Bennett's Sit-in Story
Bennett's Unsung Sheroes
"Activism is rooted in social justice" - Dr. Esther Terry
Extending Possibilities - Dr. Esther Terry's Story
Fighting for social justice, students from Bennett College marched to the Franklin Winfield Woolworth building for equality armed with the spirit of change. In 1960 four students from North Carolina A&T State University decided to boycott the unequal treatment of the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter. The four students were not alone in their efforts, student from area colleges participated in the movement including 14 Belles.
Among the women who courageously joined the movement was Esther Terry. Currently, she is the Provost and the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Bennett College. Dr. Esther Terry was one of the many students to risk her life so others could have a future. Terry walked to downtown Greensboro, entered the Woolworth and sat down at the lunch counter.
“We were not scared we were elated that we were smashing barriers, but cautious because people were killed for talking about what we did,” says Terry.
Anyone could walking into the Woolworth and buy anything they choose. However, the separation occurred once African Americans tried to sit down and eat at the lunch counter.
Terry was raised in the South and one of the many students to realize that this treatment was not fair and it must be stopped.
“Boycotting was a dangerous things to do because people felt wired up about the separation of the races,” says Terry.
Greensboro College, then a women’s college did not agree with allowing women to participate in the boycott. “Denying the students the right to protest would go against everything they are taught here at a liberal art college”, said Dr. Willa B. Player to a reporter before her death in 2003. According to the Provost, Player never sent the students to boycott, they acted on their own instincts, Player was more terrified than the students but she never denied them their right protest.
The college has a history of leading the community in efforts of cultural advancement dating back to the 1950’s when students implemented “operation door knock”. Operation door knock was a initiative to get people in the community registered to vote.
With leadership comes responsibility says Terry we must be forward thinking and critical thinking. “Look back over time to recall some of the good and bad things, we haven’t finished yet, don’t get hung up on the 60's,” says Provost Terry.
- Jennifer Coward
Presidential Support - Dr. Willa B. Player's Story
Fighting for social justice, students from Bennett College marched to the Franklin Winfield Woolworth building for equality armed with the spirit of change.
In 1960 four students from North Carolina A&T State University decided to boycott the unequal treatment of the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter. The four students were not alone in their efforts, student from area colleges participated in the movement including 14 Belles. Among the women who courageously joined the movement was Esther Terry.
Currently, she is the Provost and the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Bennett College. Dr. Esther Terry was one of the many students to risk her life so others could have a future. Terry walked to downtown Greensboro, entered the Woolworth and sat down at the lunch counter.
“We were not scared we were elated that we were smashing barriers, but cautious because people were killed for talking about what we did,” says Terry.
Anyone could walking into the Woolworth and buy anything they choose. However, the separation occurred once African Americans tried to sit down and eat at the lunch counter.
Terry was raised in the South and one of the many students to realize that this treatment was not fair and it must be stopped. “
Boycotting was a dangerous things to do because people felt wired up about the separation of the races,” says Terry.
Greensboro College, then a women’s college did not agree with allowing women to participate in the boycott.
“Denying the students the right to protest would go against everything they are taught here at a liberal art college,” said Dr. Willa B. Player to a reporter before her death in 2003. According to the Provost, Player never sent the students to boycott, they acted on their own instincts, Player was more terrified than the students but she never denied them their right protest.
The college has a history of leading the community in efforts of cultural advancement dating back to the 1950’s when students implemented “operation door knock”. Operation door knock was a initiative to get people in the community registered to vote.
With leadership comes responsibility says Terry we must be forward thinking and critical thinking. “Look back over time to recall some of the good and bad things, we haven’t finished yet, don’t get hung up on the 60's,” says Provost Terry.
- Jennifer Coward
No Fear Over Here - Mary Ellen Bender's Story
Mary Ellen Bender does not remember being scared. Even when a cigarette was placed in her pocket by a man who she described as a “redneck kind of guy” as she picketed alongside her classmatesss at Bennett College for Women 50 years ago, she was not scared. “I remember being uncomfortable,” Bender says. “We all rode the train home for Christmas and there were segregated waiting rooms, and I of course went to the Black one. I was traveling with Black women. I felt conspicuous. I felt more scared there than I did during the sit-ins.”
The names of four young men from North Carolina A&T State University are written into history collectively as the Greensboro Four. On February 1, 1960, they sat down at the segregated lunch counter of the Woolworth’s department store, located in Greensboro, NC. Bender did not participate in the sit-ins that day.
