At 12:40 p.m. on February 13, 1960, Black college students sat down at lunch counters in downtown Nashville and asked to be served. They sat in silent protest against the segregation at the city’s lunch counters, but were met with with racial slurs and abuse.
John Lewis, who would go on to become an icon of the civil rights movement and later a U.S. representative, was arrested for the first time at Woolworth and would spend weeks in jail along with dozens of fellow activists. By May, six of the downtown lunch counters began serving Black customers.
These sit-ins marked a turning point in the struggle for racial equality in Nashville, the South and the country at large. In this episode, we hear from three Nashvillians participated in the sit-ins.
But first, Paul Shane Garrett served 10 years in prison for a murder the Nashville District Attorney’s Office later found they had no credible evidence he committed. On Tuesday, the Metro Council approved a $1.2 million settlement with Garrett. Nashville Banner Editor Steve Cavendish stops by the studio to discuss what the settlement means for the city, Nashville police and the DA’s Office.
Guests:
- King Hollands, civil rights activist
- Frankie Henry, civil rights activist
- Professor Gloria McKissack, activist and educator at Tennessee State University
Related reading:
- WPLN: Diane Nash says she shares her Presidential Medal of Freedom with everyone who ‘sacrificed so much for the cause’
- This Is Nashville: Exploring the legacy of Nashville’s Freedom Riders
- This Is Nashville: The Woolworth building is a key civil rights site. Preserving that history has been fraught with uncertainty.
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