I'm Georgianne Thomas.

In 1960, when I arrived in Atlanta, Georgia from Gary, Indiana to attend Spelman college, my first step off the train was my first step in a movement for change, a movement for equality, a movement for justice.

My Spellman college classmates and I had just graduated from high school.

We were 16, 17, and 18-years-old.

We were simply college freshmen at the time.

Yet, there was something about us that made us follow the upper-class students in the Atlanta University Center who had started the Atlanta student movement that previous March.

We became a part of the foot soldiers who helped carry the movement.

I knew my classmates had a story to tell about their involvement and how it shaped their lives as women.

They agree to tell their story, and for that, I am grateful.

These are just some of the unknown faces in the crowd behind the scenes, the foot soldiers, the Spelman Class of '64, who were a part of an Atlanta story that change the world.

This is our story.

(Piano music and cacophony of traffic sounds) There was a move to desegregate downtown Atlanta.

- They hated us.

(echoes) - I could not go to a Woolworth... - Walgreens... - Rich's... - and get a hot dog.

-And I couldn't understand that hatred.

- You were telling me that I wasn't good enough.

- See, we had people like... - Lester Maddox with his axe handle.

- And we had to be brave... - To sit next to you.

- Chasing people.

- Listen, I really was a foot soldier, but what I will never forget is arriving at Rich's... - I had my little sign - ...and forming the picket line on one side of the street, and on the other side of the street... that was the Ku Klux Klan.

- I was afraid.

I was terrified when I went to the Woolworth.

[Woman] (gentle piano music) * [Narrator] The first student protest happened in March, 1960, following publication of "An Appeal for Human Rights," published by the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights as a full page ad in the Atlanta Constitution newspaper on March 9th.

[Roslyn Pope, Ph.D] It was written quickly because we were under pressure from the college presidents to put down our...our grievances, our complaints, the...the issues that we wanted to address.

Uh...it was written in long hand to begin with.

There was a committee of students from all of the six colleges, but Julian and Bon and I did the initial draft...uh...in long hand, which was basically the inspiration that I had experienced after a year-and-a-half of studying in Paris.

Um, then at the home of Dr. Howard Zinn, who was chairperson of the political science department at Spelman at that time.

We found a typewriter [laughs], and so it went from long hand to...uh...his typewriter, and it was then disseminated to the other college campuses, and the presidents of the student governments read it to all of the students that they were responsible for.

It was approved very quickly and...um....practically the next day appeared as full page advertisements in the Atlanta papers.

[Representative John Lewis] It was the very first time that a major student protest group, only African American campi...had written something that was so well put together and published in a major newspaper.

Uh...the Governor of Georgia and others said, "Oh, the students didn't do that."

[Governor Ernest Vandiver] I Read the paid advertisement, purporting to come from students of the six affiliated institutions.

Obviously, it was not written by students.

[Rep. Lewis] "Oh, some communist group did that...that was written in Moscow."

[Gov.

Vandiver] Nor, in fact, did it read like it was written even in this country.

Regrettably, it had the same overtones which are usually found in anti-American propaganda pieces.

[Rep. Lewis] But it was these smart, gifted students, the young African American men and women that came together to make this appeal, not just to Atlanta, not just to Georgia, but to America and to the world.

[Gov.

Vandiver] As governor of Georgia, I hereby call upon those to cease and desist in their efforts, which can do much harm to all and can gain no good for anyone.

(gentle piano music) [Narrator] Surviving the injustices of legal segregation and the persistent system of racism and discrimination was a way of life for African Americans, or "Negroes," living in the American south for generations since the enslavement of African people.

But change was making a steady March through history and the all too common Southern yet, oppressive way of life became a call for action, a call for change for a people tired of being treated less than equal, less than full American citizens, and less than human.

(piano and violin music) [Valjean Williams] The climate was buzzing, probably beginning to boil over.

It was like, a pot that water had simmered for some time.

And then someone, for whatever the reason, a number of things, increased the temperature, and the spillover was the big demonstration and the sit-ins.

[Rep. Lewis] Back during this 60s, we were 17, 18, 19, 20-years-old.

We just felt we were doing the right thing.

We wanted to end segregation and racial discrimination in places of public accommodation.

We wanted to bring down those signs that said "White Men," "Colored Men," White Women," "Colored Women," "White Waiting," "Colored Waiting."

We wanted to end segregation, end racial discrimination.

We had taken as much as we could take.

