Experiences of the Civil Rights Movement
Lewis, Frances
Herbin
Summary: Frances Herbin Lewis was born in Greensboro, North
Carolina, in 1942. Greensboro at the time was segregated,
with separate school, church, and recreational facilities
for blacks and whites. Black people had separate bathrooms
and water fountains, and they could buy food at a lunch
counter but couldn't sit down to eat it. Ms. Lewis recalls
that from an early age she was encouraged by her teachers to
study government, to recognize the injustice of black
people's daily lives, and to become an active, informed
citizen of Greensboro.
Revell, Jr., Henry
Summary: Henry Revell grew up the oldest of 12 brothers and
sisters on a farm near Selma, North Carolina. Their
grandfather was a former slave who had been given the farm
and property as payment from his former master. Mr. Revell
describes his early experiences playing baseball, winning
public speaking contests, and participating in a 4-H group.
He explains what it was like to play baseball while in
college, in the military service, and for the Negro League,
travelling up and down the coast for exhibition games. He
majored in agriculture at North Carolina A & T, spent
the next two years stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington,
where he was the only black player on a white baseball team,
and eventually made his way back to North Carolina to marry
and work as an agriculture agent.
Revell, Yvonne
Summary: Yvonne Revell was a Bennett College student, living
at home, during the sit-in demonstrations at the Woolworth’s
lunch counter which began on Feb. 1, 1960, Greensboro, NC.
The interview recounts her student days at Bennett College,
the demonstrations in February 1960, how these events
impacted on other events in her life, and her years as a
schoolteacher in segregated schools.
Rice,
Gwendolyn Mackel
Summary: Gwendolyn Mackel Rice was born the fourth of five
children in Natchez, Mississippi, to parents who were active
in the 1940s and 1950s civil rights movement. Although her
childhood was comfortable and protected, she remembers
racial slurs, separate restrooms and drinking fountains, and
not being able to try on clothes in department stores. In
1956, just before Ms. Rice's senior year in high school, her
family moved to Chicago after being "run out of Natchez,
Mississippi by the Citizen's Counsel." Ms. Rice attended
Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C., where her instructors
were "fiery," "dynamic," and influential in expanding her
worldview. She was present when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
spoke at Bennett, and actively participated in the
demonstrations at Woolworth's and the Carolina Theater in
Greensboro, N.C. After graduating, she began a career as a
social worker and has worked in public welfare,
community-based programs for the elderly and youth,
especially black males, and college preparatory programs for
underserved youth. In the interim, she earned the Master's
in Social Service Administration from the University of
Chicago after which she served as a senior program officer
for a local foundation and later, as a not-for-profit
consultant for organizations in underserved communities. She
is currently at Developing Communities Project, a
faith-based community organizing institution that addresses
youth violence and advocates for transportation and
environmental equity.
Smith, Roslyn
Roslyn Smith was born in Princeton, West Virginia, the fifth
of six children. Her mother was a domestic and her father
was a railroad laborer. She was raised by her mother,
grandmother, and aunt, who taught her about the "place" of
black people in the South, for example, never using the
public library, sitting in the back of bus, using the back
door of a white family's house, and addressing white people
as 'miss' or 'mister.' Ms. Smith received a Merit
Scholarship to attend Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, N.C. and made the move from small town to big
city in 1957. She and other Bennett women became inspired by
their personal experiences and their expanding knowledge of
the outside world to join the fight for civil rights. With
the support of their teachers, community leaders, Dr. Willa
Player (then president of Bennett), and fellow students from
nearby A & T University, they targeted Woolworth's in
Greensboro as the stage for the 1961 sit-ins. Looking back
on her experiences now, Ms. Smith worries that Bennett
women's involvement is being written out of the official
history of this integral part of the civil rights movement.
Terry, Esther
Summary: Esther Terry grew up the youngest of 12 children on
a farm in Wise, North Carolina, and became the first in her
family to attend a 4-year college. In the fall of 1957 she
began classes at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro,
North Carolina, where she became part of the group of men
and women participating in the sit-in demonstrations at
Woolworth's lunch counter in 1960. Ms. Terry recalls those
days in Woolworth's, and describes some of the people who
most influenced her during this time, including her parents,
her closest friends, and Dr. Willa Player, the first female
and the first black president of Bennett College. After
graduating from Bennett, Ms. Terry earned a master's degree
from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a
PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
You are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit) this work under conditions set forth in this Creative Commons license.
