Woolworth Sit-In

Beginning on February 29, 1960, F.W. Woolworth's variety store lunch counter at 801 North Franklin Street became the scene of a pivotal peaceful sit-in led by Clarence Fort, president of the N.A.A.C.P. Youth Council, and Reverend A. Leon Lowry, N.A.A.C.P. state president, with about 40 students from George S. Middleton and Howard W. Blake High Schools. Tampa Mayor Julian B. Lane assigned police to escort the young protestors, and after about a week he agreed to appoint a Bi-Racial Committee to look into the demonstrators' complaints. By September, Tampa's lunch counters were integrated without the violence seen in many other parts of the country. Participants on February 29, 1960, included George S. Middleton High School students George Edgecomb, president of Student Council, Alberta Gaskins, Arnold Dubose, Arthenia Joyner, Barbara Wright, Carl Warren, Doris Cross, Eloise Gordon, Inez Anderson, Jacqueline McKinney Preston, James "Jim" Hargrett, Jr., Joy Lawe Armstrong, Nelson Griffith, Pearl Higdon Urshery, Tereceia Vann, and Theodore Lawe, and Howard W. Blake High School students Shafter Scott, president of Student Council, Bernard Clark, Bernard Flowers, Betty Austin, Carmen Grinan, Eddie McIntosh, Evelyn Alexander, Flerida Gonzalez, Henry Carley, Hildreth Fleming, John Billups, Leroy Long, Mary Franklin, Ronald Cherry, Wilbert Malphus, and William Wood.

Tampa, Florida · United States