Читать книгу Freedom Facts and Firsts - Jessie Carney Smith - Страница 121

Bennett College for Women was founded in 1873. The Freedmen’s Aid Society took over the coeducational school in 1874, and oversaw its growth for 50 years. After a group of emancipated slaves acquired the present site in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1878, the Women’s Home Missionary Board of Education of the Methodist Church oversaw its transition to a college for women. When four students at nearby Agricultural and Technical State University (A&T) sat at the “whites only” lunch counters in Greensboro on February 1, 1960, the student sit-in movement was born. Although public acknowledgement has gone to the young men, what is often unmentioned is the major contributions of Bennett College’s administrators, faculty, and students. According to author Linda Brown, “One of Bennett College’s finest hours was the historical moment of the Civil Rights Movement.” It was characterized by three years of intense social activism for Bennett and others involved. Their students joined others from A&T, three other colleges, as well as all-black Dudley High School and sought desegregation of lunch counters at S.H. Kress, F.W. Woolworth’s, and the tea room at Meyer’s department store. The demonstration increased and members of Greensboro’s establishments were unsuccessful in persuading Bennett’s president, Willa B. Player, to stop student participation. She also was the first person to return her credit card to Meyer’s department store when it refused to desegregate its dining room. Bennett’s students regularly attended organizational meetings at various sites, including their own campus. Player maintained close contact with organizers and gave them advice. These students, along with other protesters, were arrested during the sit-ins. At the apex of the struggle, about 40 percent of Bennett’s student body was jailed and the college’s participants numbered more than half of the total students from other colleges. In 1963 Player visited the students in the makeshift jail and later saw that they received toiletry supplies and class assignments so that their education would continue. She also ensured faculty protesters that their jobs were secure.

Although public acknowledgement has gone to the [A&T students] …, what is often unmentioned is the major contributions of Bennett College’s administrators, faculty, and students.

Jessie Carney Smith