Lunch Counter Sit-Ins (1960)

Duration: 39:22:00

Year Published: 1960

Sound: No Sound on Film

Description: This unedited footage from Houston’s KPRC-TV follows the lunch counter demonstrations across Houston in March 1960 as well as the hate crime committed in retaliation. Under Jim Crow, racial segregation extended to the lunch counters at supermarkets and department, drug, and variety stores. On February 1, 1960, four African-American college students launched a protest against such racial inequality at a Woolworth department store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Greensboro Four, as they came to be known, sat down at the white-only lunch counter and politely asked for service. When their request was denied, the students peaceably remained in their seats until the store closed. The six-month-long demonstration sparked a national movement, with students staging similar sit-ins at segregated stores across the South. Protests in Houston began on March 4, when a group of 13 Texas Southern University students sat at the lunch counter of a Weingarten’s Supermarket. The next day, demonstrators moved to Mading’s Drugs. While such activism started at stores near campus, the sit-ins eventually spread throughout Houston. This footage captures sit-ins at multiple stores, including the downtown Woolworth’s. Some operators attempt to deter protesters by closing lunch counters; others look to continue serving only white customers via food truck. Outside City Hall, protesters hold signs urging desegregation. While demonstrations were peaceful, all responses were not. On March 7, four hooded white men abducted and assaulted 27-year-old Felton Turner. The assailants told Turner they were hired to hurt him in retaliation for the lunch counter protests. The film intercuts footage of sit-ins with that documenting the law enforcement investigation into Turner’s attack. The assault further galvanized the local civil rights movement, with most city businesses desegregating by the close of 1960. Please note, this film contains sensitive footage documenting injuries to a hate-crime victim. Viewer discretion is advised.