She first asked the president of Bennett, Dr. Willa B. Player, for permission. As a White exchange student from Ohio Wesleyan University, Bender was concerned about the Ku Klux Klan and the repercussions that may have come from her presence alone. Dr. Player, who also attended Ohio Wesleyan, was soft-spoken but firm, Bender recalls. “She inspired us,” she says. “I was in awe of her.”
Bender doesn’t quite remember the days following February One, as that date is now known, but she does remember that she picketed. “They harassed us. They of course picked on me.” The guy who put the cigarette in her pocket didn’t do any damage.
“It was the logical thing to do. I happened to be there when the sit-ins started. I was with my friends. It was fellowship, enjoying being together,” Bender explains.
That feeling of being uncomfortable resurfaced in her relationship with her former husband’s family. They lived in rural West Virgina and held racist views. This was a stark contrast to the liberal family that she was raised in.
“I felt like a coward for not telling them about my background. I was terribly uncomfortable about their prejudices. I felt like a traitor hearing them talk about Black peopele,” says Bender. “I felt bad about not saying Her careers as a social worker, counselor, reverend and now counselor once again have “almost always” been in situations where she’s worked and lived within the Black community. It’s her personal preference.
As far as her experience as a Bennett Belle, she says that she is truly grateful for it and wouldn’t change anything. She came to Bennett in the spring of her junior year, and decided, after again asking for the permission of Dr. Player, to finish her senior year at Bennett.
“I enjoyed the small school atmosphere. I felt like the girls thought I was there temporarily,” she states. “I wanted to let them know I was there to stay.”
As the conversation ends, Bender begins reminiscing on her memories as a resident of Reynolds Hall. “I was quite shy. I had a roommate, she was very attractive. She did my hair once, tried to fix me up. They teased me,” she laughs. “I mean, I had never seen anyone press hair or use hot rollers.” She laughs again.
- Briana Barner
Four-Year Student, Life Time Activist - Jean Neff Herbert's Story
Jean Neff Herbert spent her early life in Pottstown, Pennsylvania before migrating to Greensboro, North Carolina in 1959. When Herbert entered Bennett College for Women she was greeted with more than just your average college experience. Along with books and classes, Herbert was greeted with Jim Crow Laws, segregation, and inequalities to minorities. Although Herbert is a woman of Caucasian decent, she was very much involved with the movement to end racism.
Unconscious of being a minority at Bennett, Herbert says “I felt it was my duty to help make changes in the mistreatment in my surrounding”. Therefore, in her sophomore year she began picketing, singing, and making slogans with the other students in her college community. What started out a student effort to end the wrongs being done to people of color turned into an era of change formally known as the sit in movements.
Herbert not only picketed and sang with her peers. She also took part in sitting at the counters that would not serve people of color. By sitting at those counters Herbert wanted to show unity while proving that minorities could indeed coincide with Caucasians. Because Herbert came from a home where she was taught that everyone takes care of one another, she had no problem helping bring a change to the Jim Crow era. “ Ending Jim Crow meant bettering the world,” says Herbert.
Although the sit-in movement is the main topic of this era, that is not all that protesters fought for. According to Herbert, Integration of public places was the other call for change. Herbert recalls protesting and marching to bring about change to public places that would not allow integration. “Movie theaters would not allow blacks and whites to be together and student were not having that,” Herbert passionately stated.
After finishing her studies at Bennett College, Jean Neff Herbert took her experiences and education and relocated to Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago Herbert began her career as a Social Worker. Her desire to pursue Social Work came from her experiences at Bennett along with at her church home in Pottstown. Because it was in stilled in her to help people in all situations, she knew she had to become a Social Worker.
"I believe that my time at Bennett was spent wisely,” Herbert says as she recalls her Bennett story. At her time or matriculation Herbert did not know that the sit in movement would have such a great impact upon the South. She is unsure if today’s Bennett students understand the true struggle and impact of the sit-in era. She would like Bennett students to understand that the time of Jim Crow was more than an era but a movement, which means it never stops.
- Candyce Roberts
Harper Carries Spirit of Activism - Deseretta McAllister Harper's Story
When Principal Stuart announced Karoline Crawford lost her red pocketbook on the intercom, it was the cue for all the high school students to march downtown for a silent protest. The 7th through 12th grade students of Kinston High, in Kinston, NC, wanted a new gym and school bus like the white school across town.
