They just wanted to sit and eat in the same cafeteria as white people in the early 1960s, and they ended up going down in history. Four black students from Greensboro, North Carolina, defied the racial segregation of the time and, one day, decided that they would no longer accept standing up to buy their snacks, in a hurry, while only white people could eat quietly sitting in the chairs. from the cafeteria counter. David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell A. Blair, Jr. and Joseph McNeil are honored to this day in the city.
“Coffee, please,” said one of them. “We don’t serve Creoles,” the waitress replied. “They started going every day to sit in the cafeteria. At first, they were not answered. People (white) were disgusted, but others were supportive. They had a lot of courage and several groups joined”, explains the guide.
The attitude caught the attention of the press and ended up serving as an inspiration for other black students who also just wanted to sit in the cafeteria. According to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, at least 75,000 students were involved in these protests in several states in the American South, at a time obviously without social media. More than 3,000 were detained.
What they claimed was the right of access. No more, no less. During the protests, many black students spent the afternoon sitting reading books in their hands, while being harassed. The exact balcony where it all started, with “the Greensboro four”, as they became known, is on display at the city museum. No photographic records are allowed, which ends up making visitors more focused on following what the guides explain.
Several iconic stories can be found at the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, such as Rosa Parks. In 1955, she refused to get up from her chair to make room for white people on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Segregation in public transport was legally permitted. Parks was sitting in the “colored” aisle, as black people were identified. Noticing that the bus was filling with white people, according to museum records, the driver changed the classification to “white” to prevent them from standing. Other blacks stood up but Parks didn’t. The police arrested her, which ended up giving a lot of attention to the case.
Anti-racist movements called for a boycott of buses that lasted more than 300 days. More than 40,000 blacks stopped using city buses. In 1956, the US Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional.
Religious leaders and activists, such as the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., gained much notoriety at this time. Churches and temples were houses of prayer and were also where many blacks learned to demonstrate peacefully.
Even within a context in which blacks had no right, even to the most basic, Bibles were used for notes on black marriages, birth dates of children, since they also did not have access to official records.
The museum visit continues with panels that tell the story of black people who lost their lives in cruel murders. History tells episodes of segregation but also shows that blacks fought for equality.
* Basília Rodrigues traveled at the invitation of the US Embassy in Brazil
Source: CNN Brasil
