TELLING THE WHOLE TRUTH

The historic Greensboro, North Carolina lunch counter Sit-in on February 1, 1960 is one of the most well-known incidents in Civil Rights history. This singular event was universally credited to four young men from North Carolina A&T State University.
Significantly, the integration of public accommodations of that city and many cities followed.

What historians overlooked:, according to Belles of Liberty: Gender, Bennett College by Dr. Linda Brown, Bennett Belle, class of ’61, was that the first Sit-in in Greensboro was carefully planned on Bennett College’s campus, and without hundreds of women who sat down, marched and were incarcerated from 1960 to1963, the sit-in effort and subsequent desegregation of Greensboro and even other cities, might not have succeeded.

Bettye Davis McCain, class of 1963, committed to sitting at the “White-only” lunch counter of F. and W. Woolworth’s variety store with students from A&T and to return until it was integrated. On February 4, 1960, close to a dozen “Bennett Belles” were arrested due to their continuing protest at Woolworth’s.

Among the Belles participating in the Sit-ins were: Yvonne Lyons Revell, ’63; Gwendolyn Mackel Rice, ’61; Roslyn Smith, ’61; Esther Terry, ’61; von Deleath Kersey, ’61; Mary Ellen Bender, ’60; Shirley Dismuke Graham, ’61; Dolores Finger-Wright, ’61; Jean Neff; ’62; Rosalyn Cheagle, ’62; and Nancy Kirby, ’60.

NOTE: Dr. Linda Brown Is Dr. Willa B. Playa's niece. Dr. Player was the first African American woman to become president of a four-year, fully accredited liberal arts college when she took the position at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. From 1955 to 1966.

Source: Bennett College Alumnae Profiles