Deseretta McAllister Harper was in 6th grade and remembers wishing she was a 7th grader so she could participate in the protest. Therefore when Franklin McCain, a member of the Greensboro Four, asked her if she would participate, in what would later be know as the Greensboro Sit-In Movement, she agreed with pleasure. Now a Bennett Belle, Deseretta carried the same spirit of activism she heard about all her life in stories about Bennett.
Harper recalled her aunt, an alumnae of Bennett College, advising her that “people who travel alone, travel far and wide.” And with that in mind, she chose to keep her decision to ‘sit-in” private from her family.
“I took everything my mother said literally. And she always told me she would go any place with me, but jail,” said Harper. Because going to jail was a possibility, Harper stayed silent.
After Feb 1st, the group of Bennett College and North Carolina A&T State University students began strategy sessions on Bennett’s campus. Bennett’s professors helped the students organize and strongly emphasized the protest was non-violent.
“We told people that if they couldn’t restrain themselves, don’t go,” said Harper.
Harper managed to not miss a single by going to “sit-in” in the afternoon, if she had a morning class. She purposely never walked the picket line so she could sit at the lunch counter and complete her schoolwork.
“Bennett Belles were there from the beginning helping plan. Stories say the A&T guys just decided to do this one night in their dorm room. No, it had to be planned,” says Harper regarding Bennett College’s contribution.
Harper finally told her mother about her involvement in the sit-ins after she received a court letter. To her surprise, her mother was very supportive of her decision. By the beginning of the next school year, the lunch counters were desegregated and Harper moved on with the class of ‘62.
It took more than 45 years for Harper, along with other Bennett College women, to be honored at the February 1st banquet for their involvement.
“Bennett is close to my heart, and it is important for current Belles to know their history,” says Harper. “If you do not know where you came from, then how will you know where you are going?”
- Myeisha Essex
Thirsty for Equal Opportunities - Former Mayor Yvonne Johnson's Story
“You know how you have gone so long without water, and you are so thirsty? We were so thirsty for equal opportunities, equal rights and justice that when the opportunity came there was no question that I was going to do all I could to see that that happened.”
Yvonne Johnson was a student at Bennett College for Women when she was detained for civil disobedience during the Greensboro Sit-ins in 1963. Between the age of 18 and 19 Johnson helped desegregate the Woolworths lunch counters in Greensboro, as a result, the sit-in movement spread across America. 30 years later, Johnson relives those memories.
“Hello, this is Yvonne,” greeted the deep embracing voice through the telephone.
She was born in North Carolina and she graduated from Bennett College for Women in 1964.
Johnson’s high school friend, William Thomas who ran the Student Non-violence Program, helped Johnson get involved.
“It wasn’t any question about being involved. I fully intended to be involved and was. So that is how that really got started.”
She spoke steadily and confidently, pausing to take bites of her Sunday lunch.
It was a rainy day when Johnson got arrested and detained with Bennett Students, A&T and a few UNCG and Guilford College students.
“We were picketing, with various people because they had us on shifts.”
Johnson admits she did not know what to expect then. For two days, they were kept in a Polio hospital that was no longer in service.
“We were downtown and they took us from there in a paddy-wagon.”
Dr. Willa B. Player, the Bennett College President, instructed for the students homework to be brought to the hospital.
“Oh yah, we sang and we stayed up all night. We sang freedom songs, we drove the people crazy they couldn’t get any rest and that’s what we did.”
Johnson pauses for a few seconds as she tries to remember the kinds of freedom songs she sang while she was detained.
“Old freedom,” “Keep Your Eye on the Prize,” Hold On” those were the ones she could remember. Ruth Cole, who works at Bennett College as a supervisor for Sodexho, was a teenager during the sit-in movement. “I remember we had to ride at the back of the bus,” says Cole. “We couldn’t go in certain stores like Woolworth's we had to go downstairs to eat and the white were upstairs.” The NAACP and other organizations bailed the students out. “As the situation turned out we were never really prosecuted,” says Johnson. Johnson confesses that she does not remember if she wore her hat and gloves, the signature of a Bennett Belle and the Bennett tradition.
“I’m gonna be honest with you, I just don’t remember. We might have, I was kinda rebellious about that.”
“I didn’t quite like all that stuff,” says Johnson.
They tried to ignore us to tell you the truth, says Johnson.
She contributes her fight to her upbringing and Bennett College’s longstanding legacy of social justice.
“I don’t remember it so much as a decision, but more so as a way to quench that awful thirst for freedom, and for justice, and for equal opportunity. And I saw it; I saw that opportunity that chance and I couldn’t let it go.”
Through this experience Johnson developed an unshaken tenacity.
