Read Online Double Victory by Cheryl Mullenbach - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Cheryl Mullenbach
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âIâll lose money, but Iâd rather close up than practice democracy this way.â
The students remained outside the restaurant and formed a picket line. When customers tried to enter the restaurant, the students explained the situation. Some white customers expressed support for the studentsâ actions.
âI think itâs reasonable. Negroes are fighting to win this war for democracy just like the whites. If it had to come to a vote, it would get my vote!â one white customer said.
Another said, âWell now, isnât that something! I eat here regularly, and I donât care who else eats here. All I want is to eat. I want the place to stay open. After all, weâre all human.â
On the following Monday, the students again set up their picket line in front of the restaurant. Within two days, the restaurant owner had given in and changed his policy. No more âwhites onlyâ at this restaurant.
A year later the Howard students decided to try to integrate the heart of Washington, DC. They went to a restaurant near the White House. On a Saturday afternoon in 1944, groups of two or three students dressed in their best clothes entered the restaurant. Every ten minutes more black students strolled into the restaurant.
Outside a picket line of black students formed as well. They were well dressed and well behaved. Even when a group of white soldiers taunted the picketers, they refused to react. They remembered the training theyâd had. They were quiet and dignified.
Meanwhile, 55 black students had taken seats inside. The manager called the corporate office of the establishment and reported that the restaurant was filling with black customers. The manager was ordered to serve the students.
In Chicago, Bernice Fisher, Rita Baham, Gladys Hoover, Shirley Walowitz, Sylvia Barger, Eleanor Wrights, and Priscilla Jackson, members of a student group at the University of Chicago, had also sworn themselves to the elimination of discrimination by means of nonviolent action.
The women and some of their male classmates formed a group of about 20 students intent on integrating a South Side restaurant in May 1943. The restaurant had always discriminated against black customers. The groupâconsisting of black and white studentsâentered the restaurant and seated themselves. Five of the group were blackâthree men and two women.
The three men went up to the counter. The two black women sat in a booth with some of the white students. The waitress told the three men at the counter that they could be served in the basementâwhere blacks had been served in the past. They declined. They preferred to sit upstairs at the counter.
The manager tried to get the black women to move to a booth in the back of the restaurant. When they refused to move, the manager called the police. The police arrived but said no one was breaking the law.
With all the tables occupied and the seats at the counter taken by the protestors, the manager and waiters held out. They wouldnât serve any black people. But the protestors werenât going anywhere. They sat and sat. Finally, after two hours, the manager gave in. Everyone was served.
The students were surprised but happy. They had lined up enough students to take turns coming into the restaurant ingroups of 20. But the first group achieved resultsâso the second and third groups werenât needed.
When Hattie Duvall participated in the movement in St. Louis she joined other black professional women and college students who had learned from the protestors in Washington and Chicago. The St. Louis group also stood up to discrimination with âstubborn and nonviolent resistanceâ in the form of a series of sit-ins that summer. Sometimes men joined the women. And sometimes white people joined. But it was a core group of black women who planned, organized, and led the effort. Marie Harding Pace, Thelma Grant, Modestine Crute Thornton,
The students remained outside the restaurant and formed a picket line. When customers tried to enter the restaurant, the students explained the situation. Some white customers expressed support for the studentsâ actions.
âI think itâs reasonable. Negroes are fighting to win this war for democracy just like the whites. If it had to come to a vote, it would get my vote!â one white customer said.
Another said, âWell now, isnât that something! I eat here regularly, and I donât care who else eats here. All I want is to eat. I want the place to stay open. After all, weâre all human.â
On the following Monday, the students again set up their picket line in front of the restaurant. Within two days, the restaurant owner had given in and changed his policy. No more âwhites onlyâ at this restaurant.
A year later the Howard students decided to try to integrate the heart of Washington, DC. They went to a restaurant near the White House. On a Saturday afternoon in 1944, groups of two or three students dressed in their best clothes entered the restaurant. Every ten minutes more black students strolled into the restaurant.
Outside a picket line of black students formed as well. They were well dressed and well behaved. Even when a group of white soldiers taunted the picketers, they refused to react. They remembered the training theyâd had. They were quiet and dignified.
Meanwhile, 55 black students had taken seats inside. The manager called the corporate office of the establishment and reported that the restaurant was filling with black customers. The manager was ordered to serve the students.
In Chicago, Bernice Fisher, Rita Baham, Gladys Hoover, Shirley Walowitz, Sylvia Barger, Eleanor Wrights, and Priscilla Jackson, members of a student group at the University of Chicago, had also sworn themselves to the elimination of discrimination by means of nonviolent action.
The women and some of their male classmates formed a group of about 20 students intent on integrating a South Side restaurant in May 1943. The restaurant had always discriminated against black customers. The groupâconsisting of black and white studentsâentered the restaurant and seated themselves. Five of the group were blackâthree men and two women.
The three men went up to the counter. The two black women sat in a booth with some of the white students. The waitress told the three men at the counter that they could be served in the basementâwhere blacks had been served in the past. They declined. They preferred to sit upstairs at the counter.
The manager tried to get the black women to move to a booth in the back of the restaurant. When they refused to move, the manager called the police. The police arrived but said no one was breaking the law.
With all the tables occupied and the seats at the counter taken by the protestors, the manager and waiters held out. They wouldnât serve any black people. But the protestors werenât going anywhere. They sat and sat. Finally, after two hours, the manager gave in. Everyone was served.
The students were surprised but happy. They had lined up enough students to take turns coming into the restaurant ingroups of 20. But the first group achieved resultsâso the second and third groups werenât needed.
When Hattie Duvall participated in the movement in St. Louis she joined other black professional women and college students who had learned from the protestors in Washington and Chicago. The St. Louis group also stood up to discrimination with âstubborn and nonviolent resistanceâ in the form of a series of sit-ins that summer. Sometimes men joined the women. And sometimes white people joined. But it was a core group of black women who planned, organized, and led the effort. Marie Harding Pace, Thelma Grant, Modestine Crute Thornton,
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