The Atlanta Student Movement
1960-1965
side 1
In early February 1960, Morehouse College students Lonnie King, Julian Bond, Joseph Pierce and other students met here at the site of the former Yates & Milton drugstore - and informal gathering place for students of the Atlanta University Center. Inspired by a student sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, the three young men laid the groundwork for what would become a seminal phase in the Civil Rights Movement. The Atlanta University Center, comprised of six historically black institutions of higher learning - Atlanta University, Clark College, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College - was philosophically committed to the principles of nonviolent disobedience is taught by Gandhi and M. L. King Jr. Students conducted marches, picketing, and sit-ins that resulted in the desegregation of public and private facilities which had denied service or access to people of color. These included restaurants, businesses, schools, housing and hospitals. Thanks to the Atlanta student movement, the city began to live up to its Slocum, “A City too busy to hate.”
side 2
Those willing to take an oath of non-violence were recruited to conduct fourteen sit-ins at local lunch counters, including the Magnolia room of Riches Department Store where they were joined by Martin Luther King, Jr. The students also conducted sit-ins in the segregated cafeterias of the Georgia State Capital, Fulton County, City of Atlanta and several local restaurants which denied service or provided separate service to people of color. The actions of the Atlanta University Center students led to the desegregation of Atlanta’s businesses, schools, housing and healthcare facilities and eating establishments.
the Atlanta student movement
Linda Arnold • Hon. Carolyn Long Banks • Charles A Black
Wilma Long Blanding • Athena Boone • Hon. Brenda Hill Cole
Dr. Herschel Sullivan Challenor • Constance Curry • Dr. Riggins R. Earl
Samuel Jolley • Lonnie King • Valerie Levy • Dr. Rosalynn Pope
Hon. Leidy Watkins • Dr. Mary Ann Wilson-Booker
Presented by Councilman Michael Julian Bond, post one at-large
and city of Atlanta Kasim Reed, Mayor
MMXIV
Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.
Original page, with additional info, here.
Photo credit: Todd Massar.