Greensboro, NC

During our stop at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, I personally did not know what to expect as I entered. I remembered I was both in awe and overwhelmed when the tour guide had alerted the group that the very ground, we were stepping on was the original site of the Woolworth sit-ins in Greensboro, NC. The feelings that rushed through me when seeing the counters and the seats where David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, and Joseph McNeil had sat down to initiate the sit-ins was something beyond words could explain. These gentlemen were seventeen and eighteen years of age and had the bravery and perseverance to conduct non-violent protests in order to protect and assert their guaranteed liberties as citizens of this country. They’re ambition and willpower allowed for the Woolworth restaurant and another restaurant in the same town owned by the same owner to be desegregated and allowed both colored and white people to sit and be served meals at the counter.

As I was reading through the various informational posters throughout the museum, I was shocked to see that many of the protesters were around my age and many even younger. This highlighted the fact that the younger generations were the catalysts that sparked much of the Civil Rights Movement. A story that really left me heart-broken was the murder of Emmett Till. He was a fourteen-year-old boy who was murdered because he allegedly whistled at a white woman. The torture the poor child was put through was so dehumanizing, and unfortunately, he was not the only child who was a victim of this terror. I personally didn’t realize how much influence the younger generations had on the Civil Rights Movement, and how they dedicated their lives to fight for their freedom. It was truly honorary to hear the stories of these heroes and how regardless of age, each individual had a significant impact in the fight to achieve equality and justice.

Hannah Kuruvilla

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