“I never am afraid much about very much of anything.”
- Nezile Mthembu
Fighting for social justice, students from Bennett College marched to the Franklin Winfield Woolworth building for equality armed with the spirit of change. In 1960 four students from North Carolina A&T State University decided to boycott the unequal treatment of the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter. The four students were not alone in their efforts, student from area colleges participated in the movement including 14 Belles.
Among the women who courageously joined the movement was Esther Terry. Currently, she is the Provost and the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Bennett College. Dr. Esther Terry was one of the many students to risk her life so others could have a future. Terry walked to downtown Greensboro, entered the Woolworth and sat down at the lunch counter.
“We were not scared we were elated that we were smashing barriers, but cautious because people were killed for talking about what we did,” says Terry.
Anyone could walking into the Woolworth and buy anything they choose. However, the separation occurred once African Americans tried to sit down and eat at the lunch counter.
Terry was raised in the South and one of the many students to realize that this treatment was not fair and it must be stopped.
“Boycotting was a dangerous things to do because people felt wired up about the separation of the races,” says Terry.
Greensboro College, then a women’s college did not agree with allowing women to participate in the boycott. “Denying the students the right to protest would go against everything they are taught here at a liberal art college”, said Dr. Willa B. Player to a reporter before her death in 2003. According to the Provost, Player never sent the students to boycott, they acted on their own instincts, Player was more terrified than the students but she never denied them their right protest.
The college has a history of leading the community in efforts of cultural advancement dating back to the 1950’s when students implemented “operation door knock”. Operation door knock was a initiative to get people in the community registered to vote.
With leadership comes responsibility says Terry we must be forward thinking and critical thinking. “Look back over time to recall some of the good and bad things, we haven’t finished yet, don’t get hung up on the 60's,” says Provost Terry.
- Jennifer Coward
Presidential Support - Dr. Willa B. Player's Story
Fighting for social justice, students from Bennett College marched to the Franklin Winfield Woolworth building for equality armed with the spirit of change.
In 1960 four students from North Carolina A&T State University decided to boycott the unequal treatment of the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter. The four students were not alone in their efforts, student from area colleges participated in the movement including 14 Belles. Among the women who courageously joined the movement was Esther Terry.
Currently, she is the Provost and the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Bennett College. Dr. Esther Terry was one of the many students to risk her life so others could have a future. Terry walked to downtown Greensboro, entered the Woolworth and sat down at the lunch counter.
“We were not scared we were elated that we were smashing barriers, but cautious because people were killed for talking about what we did,” says Terry.
Anyone could walking into the Woolworth and buy anything they choose. However, the separation occurred once African Americans tried to sit down and eat at the lunch counter.
Terry was raised in the South and one of the many students to realize that this treatment was not fair and it must be stopped. “
Boycotting was a dangerous things to do because people felt wired up about the separation of the races,” says Terry.
Greensboro College, then a women’s college did not agree with allowing women to participate in the boycott.
“Denying the students the right to protest would go against everything they are taught here at a liberal art college,” said Dr. Willa B. Player to a reporter before her death in 2003. According to the Provost, Player never sent the students to boycott, they acted on their own instincts, Player was more terrified than the students but she never denied them their right protest.
The college has a history of leading the community in efforts of cultural advancement dating back to the 1950’s when students implemented “operation door knock”. Operation door knock was a initiative to get people in the community registered to vote.
With leadership comes responsibility says Terry we must be forward thinking and critical thinking. “Look back over time to recall some of the good and bad things, we haven’t finished yet, don’t get hung up on the 60's,” says Provost Terry.
- Jennifer Coward
No Fear Over Here - Mary Ellen Bender's Story
Mary Ellen Bender does not remember being scared. Even when a cigarette was placed in her pocket by a man who she described as a “redneck kind of guy” as she picketed alongside her classmatesss at Bennett College for Women 50 years ago, she was not scared. “I remember being uncomfortable,” Bender says. “We all rode the train home for Christmas and there were segregated waiting rooms, and I of course went to the Black one. I was traveling with Black women. I felt conspicuous. I felt more scared there than I did during the sit-ins.”
The names of four young men from North Carolina A&T State University are written into history collectively as the Greensboro Four. On February 1, 1960, they sat down at the segregated lunch counter of the Woolworth’s department store, located in Greensboro, NC. Bender did not participate in the sit-ins that day.