(jazzy bass and piano music) [Narrator] When the women of the class of 1964 arrived at Spelman College in the fall of 1960, at 16, 17, and 18-years-old, they found more than the gated serene campus promising a good education.

They found a movement, a movement ready for some foot soldiers.

So, these young women, who had just graduated from high school, a few months before, answered the call for change.

[Malinda Clark Logan] As a child growing up in small town Georgia.

I remember the fear of the Ku Klux Klan.

And I only remember one time in my life when there was talk of the Klan parading through my town of Cairo, Georgia-- and I think I was about seven years old, and I remember that we had the shades drawn and we were just listening for the cars because I lived near a main street.

And as a child, I can remember the terror of knowing, and not exactly knowing, at that age what it meant, but just the fear of my parents of the Ku Klux Klan.

[Deborah Dorsey Mitchell] The segregation and the hatred, and "Bull" Connor and the dogs and all of these things.

I grew up with all the bombs blasting when I was a child.

[Delores Young Strawbridge] We had to sit upstairs at the movie theaters, uh, there was no park for us to play.

Eventually, the community did get a swim pool for Blacks.

Of course, the hospitals were segregated.

It was...

um...I just grew up like that.

[Marcelite Jordan Harris] I remember when I was a little girl, my sister and I would catch the bus from our elementary school and ride it all the way around to the school, where my mother was a librarian.

And I'm leader conscious...I follow who's in charge, and I think the people who are in charge have got it all together.

So, there's a long seat in the bus that sits right behind the bus driver.

Well, we got on the bus, and this was at a time when Black people had to sit at the back of the bus, we got on the bus and we sat right behind the leader.

He was the bus driver.

Well, that bus didn't move until a lady from the back, a Black lady from the back, came up to the front and got us.

[Mitchell] They had the buses, and the signs would have "Colored" on one side and "White" on the other side.

And as you boarded the bus, if...uh...if the whites boarded the bus and you were sitting in a seat, they would move this...they had two little holes in the seats and they would move this...this sign behind you.

And you would have to get up and go to the back.

When they say go to the back of the bus, that's what they mean.

[Billie Pitts Williams] I remember one incident as a child that I would, I sat on the front seat of the bus, a Greyhound bus...and, you know, my grandmother just died.

You know, like, "Child you're gonna..." You know?

So, I was aware that I wasn't supposed to do it, but I did it anyway.

[Harris] I knew when I was a little girl, uh, in Houston, there were things that my parents told us, "We...we can't do that.

We don't have time."

It was like riding the ponies.

Uh, we couldn't ride the ponies.

And I didn't know that until I was much older.

I was telling a friend of mine that June 19th was just a couple of days ago, and in...on June 19th in Texas, that's the day the Texans got the word that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed.

So, that's a holiday in Texas.

And on that holiday, June 19th, the amusement park would allow African Americans, uh, to come and enjoy it.

Any other day in the year, we could not go.

[Mitchell] Uh...of course, the "Colored" water and the "White" water fountains.

I experienced that in Birmingham, [Lois Dunlap] In high school, I knew there was racism, and it was very evident from our textbooks that we, uh, used in high school.

They always had the names of the White high schools.

So, we got the second hand books.

[Delores Strawbridge] And we traveled a lot, I had an uncle who was a doctor and we would visit him during the summer.

We would go to the beach and I knew about segregation, but I guess somehow, I was somewhat sheltered because they didn't make a big issue of it.

But we would stop on the side of the road when we were traveling and have our picnic lunch.

And you know, that was fun to me.

But then, as I got older, I realized that I just couldn't do what Whites did.

[Narrator] For a few students attending Spellman College from the north, the insanity of the Jim Crow laws in the south was all the motivation they needed to get involved in the civil rights movement.

Back home, these students had been sure about who they were, but now that they were in the south, their identity hung in question.

"Who am I?

Colored?

White?

Human."

It was a question many students were asking.

(gentle piano music) [Thomas] I tell you what bothered me the most is that my mother, um, didn't tell me about the signs.

She told me to get on the train and go to Spelman, get off when it said Atlanta, get the Jitney, go on campus.

Those were my directions.

Make sure my money was tied up in my bra.

Don't talk to anybody.

So, what really got me started and what hurt me the most was to walk into the waiting room....

I had come out of the Chicago train station...and there was a sign that said, um, "Colored Waiting Room," like this one over my head.

Colored Waiting Room.

I was thinking, "What is a colored waiting room?"

And I saw "White Waiting Room."

