They tried to eat at a whites-only lunch counter in 1961. They were sentenced to a chain gang.

[Behind the Aegis]

USA TODAY’s “Seven Days of 1961” explores how sustained acts of resistance can bring about sweeping change. Throughout 1961, activists risked their lives to fight for voting rights and the integration of schools, businesses, public transit and libraries. Decades later, their work continues to shape debates over voting access, police brutality and equal rights for all.

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Mack Workman’s hands went numb. He held his breath. Fear gripped his chest.

In front of him stood a dozen police officers.

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Workman, then 18, hadn’t told his parents what he was doing that day. That he and his friends had plans to break the law at one of the most popular restaurants in Rock Hill, South Carolina. That they would sit at the department store lunch counter reserved for white people and would not have their humanity refused.

“I was afraid,” Workman said. “I had never done anything like this before.”

The police chief approached the group of Black young men and women standing in the street.

more...

The article is long, but quite interesting and good. However, do NOT read the comments unless you are a masochist, need to taste your own bile, depress yourself, or need a dose of anti-Semitism (say what?!). It is amazing how history is a "trigger" for a certain type of snowflake.

[Hoyt]

1. Applaud these brave young people.

[struggle4progress]

2. Hold on!

[struggle4progress]

3. Eyes on the prize

[BlueLucy]

4. I read the comments.

I don't understand their mindset at all. I actually can not believe there really are people like them. It's shocking to me.

[leftstreet]

5. DURec

[jaxexpat]

6. Certainly it was a slow realization.

Many white people of the US in the early sixties were busy raising adolescent children they'd generated in the post war frenzy toward normalization. Nearly every white person was reaping the material rewards that a booming economy had to offer. Surely there were activists, many white, and supporters and political allies that were pushing for universal integration. But they were a nearly invisible minority. It required the civil disobedience of young black men and women, at often great personal sacrifice, to gain the attention of the media of that day. Media, especially with the newly available TV nightly news, was the only way the hearts and minds of a few more voters across the nation could be informed, swayed to demand that the authorities who abused minorities exercising universal civil rights would cease. A few more, just enough to provide Johnson, a few years later, support in congress to enact civil rights legislation. Still, the great majority of Americans did not appreciate the degree of unjust punishment these "protesters" (as they were called) knowingly faced. Nor could they appreciate the fortitude expressed by these young people who faced the consequences, fully knowing the brutality of their oppressor's LEO.

And so it goes. Ever wonder why "Vikings" are so popular in contemporary entertainment? Just asking.

[Demovictory9]

7. posting this here as a reminder of the awful Larry Elder...in case he raises his stupid head again

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