http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C_FGc9c9as

James Lawson, a professor and reverend, describes how rewarding it was for him to be a part of the Nashville sit-ins–a nonviolent campaign to end racially segregated lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960. Lawson recalls how his fellow protestors such as John Lewis and Marion Barry came back from their first sit-in “exulting” in their experiences. This made Lawson and others in the civil rights movement no longer afraid of protesting and it strengthened in him this notion: “What is new for us often does frighten. But if we can muster up the will to do the right thing and try it, then the action will confirm within us the essential powers that we need to continue.”

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James Lawson on Gaining Courage from the Nashville Sit-Ins appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk7lb5m_RSg

Civil rights strategist Diane Nash was a chairperson and leader of the campaign to end racially segregated lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee–a campaign now known as the Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960. Nash led a group of young students to sit-in at segregated lunch counters in nonviolent protest. Due to her leadership role, she recalls being targeted by local young white man and she says of that experience: “I just became overcome with fear” but she explains how she did not let the fear stop her from successfully leading the civil rights campaign and the city eventually desegregated its lunch counters.

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Fear Did Not Stop Diane Nash from Leading Nashville Sit-Ins appeared first on Witnify.