Did You Know? Morgan State Led a 1955 Civil Rights Sit-In
Did You Know? Morgan State students Led An Early Civil Rights Sit-In
Did you know that Baltimore college students staged a lunch counter sit-in five years before the more widely known Greensboro protests? At Morgan State University today, a powerful exhibit inside the University Student Center preserves that little-known chapter of civil rights history, featuring original stools from the segregated Read’s drug store where the protest took place.
On January 20, 1955, Morgan State students joined members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to challenge segregation at Read’s Drug Store locations across Baltimore. One group entered the flagship Howard and Lexington store downtown, while another demonstrated for a week at the Northwood Shopping Center branch. Led by student activists including Ben Everinghim, Dean McQuay Kiah, and Dr. Helena Hicks, the protesters quietly took seats at the whites-only lunch counters and requested service.
The sit-in lasted less than 30 minutes. The students were denied service, but they left peacefully and without arrest. Their disciplined nonviolent action set an early example of the sit-in strategy that would later define the national civil rights movement. Morgan students continued organizing protests through the Civil Interest Group (CIG), helping desegregate businesses across downtown Baltimore.
Although often overshadowed by later Southern campaigns, the 1955 Baltimore sit-ins helped establish tactics that campuses nationwide would adopt to confront segregation. Today, the preserved stools and photographs at Morgan State stand as a reminder that students in Baltimore were among the first to test the power of direct action in the fight for equality.
Did You Know? Morgan State students Led An Early Civil Rights Sit-In was originally published on 92q.com