Having come out of Froebel High School...white friends, white teachers, white counselors.... then that meant I should go to the White Waiting Room.

Colored Waiting Room wasn't anywhere for me to go.

So, I decided to go in the White Waiting Room.

I had no fear because I didn't know anything about what that meant.

And...my classmate...Spelman had a habit of sending a senior or a junior to go to the train station and go to the bus station...go to those who could afford an airplane ride...to meet the young ladies.

And the young lady said, "Georgianne, you can't go in there.

"And I was wondering, "Why couldn't I go in there?

Why couldn't I go in there?"

She said, "Get in a taxi... get in a Jitney....

I'm sorry.

So, I...I got my things together and I went on campus.

This sign has impacted me from 1960 to today.

When, when, when I came to Miss Mary Willis house and I saw this sign..." Colored Waiting Room, I had to come back over here... ...cause I didn't know I was colored.

I thought I was human.

(gentle piano music) [Narrator] These Spelman college freshmen were ready to protest, to ignore objections of parents, to put it all on the line at great risk with the fearlessness common to college students throughout generations.

[Harris] I called my father, called my parents, and told 'em that, "Tomorrow I'm going to be going to jail."

[Andrew Young] Remember, these were all students who were coming from families where there had been saving their money, parents had been saving money for a lot of long years to keep 'em in school and they didn't want them coming there, telling them, "I'm going to jail."

[Harris] My father talked to me and I remember that conversation lasting an hour, if not longer.

But the gist of what he was saying to me was that there are people who open doors, and there are others who need to be prepared to go through that door when it opens.

And we send you to Spelman to be prepared to go through that door when it opens.

You can participate, but don't go to jail.

[Strawbridge] Spelman sent letters home to the parents, um, getting permission for their, uh, daughters to participate.

Well, my mother said, "No," but because of my experience and growing up, I did want to try to make a difference.

[Mitchell] Our parents got this letter saying that they would not be responsible, the college would not be responsible, if something happened to us.

* [Janice Hartsfield] My mother and father called me, I do remember them calling me...uh...quite upset, quite upset.

[Mitchell] My mother, who was a teacher there, didn't want me to get so involved that she would lose her job.

It was still in segregation.

[Williams] With my mother's mother, I don't think she was born in slavery.

I think, she was born just as it was ending or had ended.

So, I think she, in her years, had seen a number of things happen to Negroes...uh...knew of lynching's, I'm sure.

And my father's mother had a brother to leave home, leave Covington or Shady Dale, and he has not been seen since.

They don't know what happened to him.

So, I think my two grandmothers had experienced firsthand things that happened.

And for that reason, they opted that I not participate.

I really think, it was the fear of what had happened in the past.

I was to stay away from everything.

I was to come to Spelman and get the learning that was there for me, and to bring myself home.

I was not to participate.

[Janice Hartsfield] They...knew the evils that they had, they had seen.

My mother was born in 1914.

My dad was born in 1913.

[Mitchell] We...uh...I don't guess we would defy it, but we went on anyway.

[Hartsfield] It's not so much the concern that we would, I would be asked to leave the school.

Their...their concern was just for my safety.

[Narrator] They heard the impassioned pleas of upper-class students who dared to go from dorm room to dorm room, asking their classmates to participate in a movement that would change Atlanta and the world.

They heard the call of student leaders at the mass meetings at Sisters Chapel on Spelman's campus and in nearby churches.

These upper-class students made up the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights, with the membership of students from the six institutions of the Atlanta University Center, including Clark College, Morris Brown College, the Interdenominational Theological Center, and Atlanta University.

By the fall of 1960, the Committee was led by co-chairs, Herschelle Sullivan Challenor of Spelman College and Lonnie King of Morehouse College.

They were ready to welcome these willing souls, who knew their rights and wanted them.

They were ready for more foot soldiers to show that the demands were real, serious, and deserved to be answered.

[Young] I think, Black women have always been the leaders.

Before Rosa Parks, Amelia Boynton as a 19 year old, went to Selma in 1929.

She registered in 1932.

Vera Pigee and Fannie Lou Hamer in Mississippi were very active.

Women were the ones with the most courage and, uh, almost every movement we had, if it was not led by women, the majority of people who were doing the work were women.

And they brought in a few, uh, key preachers like Martin Luther King...uh, there was always one or two preachers in town that did the speaking and the preaching, but inevitably, the women did all the work.

[Narrator] It was time to raise the bar on the protests.

Sit-ins at lunch counters in federal buildings happened in March.

