NAACP Honors Early Sit-In Protesters
NAACP Honors Long-Ignored Sit-In Protesters at National Civil Rights Convention
By ERIN TEXEIRA AP National Writer
WASHINGTON Jul 19, 2006 (AP)— Years before desegregation sit-ins made national headlines in 1960, college students in Wichita, Kan., and Oklahoma City stubbornly refused to leave whites-only lunch counters.
They were threatened with beatings, but held fast and won their battles, laying the groundwork for a movement that would spread across the country.
The often overlooked demonstrators, all former NAACP youth members, were honored Wednesday nearly 50 years later at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"It's a good thing to correct history, to finally link Oklahoma City and Wichita to the sit-in movement and the fights for students' rights," said Ronald Walters, a professor of political science at the University of Maryland who led the 1958 Wichita sit-in and received a medal from the civil rights group.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2211299
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