She first asked the president of Bennett, Dr. Willa B. Player, for permission. As a White exchange student from Ohio Wesleyan University, Bender was concerned about the Ku Klux Klan and the repercussions that may have come from her presence alone. Dr. Player, who also attended Ohio Wesleyan, was soft-spoken but firm, Bender recalls. “She inspired us,” she says. “I was in awe of her.”
Bender doesn’t quite remember the days following February One, as that date is now known, but she does remember that she picketed. “They harassed us. They of course picked on me.” The guy who put the cigarette in her pocket didn’t do any damage.
“It was the logical thing to do. I happened to be there when the sit-ins started. I was with my friends. It was fellowship, enjoying being together,” Bender explains.
That feeling of being uncomfortable resurfaced in her relationship with her former husband’s family. They lived in rural West Virgina and held racist views. This was a stark contrast to the liberal family that she was raised in.
“I felt like a coward for not telling them about my background. I was terribly uncomfortable about their prejudices. I felt like a traitor hearing them talk about Black peopele,” says Bender. “I felt bad about not saying Her careers as a social worker, counselor, reverend and now counselor once again have “almost always” been in situations where she’s worked and lived within the Black community. It’s her personal preference.
As far as her experience as a Bennett Belle, she says that she is truly grateful for it and wouldn’t change anything. She came to Bennett in the spring of her junior year, and decided, after again asking for the permission of Dr. Player, to finish her senior year at Bennett.
“I enjoyed the small school atmosphere. I felt like the girls thought I was there temporarily,” she states. “I wanted to let them know I was there to stay.”
As the conversation ends, Bender begins reminiscing on her memories as a resident of Reynolds Hall. “I was quite shy. I had a roommate, she was very attractive. She did my hair once, tried to fix me up. They teased me,” she laughs. “I mean, I had never seen anyone press hair or use hot rollers.” She laughs again.
- Briana Barner
Four-Year Student, Life Time Activist - Jean Neff Herbert's Story
Jean Neff Herbert spent her early life in Pottstown, Pennsylvania before migrating to Greensboro, North Carolina in 1959. When Herbert entered Bennett College for Women she was greeted with more than just your average college experience. Along with books and classes, Herbert was greeted with Jim Crow Laws, segregation, and inequalities to minorities. Although Herbert is a woman of Caucasian decent, she was very much involved with the movement to end racism.
Unconscious of being a minority at Bennett, Herbert says “I felt it was my duty to help make changes in the mistreatment in my surrounding”. Therefore, in her sophomore year she began picketing, singing, and making slogans with the other students in her college community. What started out a student effort to end the wrongs being done to people of color turned into an era of change formally known as the sit in movements.
Herbert not only picketed and sang with her peers. She also took part in sitting at the counters that would not serve people of color. By sitting at those counters Herbert wanted to show unity while proving that minorities could indeed coincide with Caucasians. Because Herbert came from a home where she was taught that everyone takes care of one another, she had no problem helping bring a change to the Jim Crow era. “ Ending Jim Crow meant bettering the world,” says Herbert.
Although the sit-in movement is the main topic of this era, that is not all that protesters fought for. According to Herbert, Integration of public places was the other call for change. Herbert recalls protesting and marching to bring about change to public places that would not allow integration. “Movie theaters would not allow blacks and whites to be together and student were not having that,” Herbert passionately stated.
After finishing her studies at Bennett College, Jean Neff Herbert took her experiences and education and relocated to Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago Herbert began her career as a Social Worker. Her desire to pursue Social Work came from her experiences at Bennett along with at her church home in Pottstown. Because it was in stilled in her to help people in all situations, she knew she had to become a Social Worker.
"I believe that my time at Bennett was spent wisely,” Herbert says as she recalls her Bennett story. At her time or matriculation Herbert did not know that the sit in movement would have such a great impact upon the South. She is unsure if today’s Bennett students understand the true struggle and impact of the sit-in era. She would like Bennett students to understand that the time of Jim Crow was more than an era but a movement, which means it never stops.
- Candyce Roberts
Harper Carries Spirit of Activism - Deseretta McAllister Harper's Story
When Principal Stuart announced Karoline Crawford lost her red pocketbook on the intercom, it was the cue for all the high school students to march downtown for a silent protest. The 7th through 12th grade students of Kinston High, in Kinston, NC, wanted a new gym and school bus like the white school across town.
Deseretta McAllister Harper was in 6th grade and remembers wishing she was a 7th grader so she could participate in the protest. Therefore when Franklin McCain, a member of the Greensboro Four, asked her if she would participate, in what would later be know as the Greensboro Sit-In Movement, she agreed with pleasure. Now a Bennett Belle, Deseretta carried the same spirit of activism she heard about all her life in stories about Bennett.