Now, it was fall, and student leaders decided to target private businesses for the first campaign of a new school year.

The fall campaign started on October 19th, 1960.

Women in Spelman's Class of 1964...first year students and hundreds of others throughout the Atlanta University Center, would have the opportunity to participate in one of the largest coordinated movements in Atlanta's history.

On October 19th, the protests included pickets and sit-ins at multiple popular stores throughout the city at one time.

Places such as Newberry's, Davidson's, Woolworths, Grants, McCrory's, S.H.

Kress, H.L.

Green, and the flagship shopping destination for Atlantans, Rich's.

By now, those opposing the protests had organized as well, and they took their message to the street with the same kind of intensity.

The nonviolent training students received was put to the test that day in October and throughout the fall campaign.

[Thomas] Well, we had to look nice, 'cause Spelman had a...uh, we had to look nice, had a dress code.

You always had to look nice, in stockings or you had gloves.

Maybe some of you had, you know, but you had to always look like a Spelman woman.

There was a code of dress, and we had to carry ourselves so that they always knew a Spelman woman different from any other woman.

Although, I knew my mother would kill me if I had gone to jail, or if anything got back to her that I had actually gotten in some trouble about it...that I was gonna have a problem with Georgia young...but I was willing to take that chance with her because I wanted to eat at the Woolworths and I wanted to get a hot dog.

[Logan] That was a demonstration planned for what was then Rich's Department Store.

[Thomas] So, they said, "You're gonna March with the Rich's."

I didn't even know what a Rich's was.

I didn't know where it was.

So, what time, get up and be there.

And when we walked outta Spelman, we met with the students from Clark, the men from Morehouse, we walked down the street, it was like a swelling.

You know, and you just felt yourself being moved along with it.

[Hartsfield] And we went on down past Morris Brown.

Once again, more people joined us.

And um, I think that gave me courage until we got downtown.

[Thomas] It was the bottom of the hill that impacted me the most.

I cry about it now almost because at the bottom of the hill, you had to make a determination, whether or not you're gonna go up the hill.

And they would tell us don't... um...if you wanna go back, you need to go back now 'cause it's...uh...this a point of no return.

Once, you start up that hill.

And I was thinking," Wow, who would wanna go back?"

Oh, I was so naive.

I had no clue.

I was like, "Come on.

We sat here...come on.

I'm ready to go up the hill."

[Logan] What Ir would never forget is arriving at Rich's and forming the picket line on one side of the street and on the other side of the street, that was the Ku Klux Klan.

[Thomas] When I got up that hill and saw those people in those white pointed hats and the faces all covered, the Klan was there.

I had never seen the Klan in my life.

They were lined up.

I said, "Oh, oh my gosh, what is going happen to us?"

I was so afraid.

I can feel it right now.

The first time you see the Klan and angry people waiting for you.

And there you are with your little placard.

I can't even explain it.

[Hartsfield] When we got down there, the Ku Klux Klan was there and being a child of...of...of being protective, very protective, you know, coming from a very middle class family.

I never knew such hatred.

[Thomas] I couldn't imagine anybody taking a cigarette and putting it on my arm.

Why would you take your cigarette?

Why would you burn me with your cigarette?

I was like...my arm is hurting, but I gotta keep going.

One, I'm out here...you have... my arm is hurting, but I gotta keep going.

I can't curse you out.

I gotta keep going because that's what we agreed to do.

And that's what we said.

[Hartsfield] I grew up in a segregated school system, but that was fine because we...we were surrounded by people that supported us, loved us, came to...um...an all-Black school, which was great.

And then when we went downtown and we went to...um, we were to picket...we picket in front of...um...Rich's.

Yes.

And we did...I did see the looks on faces of people that hated me.

[Thomas] I couldn't imagine that people were saying all kind of nasty things.

They didn't even know me.

I had just left Froebel High School, White teachers, White counselor, White classmates.

And these were White people.

I didn't understand it.

[Hartsfield] And it's always remained with me because...because...why did people hate me?

And for what reason...they did not know me.

Okay...why'd I only do it one time?

And I have to be quite honest...it was frightening.

You know, I am not a...um...it was frightening.

I did not go back.

And that's why I really admire my fellow students who did go back, time after time.

[Williams] I could go sit in and a march.

And when it...uh, we were asked to leave, we...this group would leave.

Others in the group, that were allowed to go to jail, would sit and not refuse to move.

[Edwina Palmer Hunter] And I remember the music is what I remember.

