Editor’s Note—In 1960, downtown’s Church Street was home to department stores where both blacks and whites shopped, but where only the whites were allowed to eat at the lunch counters. The same injustice, as is well known, played out all over the South. But Nashville was also home to several young college students who would go on to become inspired leaders of the civil rights movement. Those two facts intersected and gave birth to Nashville’s sit-ins, a movement of nonviolent protest aimed at desegregating the city’s lunch counters. Rev. James Lawson harnessed the moral outrage of a small group of future leaders, and began teaching workshops based on Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful protest techniques. In the end, Nashville became an important focal point for a movement that eventually earned equal rights for an entire race of people.
To mark the 44th anniversary of Nashville’s sit-ins, Lawson is reuniting Feb. 14 and 15 with those student leaders—Rev. James Bevel, Bernard Lafayette Jr., Congressman John Lewis, Diane Nash and Rev. C.T. Vivian—to hold a weekend of programs and to dedicate the Nashville Public Library’s Civil Rights Room. Workshops and panels with these important leaders will be open to the public. (Call 862-5782 for more information.) And a gallery of archived Nashville Banner photographs documenting the Nashville sit-ins, now owned by the Nashville Public Library, will be on display. Following is a photo essay that includes some of those dramatic images, many of which were never previously published.
Editor’s Note—In 1960, downtown’s Church Street was home to department stores where both blacks and whites shopped, but where only the whites were allowed to eat at the lunch counters. The same injustice, as is well known, played out all over the South. But Nashville was also home to several young college students who would go on to become inspired leaders of the civil rights movement. Those two facts intersected and gave birth to Nashville’s sit-ins, a movement of nonviolent protest aimed at desegregating the city’s lunch counters. Rev. James Lawson harnessed the moral outrage of a small group of future leaders, and began teaching workshops based on Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful protest techniques. In the end, Nashville became an important focal point for a movement that eventually earned equal rights for an entire race of people.
LUNCH COUNTER SIT-IN
The first organized sit-in demonstration in Nashville, at Woolworth’s on Feb. 13, 1960. Three months earlier, James Lawson started his workshops based on the Gandhian techniques of nonviolent protest to prepare a small group of college students to challenge segregation at the city’s downtown lunch counters, the first step in an attempt to desegragate all of Nashville’s businesses. Lawson’s workshops, held at the First Baptist Church Capitol Hill, soon attracted hundreds, and the Nashville movement later attracted thousands of participants. Photo: Bill Goodman / Nashville Banner archives
The first organized sit-in demonstration in Nashville, at Woolworth’s on Feb. 13, 1960. Three months earlier, James Lawson started his workshops based on the Gandhian techniques of nonviolent protest to prepare a small group of college students to challenge segregation at the city’s downtown lunch counters, the first step in an attempt to desegragate all of Nashville’s businesses. Lawson’s workshops, held at the First Baptist Church Capitol Hill, soon attracted hundreds, and the Nashville movement later attracted thousands of participants. Photo: Bill Goodman / Nashville Banner archives
LAFAYETTE ARRESTED
Bernard Lafayette Jr., one of the leaders of the Nashville sit-ins and co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), is shown being arrested after a sit-in demonstration in March 1960. Lafayette has been a civil rights movement activist, minister, educator and lecturer, and is an authority on the strategy of nonviolent social change. He attended American Baptist College during the time of the sit-ins, and later served as its president. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
BIG SATURDAY
BIG SATURDAY
Agitators attack a sit-in demonstrator on Feb. 27, 1960, a day that James Lawson dubbed “Big Saturday” because it was the first day of major confrontations during the Nashville sit-ins. That day, 81 demonstrators were arrested for “disturbing the peace,” while no agitators were arrested. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
John Lewis’ leadership during the Nashville sit-ins established him as one of the most defining figures of the civil rights movement. He helped plan and participated in the Freedom Rides and the march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, which led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
LEWIS WITH POLICE
John Lewis’ leadership during the Nashville sit-ins established him as one of the most defining figures of the civil rights movement. He helped plan and participated in the Freedom Rides and the march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, which led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In 1963, Lewis was unanimously elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and that same year was a keynote speaker during the March on Washington. A student at American Baptist College during the Nashville sit-ins, Lewis today serves in the U.S. Congress as a representative of Georgia.
