[Durham INC] NC Finally Recognizes Pre-Woolworth Sit-Ins In 1957 (Greensboro Telegram, 01/19/09)

[John Schelp]

NC Finally Recognizes Pre-Woolworth Sit-Ins In 1957
Greensboro Telegram, 19 Jan 2009

DURHAM, NC - After 50 years of waiting, last summer the State of North Carolina finally officially recognized a major civil rights event and put up a historical marker at the site of the 1957 Royal Ice Cream sit-in in Durham, North Carolina. The peaceful protest at the ice cream shop took place three years before the Woolworth sit-ins in Greensboro, which received much more attention in the press. 

However, the Durham protest did test the legality of segregated facilities in court after seven people were arrested, and helped pave the way for other peaceful organized civil rights demonstrations across the South. 

Last June, the State of North Carolina put up a historical marker next to the former location of the Royal Ice Cream Shop in Durham. The state had refused a previous request in 2002, saying the site was not historically significant.

However, after years of efforts by Durham organizers to have the event recognized by the state, the marker unveiling event was finally held last summer at the Union Baptist Church at 904 N Roxboro Street on Monday, June 23, 2008.

Although the ice cream building was torn down and is now the site of the church, the sign will be present to let passersby know of the historic event that occurred on June 23, 1957.

The State Historical Marker website says that the sit-in took place three years before the famous Greensboro Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in in 1960.

Organized by Reverend Douglas Moore, pastor of the Asbury Temple Methodist Church in Durham, seven protesters in total assembled at the church before going to the ice cream shop.

Like many restaurants of the era, the Royal Ice Cream Company had separate entrances and eating areas for white and black patrons. The doorway on the Dowd Street side in Durham had a "White Only" sign and, on Roxboro Street, a sign was marked "Colored Only" says the state archives. 

According to the Durham County Library, which has a special website on civil rights in Durham, the protesters were excited but not fearful.

"It was exciting, because we went where we dared not to go," said Virginia Williams, one of the protesters. "I wasn't frightened or anything of that sort because either way, we could have made history. If he had served us ice cream, he would have made history. But, by refusing to, I guess we made history!" 

The manager of the ice cream store refused to serve the young sit-in participants and they were arrested on trespassing charges by police. 

Court documents show that on June 24th, all of the participants were found guilty by a judge on trespassing charges and were fined $10 each plus court costs. They appealed to Superior Court, but lost there as well when an all-white jury rendered a guilty verdict. 

The case was appealed all the way to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which upheld the convictions and thereby continued to allow segregated public facilities.

The state historical marker site says that the case was later appealed to the US Supreme Court. The high court refused to hear the case, and on July 15, 1958, the seven protesters paid fines totaling $433.25.

Although the outcome in this case did not result in a legal victory, court cases that challenged segregated facilities across the South, including the Brown Vs. Board of Education case in 1954, continued to chip away at the discriminatory "separate but equal" doctrine.

And the challenges to the doctrine outside of the courtroom, including the Royal Ice Cream and Woolworth sit-ins, helped to bring attention to the unfairness of the practice and to hasten its demise as growing numbers of civil rights protests took place across the South.

Despite its importance, the Royal Ice Cream sit-in did not receive as much attention as the Woolworth sit-in in Greensboro, partially due to treatment of the case by local newspapers.

Although African American newspapers such as The Carolinian of Raleigh put the arrests on the front page, some mainstream newspapers such as the News & Observer downplayed the case.

"Newspaper coverage in the Durham-Raleigh area was mixed," says the essay accompanying the marker on the state historical marker site. "The Durham papers printed the story on the front-page the next day but it was buried inside the Raleigh News and Observer."

According to the Bull City Rising blog in Durham, the push for the marker came about as many citizens rallied to get the state to recognize the event. So far, only three historical markers have been put in place in the state to recognize the Civil Rights movement.

The Bull City Rising site said that 50 years after the event, Reverend Douglas Moore spoke in September of 2007 to a group of citizens at the library near the site to remember the event. They also sang a Durham version of the song "We Shall Overcome" which includes the line "Remember the Royal Seven."

Although the Royal Ice Cream sit-in did not successfully change the law, their actions helped pave the way for similar sit-ins across the state, including the more famous Woolworth event in Greensboro. 

When students from North Carolina A&T University refused to give up their seats at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960, the case received a large amount of media attention, helping to keep the Civil Rights issue in the forefront of the nation and also spurring other similar protests in states across the country.

According to National Public Radio, on the first day of the sit-ins on February 1st, there were four students at the Woolworth's in Greensboro. The next day there were 28 students and on the third day, around 300 people assembled there, and on subsequent days, almost a thousand people showed up to protest at the "whites only" lunch counter in the store.

Although Woolworth's has long closed its doors in downtown Greensboro, the building is still there on Elm Street and plans are in the works to turn the building into a museum with ties to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. 

The Greensboro Historical Museum in downtown Greensboro has a portion of the actual lunch counter where students Ezell A. Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, and David Richmond sat as well as newspaper articles from the era and other items on display.

source: http://greensboro3.com/