I remember the songs that were very...um...that gave us courage, I think, to...to...uh...pursue our goal.

So, I remember singing as we marched.

And that was one of my fondest memories...of the many, many songs.

Well, with picketing, you...you had...you certainly couldn't talk to each other on line, and thus, the reason we sang.

Um...we...there were so many feet that you had to march apart from each other.

If someone spat on you or hit you, you couldn't retaliate because it was, in fact, a non-violent movement.

[Williams] Only time I got, not frightened, but two guys came between me and began screaming.

And...but we were trained to the point that we could not look, we could not move, we could not attend to those persons that were cruel to us.

So, that...and it...it was amazing that we were able to do it.

[Gloria Knowles Bell] I was afraid.

I was terrified when I went to the Woolworth store and this...to be at the at...uh...counter.

And in fact, I never did get a place at their counter.

Some other students got there ahead of me, but the people all around us were just so angry and that frightened me.

I was afraid.

I said, "I should have listened to my mama...stayed on campus."

But it was...um...these people, they...they...they just, they hated us, and I couldn't understand that hatred because when I was growing up, uh...I...well...before we...

I was born in Atlanta, but I lived in LaGrange, Georgia and in Sparta, Georgia.

And in Sparta, I lived next to White people.

The people across the street were White people.

So, you know, we had integration before was a term...integration.

[Narrator] On October 19th, 52 demonstrators were arrested, including Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He had been asked by the student leaders to join the protests.

The charge was trespassing.

[Rev.

Martin Luther King, Jr.] I'm sure that...uh...with the reasonable climate in Atlanta, it is possible to desegregate lunch counters without any real difficulty.

And... uh...the transition could be a very smooth one.

[Young] He was just...sturdy.

And so, he, he considered himself a young person and the preachers who were associates with him were all very young people.

[Narrator] Dr. King's arrest, and his subsequent transfer to the Reidsville State Prison because of an order by Judge Oscar Mitchell in DeKalb County, was an unexpected outcome of the October, 1960 protest.

Judge Mitchell said, "Dr. King's arrest at the Rich's Department Store in downtown Atlanta was a violation of his probation on a suspended sentence for a traffic violation."

Judge Mitchell ordered Dr. King to serve four months of hard labor on a state road gang.

[Donald Lee Hollowell] We prepared a Writ of Habeas Corpus, which we...uh...planned to submit this morning at eight o'clock.

However, when we called at eight for the purpose of ascertaining the whereabouts of the sheriff for making service, uh, we were informed that Reverend King had been taken down to Reidsville at 4:05 this morning.

[Young] Well, you have to remember that when Martin re...marched in 1960, he had already been involved in Montgomery since 1955.

He had...his home had been bombed.

He had been sued two times.

He had been stabbed.

And he was coming to Atlanta, really thinking it was a little more peaceful and rational.

And then, when they took him to DeKalb County, put him in the back of a paddy wagon in chains and drove him from DeKalb County down to Reidsville Penitentiary with his legs and arms chained and nobody in the back of that paddy wagon but a German shepherd...uh, and he was...that was a...that was a six, seven hour drive on bad Georgia roads.

And that was the most terrifying experience of his life.

He laughed and joked about being stabbed, but he never laughed and joked about that.

(jazzy piano music) [Narrator] In the end, the student activists may have had a hand in the course of American presidential history.

Then, Senator John F. Kennedy reached out to Coretta Scott King to express his concern over Dr. King's arrest.

Historical accounts report that Robert F. Kennedy made a call to Judge Mitchell to admonish him for the harsh sentence.

After that call, Judge Mitchell released Dr. King on bail.

Because of the courage and empathy of the Kennedy brothers, Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., or "Daddy King," as he was known, proclaimed publicly that he was voting for John F. Kennedy for president, even if Kennedy was Catholic.

That endorsement created a ripple effect in the Black community nationwide as Black preachers praised the Kennedy's for the release of Dr. King.

Kennedy won the presidency by a small margin, most likely with the help of Black voters who had been Republican voters traditionally.

This is just one legacy of the student movement in Atlanta.

Students kept the momentum going.

They kept the pressure on restaurants and stores, especially Rich's.

Students even asked adult supporters to mail them their coveted Rich's credit cards, and they did.

With the arrest of Dr. King, and its effect on the 1960 presidential election, and the relentless demonstrations at other segregated facilities, city leaders like Mayor William B. Hartsfield and later, Mayor Ivan Allen, had to take note.

The impact of the student movement started affecting the consciousness of the city.

