Nashville Sit-Ins
This plaque is on the sidewalk outside 233 5th Avenue North, a few blocks up the hill from Ryman Auditorium, the longtime home of the Grand Ol' Opry, and a few block down the hill from the state Capitol, a place I know from Civil War picture books showing Union troops manning a battery there. So now I've used up nearly all my trove of Nashville knowledge in one sentence.
I grew up hearing about Selma and the march to Montgomery; Birmingham and Bull Connor; George Wallace in the schoolhouse door; the Freedom Riders; Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman; Viola Liuzzo; Malcolm X, and through it all, Martin Luther King. But here on a last-morning-in-town stroll, a piece of new history.
The transcription:
Nashville Sit-Ins
Due to the 19 April bombing of Attorney Z. Alexander Looby's home, a diverse crowd of approximately 3,000 to 4,000 people silently marched from Tennessee A&I State University to the courthouse, where Mayor Ben West met them at the steps. After an intense dialogue between Mayor West and student leader, the Rev. C.T. Vivian, Diane Nash stepped forward and asked the mayor if he "recommended that lunch counters be desegregated." The mayor agreed and the next morning the Nashville Tennessean read "'Integrate Counters'--Mayor." On May 10, 1960, Nashville became the first major city to begin desegregating its public facilities when six downtown stores, led by Harvey's and Cain-Sloan, opened their lunch counters to African Americans. The Nashville Student Protest Movement to desegregate public facilities did not end until 1964.
Submitted by: Dan Brekke
@danbrekke