Celebrate Black History and HBCUs’ Contribution
Since its inception, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have always led the way for social change. Many great black leaders have come from HBCUs including, Stokely Carmicheal (Howard University), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Morehouse College), Jesse Jackson (North Carolina A&T), Rosa Parks (Alabama State), and many others. HBCUs played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement, serving as a breeding ground for future leaders and their fight for equality. HBCUs became the base for meetings, rallying centers, and training grounds for non-violent protests. Many important civil rights movement activities took place on or originated at HBCU campuses and this article serves to highlight a few of those revolutionary contributions.
Here are a few HBCUs & their involvement in the Civil Rights Movement!
2Nashville HBCUs – Fisk University, Tennessee State University, Meharry Medical College, and American Baptist College
Before the Greensboro Four sparked a nationwide sit-in movement, students at Nashville’s black colleges including Fisk University, Tennessee A & I State University (Tennessee State University), Meharry Medical College, and American Baptist Theological Seminary (American Baptist College) were being trained by the Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC) to participate in the upcoming movement. In 1959, under the leadership of NCLC and civil rights activist, Rev. James Lawson, the students first tested their non-violent direct action tactic against institutionalized segregation at segregated department stores, Harvey’s and Cain-Sloan’s. Although they were denied service, they did not receive any threats and they left the store quietly to continue planning their next move.
On February 13, 1960, the students launched their first full-scale sit-ins, meeting at the Arcade on Fifth Avenue and North in downtown Nashville and then splitting up to protest three nearby shops. The students were refused service at the S.H. Kress Department Store, Woolworths, and McClellan’s after they occupied the lunch counters for two hours until the owners of the shops closed for business for the day. For the next three months, the students continued the sit-ins, adding Greyhound and Trailways bus terminals, Grant’s variety store, Walgreen’s drugstore, and Cain-Sloan’s and Harvey’s department stores as targets. The protests turned violent on February 27, 1960, when protesters were attacked by angry white citizens. “The whites harassed the students,” the Tennessean reported, “Kicking them, spitting on them, calling them vulgar names, and putting cigarettes [sic] out on their backs.” Among the protesters were civil rights icon John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Bevel, Marion Barry, and others. The Nashville sit-ins marked the first of many times Lewis got into “good trouble” and was arrested for fighting for equal rights. He implemented a code of conduct to help the protesters maintain composure and de-escalate possibly violent situations whenever possible. “Don’t strike back or curse back if abused,” “Don’t block entrances to the stores and aisles,” and “Sit straight and always face the counter” were among the tips he offered his fellow activists. The student protesters endured the blows while police officers looked on and did nothing to help. The officers arrested 81 of the student protesters and charged them with disorderly conduct while every single member of the white mob walked free.
On April 19, 1960, white supremacists bombed the home of Z. Alexander Looby, the Black attorney who represented the students who protested. In response, thousands of protesters marched to City Hall to protest to Mayor Ben West. West met them on the front steps and publicly admitted to Fisk student leader Diane Nash that he felt that segregated lunch counters should come to an end. In the following weeks, civil rights leaders and local business owners worked on a plan to end segregation at six lunch counters in Nashville, including Woolworths, McLellans, Kress, Walgreens, Harveys, and Cain-Sloan. On May 10, 1960, Nashville became the first major city to begin desegregating its public facilities.