As the protests continued, the threat of danger was no less.

[Strawbridge] A group, it was my freshman year and Grady was still segregated.

Most of the Blacks either had private hospitals like McLendon, or most of them went to Hughes Spalding.

Um...so, a group of us, including Morehouse men, pro...um...protested in front of Grady.

The policemen came...there was a large number of us, and the policeman came and told us to disperse.

They gave us, I think, three warnings.

Well, some people were afraid and they left, but I just felt committed.

And it was like, if I'm the only one left, I'm going to see this through.

So, finally, they put us in the paddy wagon.

I really wasn't aware of what was happening, and...uh, the guys from Morehouse said, "Well, they're gonna take us back to campus."

And we thought, "Oh wow, we're gonna make a hit on campus."

But then, we saw that we were not headed in that direction, and they finally told us that, you know, they were going to put us in jail.

So...uh...at this point, I was frightened, but I had made a commitment.

And when I was arrested, they took my mugshot.

They kept us separated from the main prisoners.

And I called my father, my parents were divorced and I was afraid to call my mother.

So, I asked him to call and let her know.

But Spelman had already sent a telegram saying, "Your daughter's in jail."

No reason.

And she was getting ready to have my grandfather, 'cause she taught in a small town... come down and...and see what's going on.

But, needless to say...uh, I spent the night in jail and...uh...the next day...uh...Horace Ward, who is now Judge Horace Ward, was our attorney.

And I'm not sure, if we lost the case or what, but anyway, they took us to the farm and issued us white uniforms and fed us.

And at this time...uh, I was going back to the kitchen for seconds and our dean came in, Dean Thomas, and we were released to her and I was very happy.

But I felt good that I felt that I had contributed something to history.

Maybe the news didn't capture it, but I felt good inside.

And in teaching, I have told my students and my grandchildren that I participated and it's like "Wow" ...you know, and I don't do it for recognition.

I just...it's just history.

[Narrator] Women in this Spelman class of 1964 were a part of a community in action.

Even if a student did not march, there were other ways to play a part in the history-making movement.

Yet, their efforts required solidarity and focus to plan, organize, carry out the mission without the use of technology that makes communicating with others so easy now.

These students had a strong commitment that cannot be overlooked or discounted.

It was so necessary for coordination, not just at Spelman, but across the Atlanta University Center.

Some led.

Some followed.

There was a place for anyone who wanted to be a part.

[Mitchell] The Ku Klux Klan's were rolling bowling balls at us and everything.

They were across the street.

We were very afraid.

[Williams] I knew that I was probably not the one to take the lick or to take the spit or the cursing, I probably would've stood and the insults.

But I think, if they had spat upon me, hit me, I probably would've retaliated.

If not then, the next time around, 'cause I would've been back on the front because it would've been vengeance to get somebody.

So, it was probably a good thing that I did not actually do a lot of the walking.

What I did do was make some placards...uh...put that on, got them to the persons, stacked some bags, and sometimes some things that we had, make sure everybody was there.

And since, I was on campus, a number of us who did not participate, we kept the notes, the college notes, going.

So, when the kids came back from being in jail or off the walk, then we shared the notes, shared the assignments, and they were able to keep going so that none of us would lose sight of the academics.

Oh well, word circulated, uh...and there was somebody always in the place or on site that said, "We need some placards and we need for them to say this, that and the other."

And sometimes, they were written down, so you just went and you copied whatever it was and you put it on the sign and that was it.

And you got the word, the word was moving, in spite of the word not supposed to be moved, but we got it moved.

[Logan] And at that time, it was SNCC, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, locally who was conducting the meetings.

And I remember, um, Reverend Joseph Boone, and I believe it was his church that we convened in.

These people were very passionate and powerful, and I'm not even sure at that time that we were aware of what was going on in other cities.

We were just focusing on what was happening right here in the AU Center.

Um...Lonnie King; Charles Black; Herschelle Sullivan, from our campus; Ruby Doris Smith; Anna Ruth Borders, these names, these people inspired us.

[Hartsfield] There was a feeling of...of being in the moment, a feeling of we, you know, everyone has to...and I...when I say ha...you will have to, as a Black person...you, this is our opportunity to participate.

[Logan] It was gonna take all of us, and that we had to be brave, and that we had to be bold, because even Spelman was not encouraging us to participate at that time.

So, we had to step out, and I guess just the unity of the students...that gave you the strength, and the courage to step out, and to join, and to take a more active part.

