On February 25th, 1960, in Montgomery, Alabama, a group of 35 black men and women took part in the first sit-in against segregation in the state.
Comprised mostly of students from Alabama State College, the demonstrators asked to be served at a whites-only snack bar in the Montgomery County Courthouse. When police officers came to respond to the sit-in and force the group out, the students stayed put for about an hour.
And while they eventually left the building without getting arrested, the protest didn’t sit well with Alabama’s segregationist governor, John Patterson. Patterson reached out to the school’s president and pressured him to punish the student demonstrators. Nine were expelled and the other participating students were also penalized. It took the state of Alabama until 2018 to apologize and clear those punishments from the former students' records.
Joining The Takeaway to discuss the legacy of this sit-in, 60 years later is St. John Dixon. St. John took part in the sit-in, and was expelled by the university.
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