By Catie Byrne, Staff Writer

Published in print Feb. 4, 2015

Clarence “Curly” Harris was the store manager at Greensboro’s Woolworth during the Sit-In Movement. Despite his position, Khazan describes Harris as a person of great character.

“I didn’t look at him for the color of his skin, I listened to his stories,” said Khazan. “His story was, ‘I am a guy who started out small. For 30 years, I worked hard to make my store the number two store in the south.’”

On the first day of the sit-ins, Harris told Khazan and friends, “‘I’m in a situation where I can’t serve you because the other stores, they will get my business and I’ll get shut down. It’s been my 30 year struggle to make this the number one store in the south—It’s gone.”

For the remainder of his life, Harris collected an extensive scrapbook from newspaper clippings and personal notes on the sit-ins. However, there appeared to be conflicts of motivation in his actions and position at Woolworth.

On the one hand, Harris wanted Woolworth to succeed financially. Yet, on the other, it appeared that he supported the protests.

Never once did Harris call the police, or take any action to remove the students from the booth. His daughter, Carolyn Harris, was a Black Stockings Girl, although no information leads to her being present during the protests.

There is evidence that Harris called for a meeting at the then newly formed Human Relations Committee to ask all restaurant owners in downtown Greensboro to discuss the possibility of serving all people at the counter.

“They are sitting on your seats, not ours,” was the answer recorded in Harris’ scrapbook.