[Young] The Atlanta Daily World did not support the movement, and so Jesse Hill and Herman Russell formed The Atlanta Inquirer.

And then...um...Mr. Ware introduced The Atlanta Voice.

So, it led to, uh...uh, a proliferation of Black newspapers, but still the voice of authority was Jet.

And...uh...if Jet said it, that's the way it was.

[Harris] My meetings that I went to were mass meetings at Sisters Chapel primarily.

And...uh...when they talked about what we were going to do, uh...I was a senior in school when the Greensboro...uh, sit-ins occurred.

And so, I had a...a bit of an inkling about that.

Uh...in Jet magazine, as far as Atlanta University was concerned...Atlanta Center was concerned, had ran an article on...on Atlanta.

Jet magazine.

And in that article was Julian Bond.

And so, I was fascinated by this in reading that, and then I get here and there he is.

So, if anything, that drew me into the meetings, but once you get there and you hear how we are treated, and you see what the students are planning to do...uh, you do...you...you...you just say, "I have to be a part of this."

[Connie Curry] I...I...I...I don't ever remember really being afraid much.

We were so sure that it was right, what we were doing.

And you remember, when we used to hold hands and sing, "We shall overcome someday," I really believe that.

And it brings me to tears these days to stand and sing that song, because deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday.

And you're young...you know, you're 18 or 19. Who thinks about death or who thinks about being killed?

It wasn't that you got up and said, "This may be a bad day, but I am willing to die for my rights."

It was...you get up... you're with all these people you love and respect, and you know you're right, you see, and you believe you can win.

So, it was kind of a strange time.

(gentle piano music) [Narrator] The bold activism of the students and the Atlanta University Center led to the desegregation of the city of Atlanta.

Demanding their rights of the U.S. Constitution, claiming their identity as American citizens, striving for that same freedom their ancestors had worked for on the land of the Deep South, gave them a relentless drive to see the end of Jim Crow laws.

The students earned the support of many community members who provided money, food, transportation, housing, office space, printing materials, legal representation, guidance, and prayers.

Some members of the community acted as a bridge, when necessary, to White business and political leaders to assist the students in negotiating a plan for desegregation in Atlanta.

[Logan] People like... uh...Jesse Hill, Jr. and...um... of course, Dr. King's father...uh, Reverend Martin Luther King Sr.

Uh...Dr. Lowery, Dr. Boo...uh, Reverend Boone, Reverend William Holmes Borders, uh...the prominent doctors.

(gentle piano music) [Narrator] But that bridge seemed to collapse when it came to meeting the demands of complete desegregation and fair employment practices.

Instead, merchants sent word that they wanted the students to wait.

To wait until the public schools in Atlanta would desegregate in the fall of 1961.

This was an unacceptable agreement for the students and the community who had, by now, taken a great stake in the protests.

Merchants were not budging.

Even the Rich's Department Store, who had been a focal point of the picketing because of its stature in Atlanta, would not concede to the students.

[Young] Uh, adults knew they didn't stand a chance, see?

I think it put the college presidents in an awkward position because they were raising funds from these same businesses that we were boycotting.

Uh, but they handled that very well...uh...and they ended up not demonstrating, but they were the ones that were interpreting to the business community.

[Narrator] Because the adults had persuaded the merchants that the students and the community would agree to this timetable, the students had no choice, urged by Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr., but to wait and to comply with the merchants' request, the return of complete normalcy, as soon as possible.

Normalcy had been with the foot soldiers across the Atlanta University Center had been protesting against.

In the waiting period, co-chairs for the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights worked with adult leaders, black and white, to craft a plan in conjunction with the merchants to desegregate eating establishments in Atlanta.

[Sam Massell] I did meet on many occasions, both...uh...uh...with Ivan...uh...and uh...students...uh...and other civil rights activists...uh...who were already...uh...the seniors in the community.

[Narrator] On September 28th, 1961, almost a year after the major coordinated protest began, 17 merchants representing 77 eating establishments desegregated.

Atlanta was the 104th city to desegregate since February 1st, 1960, when the sit-in movement began in Greensboro, North Carolina, with four students from North Carolina A&T College.

[Logan] I know that set the tone here in Atlanta.

And I think it helped us to avoid that climate of violence that happened in other cities.

And it was solely because these people were respected enough, and they had the acumen, intellectual and business acumen, to...to bring about these coalitions, to mediate, to create a better climate.

[Narrator] Atlanta would not be Atlanta without the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights and the Atlanta student movement.

