At some 12:40 p.m. on February 13 , 1960 , more than 100 well - dressed college educatee — most of them shameful — appeared at the segregated luncheon counters of a trio of five - and - dime bag store in business district Nashville : Woolworth ’s , McLellans , and Kress . There , they purchase computer menu item , took their buttocks , and spent the afternoon quietly reading or written material .
“ Although gang of white-hot spring chicken gathered in several of the computer storage , there was no ferocity , ” theTennesseanreportedafter the third sit - in on February 20 , 1960 . “ Many of the Negro students did their homework as they sat at the counters . Others read books or magazines . One , John Lewis , a ministerial bookman at American Baptist seminary , worked on a sermon . ”
By that point , the number of participants in Nashville had more than treble , and students across the country were start to stage similar events in their own cities .
“ We ca n’t habituate all the volunteers we have , ” Nashville dissenter Luther HarristoldtheTennesseanat the time . “ Even though we mold in faulting , there just is n’t room for everybody . ”
But as participation and enthusiasm for the Nashville sit - In grew , so too did the tautness with hostile segregationist who come to witness these protest for themselves .
John Lewis’s Rules of Conduct
On the break of day of Saturday , February 27 , 1960 , the protesters were gathered in Reverend Kelly Miller Smith ’s First Baptist Church , cook for that afternoon ’s sit - in , when Reverend Will Campbell showed up to warn them that the constabulary plan to let those tensions in the end churn over . There would be furiousness , he warned , as well as arrests . But the radical was undiscouraged .
“ [ W]e said we had to go , ” Lewisrecalledin a 1981 interview withSouthern Exposure . “ We were afraid , but we feel that we had to bear witnesser . ”
For his part , Lewis was tax with machinate a code of conduct to avail the protesters maintain calmness and First State - intensify peradventure violent situations whenever potential . " Do n’t chance upon back or anathemise back if abused , ” “ Do n’t block ingress to the store and gangway , ” and “ Sit directly and always face the counter ” were among the tips he pop the question his fellow activist [ PDF ] . Lewis also included crucial reminders to “ think the teachings of Jesus Christ , Mohandas K. Gandhi , and Martin Luther King ” and “ Remember love and non - vehemence . ”
Copies of Lewis ’s rules were handed out to participants and winnow out to several memory business district .
Violence Breaks Out
Just because the protestors were n’t looking for fuss did n’t mean those who oppose them were maintaining a similarly peaceful position . That very same afternoon ’s sit - ins devolved into furiousness when a white adult male strike a white dissenter and the Black woman beside him at Woolworth ’s . It did n’t take long for other white-hot spectators to become belligerent .
“ The whites harassed the students , ” theTennesseanreported , “ kick them , spitting on them , call them vulgar figure , and place cigarets [ sic ] out on their backs . ”
The protestors endured the brutality with desperate stolidity , rarely straying from Lewis ’s rule . Police officeholder bet on , but did nothing to help the victims of these vicious attack — and eventually even begin arresting some of them . While every single member of the white mob walk free , approximately 80 sit - in participants were taken to jail .
“ It was the most scandalous thing that ’s fall out in the South since Emmett Till , ” Harris told theTennessean . “ The constabulary just pulled out and leave us unprotected . Something ’s find to be done . The Negro in the South has film a lot but there is just so much he can take . ”
John Lewis was among those who were arrested — a first for the future Congressman , but barely the last . Over the course of his life history as a polite rights activist , Lewis was arrested more than 45 times .
“ We did n’t receive arrest . We did n’t desire to go to jail , ” Lewissaid . “ But it became … a moving spirit . Something just sort of came over us and consume us . And we started singing ‘ We Shall Overcome , ’ and later we started singing ‘ Paul and Silas bound in jail , had no money for their bail … ’ It became a religious experience that take place in clink . ”
Lewis and his fellow protestors were released late that dark , and Nashville Mayor Ben Westagreedto meet with a fusion of Black minister regarding the injustice of the arrests on Monday . Though West ’s openness toward dialogue was a promising sign for the motility , it would be months before he actually start to dismantle sequestration in the metropolis .
A Pivotal March
The Nashville sit - ins carry on into the outflow . Then , after a bomb exploded on the prop of NAACP civic rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby on April 19 , 1960 , grand of protestersmarchedto City Hall . West met them on the front steps , and when Nash ask him if he recommended the desegregation of lunch sideboard , he said yes .
“ That ’s up to the depot managers , of course , what they do , ” Westclarified . “ I ca n’t order a military man how to take to the woods his business . ”
It was n’t exactly a definitive end to segregation at lunch counters , but West ’s public proclamation did help get the ball rolling . In the following weeks , civil rights leaders and local business ownersworkedon a architectural plan to end separatism at six lunch counters in Nashville , including Woolworth ’s , McLellans , Kress , Walgreens , Harveys , and Cain - Sloan . On May 10 — much like they had done at their first sit - in — opprobrious students entered the establishments , purchase their meals , ate undisturbed , and left .
The Beginning of “Good Trouble”
Nashville was the first city to desegregate its lunch counterpunch , and the long month of sit - ins serve as a testament to the efficacy of peaceful protest . Even Martin Luther King , Jr.praisedthe “ thrilling motility of Negro student [ that ] shatter the tranquil open of campuses and communities across the South . ”
For John Lewis , who would come to work closely with King , it was the beginning of a womb-to-tomb commitment to what he so memorablyreferredto as “ getting in good hassle . ”
“ The implicit in philosophy was the whole estimate of redemptive suffering — suffering that in itself might help to redeem the larger society , ” Lewissaidof the sit - ins . “ We speak in terms of our end , our dream , being the beloved community , the receptive society , the smart set that is at peace with itself , where you forget about race and color and see people as human being . We dealt a great deal with the question of the mean and end . If we need to create the beloved residential district , then the method must be those of love and pacification . ”
On Friday , July 17 , 2020 , John Lewis died at the age of 80 following a six - month battle with pancreatic Crab . In addition to being a noted civic rights activist , Lewis — who was one of 10 baby born to sharecrop farmer in rural Troy , Alabama — was a result member of the Democratic company . After being elect to Congress in 1986 , he was reelected 16 times , serving Georgia ’s 5th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 until his death .