Photo: Jack Gunter / Nashville Banner archives
Bevel quickly became a leader during the sit-ins and went on to play an instrumental role in the civil rights movement. Bevel also is credited with the idea for the 1963 March on Washington, at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
BEVEL AT SIT-IN
James Bevel (second from right wearing a long overcoat), who was a student at American Baptist College during the Nashville sit-ins, gathers with other activists at a Nashville bus station to protest segregation at the station’s restaurant in 1960.
Bevel quickly became a leader during the sit-ins and went on to play an instrumental role in the civil rights movement. Bevel also is credited with the idea for the 1963 March on Washington, at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
LAWSON ARRESTED
LAWSON AT FIRST BAPTIST
Rev. James Lawson, who has been called “the teacher of the civil rights movement,” pictured during a strategy meeting at First Baptist Church Capitol Hill on March 4, 1960, just moments before his arrest for his leadership role in the sit-ins.
Lawson, the second African American to be accepted at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, was expelled from the school for his involvement in the Nashville movement. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
AT THE COURTHOUSE
LAWSON ARRESTED
James Lawson is taken by police from the First Baptist Church Capitol Hill meeting and arrested. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
“WE SHALL OVERCOME”
MARCH TO THE COURTHOUSE
(Front row, beginning at far left): Rev. C.T. Vivian, Diane Nash and Bernard Lafayette lead a silent march of nearly 4,000 people to the courthouse for a meeting with Mayor Ben West shortly after prominent Nashville attorney and councilman Z. Alexander Looby’s home was bombed in the early morning of April 19, 1960. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
For more than 30 years, Guy and his wife Candie, who participated in the Nashville sit-ins while attending Fisk University, have been avid collectors of freedom songs and prolific publishers of books and recordings that document the music of social change.
AT THE COURTHOUSE
Mayor Ben West (second from left wearing bow tie), meets with Rev. C.T. Vivian (to West’s immediate left), and Diane Nash after demonstrators arrived at the courthouse plaza following the bombing of Looby’s house.
During that confrontation, Nash asked the mayor, “Do you feel it is wrong to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of their race or color?,” to which Mayor West replied “Yes.” Just a few weeks later, on May 10, 1960, six Nashville lunch counters began serving African Americans. Several others simply closed, rather than dealing with the issue of integration. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
During the program, King said “I came to Nashville not to bring inspiration, but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community.? Photo: Jack Gunter / Nashville Banner archives
“WE SHALL OVERCOME”
Guy Carawan, with guitar, introduced the song “We Shall Overcome” to Nashville demonstrators as they gathered in front of the courthouse to confront Mayor West on April 19, 1960. “We Shall Overcome,” originally a Southern church song titled “I’ll Overcome Someday,” later became the anthem for the civil rights movement throughout the South.
Guy Carawan was teaching in East Tennessee at the Highlander Folk School, a teaching center for social change, at the time of the student sit-ins in Nashville. Many who were active in the civil rights movement attended workshops at Highlander, including Alabama seamstress Rosa Parks, who attended Highlander workshops shortly before her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in 1955.
For more than 30 years, Guy and his wife Candie, who participated in the Nashville sit-ins while attending Fisk University, have been avid collectors of freedom songs and prolific publishers of books and recordings that document the music of social change.
The Carawans will close the Main Library’s Feb. 15 dedication program and panel discussion with music from the movement. Photo: Vic Cooley / Nashville Banner archives
The photographs documenting the Nashville sit-ins are from the Nashville Banner archives, property of the Nashville Public Library.
Martin Luther King Jr., who said that the Nashville movement was “the best organized and most disciplined in the Southland,” spoke during a program at Fisk University on April 20, 1960.
During the program, King said “I came to Nashville not to bring inspiration, but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community.? Photo: Jack Gunter / Nashville Banner archives
COURTHOUSE PLAZA
The leaders of the sit-ins, supported by demonstrators who marched in silence to the courthouse plaza following the bombing of Looby’s home, gather at the courthouse steps to confront Mayor West on the issue of segregation in his city.
The bombing of Looby’s home was a galvanizing event for the community and the movement. Photo: Don Foster / Nashville Banner archives
The historic confrontation between Diane Nash and Mayor West, who at that meeting agreed publicly for the first time that it was wrong to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of their race or color, came two months after the start of the sit-ins.
The photographs documenting the Nashville sit-ins are from the Nashville Banner archives, property of the Nashville Public Library.
