[Durham INC] NC Finally Recognizes Pre-Woolworth Sit-Ins In 1957 (Raleigh Telegram, Winston-Salem Journal, Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

NC Finally Recognizes Pre-Woolworth Sit-Ins In 1957
By R. Gregg, Raleigh Telegram, 30 Nov 2009

After 50 years of waiting, last Sunday 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 said it would 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 held on Sunday at the Union Baptist Church at 904 N Roxboro Street. 

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.

The original sit-in in 1957 was 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 on the site. "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... 

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Marker commemorates 1957 sit-in
Winston-Salem Journal (Associated Press), 30 Nov 2009

More than 100 people turned out yesterday to help dedicate a state highway marker commemorating a sit-in held against a segregated ice-cream parlor three years before the famous lunch-counter sit-in at Woolworth's in Greensboro.

The June 23, 1957, sit-in at Royal Ice Cream preceded the 1960 protest in Greensboro, which receives credit for sparking similar actions across the South.

William Chafe, a professor of history at Duke University and the author of Civilities and Civil Rights; Greensboro, North Carolina and the Black Struggle for Freedom, argues that by 1960, "the ground was more ready for this kind of event to trigger a far-reaching movement."

Longtime Durham resident R. Kelly Bryant started the effort to win recognition from the N.C. Highway Historical Marker Program with a January 2000 letter to the state Department of Cultural Resources.

Bryant followed up with unsuccessful requests in 2001 and 2003 before mounting a successful campaign with widespread community support two years ago. The marker was scheduled to be dedicated yesterday afternoon.

"We are very proud of what happened here and very proud of having been designated as one of the historical events in the city of Durham," Bryant said.

The Durham sit-in occurred when the Rev. Douglas Moore led seven men and women into Royal Ice Cream through the back door, the one regularly used by black people. They walked to the front and sat down in booths reserved exclusively for white people.

The group refused requests to leave and was arrested. The seven were convicted of trespassing the next day, and each was fined $10 plus court costs.

The convictions were appealed, in vain, up the chain all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

Mary Elizabeth Clyburn, one of the three living participants in the Royal Ice Cream sit-in, said she remains proud of her role in the Durham sit-in.

"It's extremely important for me that they finally recognized or gave us some credit for getting involved when we did in trying to do something about the terrible conditions that (were) going on then in 1957," said Clyburn, a Newark, N.J., substitute elementary-school teacher who now goes by her married surname of Hooks.

She called the indignities forced upon blacks in Durham in the 1950s "extremely hurtful," citing the segregated seating at the Carolina Theatre and the lack of seating at local eateries for black people.

Eddie Davis, the organizer of the ceremony and a former president of the N.C. Association of Educators, said the significance of the 1957 event goes beyond its being the state's first. He said that's because the legal appeals showed the potential for using courts to promote social change.

"Some people think that even though they were unsuccessful and ... were found guilty along the way and did not have the guilty verdict overturned at any stage, it still raised the national consciousness within civil-rights organizations," Davis said.

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Sit-In Stood Up To Segregation
By Matthew Milliken, Herald-Sun, 30 Nov 2009

The five men and one woman who gathered beside North Roxboro Street Sunday afternoon came from different backgrounds. But they had one thing in common -- a connection to the moment commemorated by Durham's newest state highway historical marker. 

The group included Douglas Moore, the Methodist pastor who led North Carolina's first sit-in; Virginia Williams, who along with Moore is among three known living participants of the sit-in; Billy Marsh, a lawyer who represented Moore, Williams and others arrested for trespassing on the whites-only side of Royal Ice Cream; Ugo Coletta, great nephew of the owners of Royal Ice Cream, the only white person in the group; Charles Dunham, who converted Royal Ice Cream to a restaurant; and R. Kelly Bryant, who unsuccessfully sought recognition for the sit-in until community members helped him. 

Around 150 people gathered on the northeast corner of North Roxboro and Dowd streets as the six individuals assembled beneath the shrouded marker, which stood on a roughly 6.5-foot-high pole. 

Organizer Eddie Davis tried to get everyone to face the same way. 

Bill Bell assisted. "Billy, turn around," Durham's mayor shouted from the crowd. 

Marsh complied. And at 3:41 p.m., at Davis' urging, spectators began counting down from 10. 

At one, some people yelled "Pull!" The group did. The black shroud slid off.

The plaque's silver background glittered in the sun. Its text: "Segregation protest at an ice cream parlor on this site, June 23, 1957, led to court case testing dual racial facilities." 

The event may never assume the prominence of the 1960 Greensboro Woolworth's sit-in, which sparked similar protests around the state and region. But the new plaque may broaden recognition of the 1957 protest. 

As Bryant put it: "We hope the dedication here will last for history." 

Pastor Kenneth Hammond, whose Union Baptist Church owns the land where Royal Ice Cream and Charlie Dunham's once sat -- it is now home to Union Independent School -- gave the invocation. 

"We thank you for those upon whose shoulders we are able to stand and continue the fight for equality, liberty and justice," Hammond said. 

Moore, a former Washington, D.C., city council member, said he had nearly forgotten the sit-in when Davis called to organize a 2007 commemoration. That led to a successful campaign for the highway marker. 

"I was delightfully surprised when the people of Durham began to look at what happened on this site and began to work on something positive," Moore said. 

He said he had been dry-eyed through many funerals, including his mother's and grandmother's, but shed tears Sunday morning. 

Moore urged the crowd to tell their children what the plaque represents. "Now you've said something to the world and this state," he said. "We will not forget those who struggled for us." 

Williams recognized representatives of absent fellow protesters and noted that one protest participant, Jesse Gray, had led the 1963 "rat rent strike" of tenants of vermin-infested Harlem apartments in New York City. 

She praised Davis and Bryant for persuading state officials to devote a plaque to the sit-in. She joked that Bryant had insisted upon having a monument even if he himself had to be propped up on the site. 

Marsh wryly reminisced about being called to the jail to help the protesters, who were never actually handcuffed or put behind bars. 

Upon being told the defendants were students -- although he said they all turned out to hold jobs -- he recalled asking a telephone caller, "Do they have any money?" 

Marsh joked that Moore was a member of the "brokest" group he had ever met. 

"If they'd been served," the attorney said "he couldn't have purchased a glass of water." 

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