Students re-create the lunch counter sit-ins from 1960

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – The most prominent demonstration during the Civil Rights era in Chattanooga was the lunch counter sit-in.

About 30 college and high school students camped out on bar stools at a whites-only counter at the Woolworth store on Market Street to protest segregation.

They were peacefully demanding service, but it became a major event in downtown with arrests, fire hoses and police dogs.

Today, students at Howard re-created that sit-in.

They brought stools into the parking area outside the building where the Woolworth was located on Market Street.

Howard theatre arts instructor Ricardo Morris says the living history display is a great education tool for a new generation.

“We’re here to commemorate the brave students from the 1960 class at Howard high school who came downtown of February 19th, 1960 to sit in and protest inequality in Chattanooga.”

“It’s a great way to teach history to kids as opposed to reading it in books or pictures in movies….that we can do an in depth dive into why we are actually having this history lesson..and have the kids reenact it…sticks in their mind for the rest of their life.”

Here are some historical photos from the 1960 sit-in.

 

Categories: Chattanooga, Featured, Local News

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