It took every picket line, every march, every sit-in, every kneel-in, in every step for Atlanta to become the international city it is today.

[Rep. Lewis] And the South, including the city of Atlanta, would never, ever be the same because of the contribution these young students made.

[Sam Massell] Well, I'm proud of Atlanta, and that we were able to do it...uh...uh...much more smoothly than...than competing cities.

[Young] Well, the civil rights movement came out of Atlanta.

It continued with my being in Congress.

If it hadn't been for the civil rights movement, Jimmy Carter never would've been president.

Uh...Bill Clinton never would've been president.

Uh...we wouldn't have had all of these Black federal judges appointed.

[Narrator] At the start of the school year in 1960, these young women were simply good, old-fashioned college freshmen, showing up for an education and adventure and all of the excitement college life can bring.

They were young, but they trusted their student leaders.

They trusted their instinct and they trusted their ability to make a difference in an unjust system.

Their names are not highlighted in major historical records, but their activism is a part of the legacy of Spelman College, Atlanta and the world.

[Bell] Be passionate about what you're going to do, believe in what you're going to do, and then, take God with you.

Because without those three things, you may not succeed.

But I think, we a...during the time that we were, you know...being activists, those were the things that we relied on.

[Thomas] How could I...how could I come out of Gary and make that transition?

What happened?

And it was the hot dog.

It represented...um...you are...you are telling me that I wasn't good enough to sit next to you, but you taught me, you counseled me, and I sat next to you in high school.

And now, you tell me I'm not good enough.

[Strawbridge] Even though I knew KKK were against us, you were taught to love all people.

[Thomas] You questioned about me as a person, I think.

You questioned my personhood based on the color of my skin.

You didn't even ask me, "Was I smart?"

You didn't even talk to me.

You didn't know anything about me.

You just looked at the color of my skin and made a determination about me.

That was an insult to me.

[Logan] And as my grandchildren get older and more able to comprehend the severity of the situation, I wanna make sure that they know what transpired.

[Strawbridge] I just felt that they were misguided.

So, I try not to let people...uh...bring me down to their level of thinking.

[Logan] So, it made us all more proud of...uh...being Black and being a part of it.

[Harris] Uh...it taught me teamwork.

It taught me how to be a follower.

It gave me...uh...a...a sight and a vision into what it took to be a leader.

Uh...and it taught me...uh...how to stick with something.

How to stay with a particular task until it was completed.

[Strawbridge] It taught me perseverance, commitment, and compassion.

[Harris] Uh...that whole Spelman experience played itself out when I was in the military.

I was the first African American woman to be a general in the Air Force...uh... and the first African American woman to get two stars in the country.

[Thomas] I'm sorry, I let...um...myself get caught up in...um...I better not do it for what my mother... what my mother said.

I'm sorry I didn't march more.

I'm sorry I didn't work harder.

I'm sorry I didn't go to jail.

Um...

I don't know...

I just feel like, I didn't do enough.

[Bell] It was a...a...a passion for the movement.

I...I...like I said, I just felt like I had to go.

[Thomas] I'm grateful for the spirit that was in me, that said, "Do something."

[Bell] I believed in doing something to make a change.

[Logan] Our children have been brought up in a bubble, and they just aren't aware of the sacrifices of so many who made it possible for us to have the opportunities that we have today.

And we should never, ever take it for granted.

[Mitchell] I substitute teach and the children love to hear the stories.

And I try to encourage them to be proud of their heritage, to make sure that they... um...have pride in themselves.

[Logan] And there are so many people who say, "Oh, you know, that's old news.

I've seen that before."

But we must never forget.

[Mitchell] I tell them about my experiences, tell them that if it had not been for...you know... the past generations of the people who have fought and died or have marched, that they would not be able to eat where they want to eat or...or go and try on clothes in the same...at the stores.

Just...you know...

I try and keep that...uh...when I teach social studies, that's the first thing.

And nobody can tell me not to do it because I do it.

(laughs) [Logan] After learning about all of the things that happen, it was just an enormous sacrifice that so many made for the struggle.

[Narrator] These are just a few of the women of the Spelman College Class of 1964.

Women who heard the call for change and answered it.

They were the foot soldiers, who joined the movement with students from Morehouse College, Clark College, Morris Brown College, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta University, and students from other colleges in Atlanta and the U.S.

These young women were marching to undo the inequalities and the injustices in Atlanta, to make the city soar like the phoenix that is its symbol, and to take the world with them.

This is their story.

(gentle piano and organ music) (jazzy piano and bass music)