INC NEWS - Editorial: Recognize Durham sit-in (Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

Editorial: Recognize Durham sit-in
Herald-Sun, 23 Nov 2007

The Durham school board and City Council have adopted
resolutions urging the state's Highway Historic Marker
Committee to reverse itself and honor the participants
of the Royal Ice Cream Parlor sit-in with a historic
marker. We think a marker for this courageous
challenge to racial segregation and Jim Crow law is
long overdue. 

The requests for support were made by local historian
R. Kelly Bryant and Virginia Williams. The latter was
one of six students who joined Rev. Douglas Moore to
launch the June 23, 1957, sit-in believed by many to
be one of the first of its kind in the state. It was
the precursor to the more famous 1960 sit-in at a
Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro that is widely
credited with touching off a historic civil rights
movement in North Carolina. 

Bryant, Williams and others such as Durham educator
Eddie Davis believe the Durham sit-in should have been
commemorated years ago. It's unfortunate the committee
has on at least four occasions dating to 1979 ruled
against a marker to acknowledge the sit-in. According
to Bryant, the committee doesn't think the site -- the
corner of Dowd and North Roxboro streets near where
the Royal Ice Cream Parlor once stood -- has enough
historical significance. 

We respectfully disagree. The young men and women who
staged the sit-in were trailblazers who deserve
recognition for their significant contribution to the
civil rights movement. With 10 to 12 markers being
added to the state's 1,500-plus inventory each year,
it's tough to understand how such an important event
in the state's history doesn't measure up. It's beyond
strange how anyone can deem unimportant or
insignificant the small group's courageous stand for
racial equality. 

"I can remember those days," said school board member
Omega Parker. "It was in the newspapers and we were
all aware of it. Something needs to be done." 

Next month, Bryant and Williams plan to ask County
Commissioners to also adopt a resolution asking the
Historic Marker Committee to approve a marker for
Durham. We hope county officials, as well as
individual citizens and civic groups, join the effort
to bring long overdue recognition to this significant
civil rights event.