the former location of the Royal Ice Cream Parlor. Back in 2002, the state denied the request saying the sit-in wasn't historically significant.

Historically the protest has been overshadowed by the Woolworth's sit-in in Greensboro in 1960.

"The event that took place, they were given credit in Greensboro instead of Durham which happened two years, seven months, and four days after we had ours," Bryant said.

"It's long overdue. it took a lot of courage. It took a lot of conviction. These people were on the forefront before the sit-ins in Greensboro. To see the contribution recognized is absolutely marvalous," said state Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., D-Durham.

"It really does give me thought and a hope that in some small way I leave the world better than I found it," Williams said.

Fifty-one years ago Williams was arrested; now that arrest has been commmemorated. 

The living members of The Royal Ice Cream Seven were at the unveiling. The Royal Ice Cream parlor was torn down in 2006. Union Baptist Church is building a school there. The sign will go up permanently when construction is finished.

-> See video... http://news14. com/content/ headlines/ 596844/durham- sit-in-protester s-honored/ Default.aspx

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Top News: Sit-in protesters commemorated with marker
UPI, 23 June 2008

North Carolina Monday commemorated a 1957 anti-segregation sit-in at a Durham ice cream parlor, officials said.

A historical marker will be placed where the city's Royal Ice Cream parlor once stood, in remembrance of seven blacks who were arrested after they sat in a whites-only area, the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer reported Monday.

The marker -- which reads, "Segregation protest at an ice cream parlor on this site, June 23, 1957, led to court case testing dual racial facilities" -- was to be revealed Monday evening, the newspaper said.

"It just shows that a lot of things have changed in 50 years," said Eddie Davis of Durham, who supported having the marker placed at the site.

The protesters were each fined $25 for trespassing after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear their case. 

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Royal Ice Cream protest commemoration 
http://dependableer ection.blogspot. com, 23 June 2008

>From left - Mr. R. Kelly Bryant, local historian, Mrs. Mary Clyburn Hooks, Ms. Virginia Williams, Rev. Douglas Moore, participants, lower right foreground Mr. William Marsh, attorney.

The Royal Ice Cream parlor sit-in took place on June 23, 1957. Seven young African-Americans in Durham, including the three survivors pictured above, sat at the white table at the shop on the corner of Roxboro and Dowd Streets, and were arrested for violating the segregation laws in effect at the time.

It's taken several years, but the event will now be commemorated with the marker pictured above.

-> See good image of new marker... http://dependableer ection.blogspot. com/2008/ 06/roya-ice- cream-protest- commemoration. html

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Marker at Durham sit-in to be unveiled
Associated Press (ABC-11), June 23, 2008 

A state historical marker is being unveiled near the site of a Durham restaurant where protesters held a sit-in 51 years ago. 

The marker was to be unveiled Monday inside Union Baptist Church. The new sign will be permanently installed on the site of the former Royal Ice Cream Parlor later this year after Union Baptist finishes a school where the parlor once stood.

On June 23, 1957, eight young blacks sat in the parlor's whites-only section. The eight were asked to leave; one protester left and police arrested the other seven when they refused.

The Durham action predated the protest by four college students at the Woolworth's lunch counter in downtown Greensboro. That sit-in on Feb. 1, 1960 is credited for helping to launch the civil-rights movement.

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Historic Durham sit-in marker will make debut 
By Jim Wise, News & Observer, 21 June 2008

A state historic marker commemorating the June 23, 1957, Royal Ice Cream sit-in gets its unveiling Monday at 6 p.m.

Virginia Williams, one of the demonstrators in Durham's first sit-in for civil rights, will do the unveiling, in the Union Baptist Church sanctuary at 904 N. Roxboro St.

Union Baptist owns the site of the now-demolished Royal Ice Cream parlor, the northeast corner of the Roxboro-Dowd St. intersection near downtown. The marker will be permanently erected there after the church's new school building is complete.

The state Highway Historical Marker Advisory Committee approved the marker in December, after repeated requests by Durham residents, in particular R. Kelly Bryant Jr., a retired N.C. Mutual Insurance manager who is an authority on the city's black history.

Fifty-one years ago Monday, six black youngsters and minister Douglas Moore were refused service and arrested for trespass when they took seats in Royal Ice Cream's whites-only section. Their convictions were upheld after appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The Royal Ice Cream demonstration was only the second civil-rights sit-in in North Carolina.

It followed a July 1954 action at Charlotte's Douglas Airport restaurant, and preceded the famed Greensboro Woolworth's sit-in by almost three years.

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Royal Ice Cream historical market unveiling Monday at 6pm
http://www.bullcity rising.com

The campaign to win a state historical marker commemorating the Royal Ice Cream sit-in -- a process that, with two denials and an appeal approved only after a show of deep community and local governmental support -- officially comes to fruition this Monday night, when the roadside sign will be unveiled at Union Baptist Church, 904 N. Roxboro St.

June 23 will mark the 51st anniversary of the sit-in, which triggered a legal battle up to the N.C. Supreme Court and came before similar, and more publicized, actions in Greensboro and other cities throughout the southeast.

Union Baptist now owns the property where the building that once housed Royal Ice Cream sat; in 2006 the church demolished the building that once housed the parlor.

The marker will be unveiled within the church's sanctuary as the culmination of a one-hour program commemorating the sit-in. Virginia Williams, one of the participants in the event, will lead the unveiling of the commemorative roadside sign, which reads "Segregation protest at an ice cream parlor on this site, June 23, 1957, led to court case testing dual racial facilities.”

After the construction is complete for a school the church is building, the sign will be permanently erected at the corner of N. Roxboro and Dowd. The public is invited to Monday night's event.

Online... http://www.bullcity rising.com/ 2008/06/royal- ice-cream. html

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