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Sit-ins revisited Civil rights eventl has 25th anniversary — D1i Greensboro News & Record U Robert D. Benson, President and Publisher Ben Bowers, Executive Editor Ned Cline, Managing Editor John R. Alexander, Editorial Page Editor Friday, February 1,1985 A10 Editorials Remembering sit-ins They were four black teenagers who were scared to death that cold February day in 1960 when they sat down at the whites-only lunch counter at Wool- worth's. Little did the A&T students know they were igniting a revolution. But as the days and weeks wore on, their brave gesture at Greensboro's downtown Woolworth's was followed by sit- ins throughout the South. The long and forbidding reign of Jim Crow in Dixie was being challenged and would ultimately collapse. The initial Greensboro sit-in occurred 25 years ago today. We celebrate the occasion with mixed feelings. We are proud that Greensboro, however reluctantly, served as the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement. With its five college and university campuses, its reputation for racial moderation and its willingness to accept, if not embrace, change, Greensboro was a logical setting for this historic event. That it occurred peacefully, without the strong and sometimes violent resistance experienced in other states, is to the community's credit, But we also harbor a haunting feeling of disbelief that this city and the South were once pock-marked with ugly signs reading "Colored Only" or "Whites Only." Why did we accept it all so unthinkingly? That's the question our children sometimes ask when we tell them about that grim world of segregation. They don't understand. In retrospect, neither do we. The question is not so much why did the sit-ins occur here, but why did they not occur earlier, either here or in some other segregated city? We tend to pat ourselves on the back nowadays and say how far we have come. But how far we have not come is another feeling that surrounds our thoughts about the anniversary. Yes, we have desegregated schools, restaurants, buses, hotels and other places of public accommodation. But no, we do not have a truly color-blind society. There is still racial discrimination out there, though it masquerades irij subtle disguises. There is also the world of the have-l nots, and they are often black people. I The unemployment lines and statistics show a high percentage of minorities I living on the downside of economic! prosperity. Is this the result of discrimination or other causes? We don't know. But we do know that these people haven't come so far after all. And while Greensboro's new district I system for electing City Council members has brought more minorities into the political arena, their numbers are still small in proportion to the city's black population. The same goes for some government agencies such as the | police department, where there are 334 white employees but only 49 blacks. So let's not be too smug about ourl city and region as we commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sit-ins. Satisfaction should set in when we no longer feel the gnawing need to review racial progress. Only then will we have finally arrived at the racial millennium.
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Full text | Sit-ins revisited Civil rights eventl has 25th anniversary — D1i Greensboro News & Record U Robert D. Benson, President and Publisher Ben Bowers, Executive Editor Ned Cline, Managing Editor John R. Alexander, Editorial Page Editor Friday, February 1,1985 A10 Editorials Remembering sit-ins They were four black teenagers who were scared to death that cold February day in 1960 when they sat down at the whites-only lunch counter at Wool- worth's. Little did the A&T students know they were igniting a revolution. But as the days and weeks wore on, their brave gesture at Greensboro's downtown Woolworth's was followed by sit- ins throughout the South. The long and forbidding reign of Jim Crow in Dixie was being challenged and would ultimately collapse. The initial Greensboro sit-in occurred 25 years ago today. We celebrate the occasion with mixed feelings. We are proud that Greensboro, however reluctantly, served as the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement. With its five college and university campuses, its reputation for racial moderation and its willingness to accept, if not embrace, change, Greensboro was a logical setting for this historic event. That it occurred peacefully, without the strong and sometimes violent resistance experienced in other states, is to the community's credit, But we also harbor a haunting feeling of disbelief that this city and the South were once pock-marked with ugly signs reading "Colored Only" or "Whites Only." Why did we accept it all so unthinkingly? That's the question our children sometimes ask when we tell them about that grim world of segregation. They don't understand. In retrospect, neither do we. The question is not so much why did the sit-ins occur here, but why did they not occur earlier, either here or in some other segregated city? We tend to pat ourselves on the back nowadays and say how far we have come. But how far we have not come is another feeling that surrounds our thoughts about the anniversary. Yes, we have desegregated schools, restaurants, buses, hotels and other places of public accommodation. But no, we do not have a truly color-blind society. There is still racial discrimination out there, though it masquerades irij subtle disguises. There is also the world of the have-l nots, and they are often black people. I The unemployment lines and statistics show a high percentage of minorities I living on the downside of economic! prosperity. Is this the result of discrimination or other causes? We don't know. But we do know that these people haven't come so far after all. And while Greensboro's new district I system for electing City Council members has brought more minorities into the political arena, their numbers are still small in proportion to the city's black population. The same goes for some government agencies such as the | police department, where there are 334 white employees but only 49 blacks. So let's not be too smug about ourl city and region as we commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sit-ins. Satisfaction should set in when we no longer feel the gnawing need to review racial progress. Only then will we have finally arrived at the racial millennium. |