Harper recalled her aunt, an alumnae of Bennett College, advising her that “people who travel alone, travel far and wide.” And with that in mind, she chose to keep her decision to ‘sit-in” private from her family.
“I took everything my mother said literally. And she always told me she would go any place with me, but jail,” said Harper. Because going to jail was a possibility, Harper stayed silent.
After Feb 1st, the group of Bennett College and North Carolina A&T State University students began strategy sessions on Bennett’s campus. Bennett’s professors helped the students organize and strongly emphasized the protest was non-violent.
“We told people that if they couldn’t restrain themselves, don’t go,” said Harper.
Harper managed to not miss a single by going to “sit-in” in the afternoon, if she had a morning class. She purposely never walked the picket line so she could sit at the lunch counter and complete her schoolwork.
“Bennett Belles were there from the beginning helping plan. Stories say the A&T guys just decided to do this one night in their dorm room. No, it had to be planned,” says Harper regarding Bennett College’s contribution.
Harper finally told her mother about her involvement in the sit-ins after she received a court letter. To her surprise, her mother was very supportive of her decision. By the beginning of the next school year, the lunch counters were desegregated and Harper moved on with the class of ‘62.
It took more than 45 years for Harper, along with other Bennett College women, to be honored at the February 1st banquet for their involvement.
“Bennett is close to my heart, and it is important for current Belles to know their history,” says Harper. “If you do not know where you came from, then how will you know where you are going?”
- Myeisha Essex
Thirsty for Equal Opportunities - Former Mayor Yvonne Johnson's Story
“You know how you have gone so long without water, and you are so thirsty? We were so thirsty for equal opportunities, equal rights and justice that when the opportunity came there was no question that I was going to do all I could to see that that happened.”
Yvonne Johnson was a student at Bennett College for Women when she was detained for civil disobedience during the Greensboro Sit-ins in 1963. Between the age of 18 and 19 Johnson helped desegregate the Woolworths lunch counters in Greensboro, as a result, the sit-in movement spread across America. 30 years later, Johnson relives those memories.
“Hello, this is Yvonne,” greeted the deep embracing voice through the telephone.
She was born in North Carolina and she graduated from Bennett College for Women in 1964.
Johnson’s high school friend, William Thomas who ran the Student Non-violence Program, helped Johnson get involved.
“It wasn’t any question about being involved. I fully intended to be involved and was. So that is how that really got started.”
She spoke steadily and confidently, pausing to take bites of her Sunday lunch.
It was a rainy day when Johnson got arrested and detained with Bennett Students, A&T and a few UNCG and Guilford College students.
“We were picketing, with various people because they had us on shifts.”
Johnson admits she did not know what to expect then. For two days, they were kept in a Polio hospital that was no longer in service.
“We were downtown and they took us from there in a paddy-wagon.”
Dr. Willa B. Player, the Bennett College President, instructed for the students homework to be brought to the hospital.
“Oh yah, we sang and we stayed up all night. We sang freedom songs, we drove the people crazy they couldn’t get any rest and that’s what we did.”
Johnson pauses for a few seconds as she tries to remember the kinds of freedom songs she sang while she was detained.
“Old freedom,” “Keep Your Eye on the Prize,” Hold On” those were the ones she could remember. Ruth Cole, who works at Bennett College as a supervisor for Sodexho, was a teenager during the sit-in movement. “I remember we had to ride at the back of the bus,” says Cole. “We couldn’t go in certain stores like Woolworth's we had to go downstairs to eat and the white were upstairs.” The NAACP and other organizations bailed the students out. “As the situation turned out we were never really prosecuted,” says Johnson. Johnson confesses that she does not remember if she wore her hat and gloves, the signature of a Bennett Belle and the Bennett tradition.
“I’m gonna be honest with you, I just don’t remember. We might have, I was kinda rebellious about that.”
“I didn’t quite like all that stuff,” says Johnson.
They tried to ignore us to tell you the truth, says Johnson.
She contributes her fight to her upbringing and Bennett College’s longstanding legacy of social justice.
“I don’t remember it so much as a decision, but more so as a way to quench that awful thirst for freedom, and for justice, and for equal opportunity. And I saw it; I saw that opportunity that chance and I couldn’t let it go.”
Through this experience Johnson developed an unshaken tenacity.
“I never am afraid much about very much of anything.”
- Nezile Mthembu
