“The ‘WC3’ were recognized by their WC-UNC class Jackets.”

By Daniel Wirtheim, Features Editor

Published in print Feb. 4, 2015

Black Stocking Girls

In 1960, when UNCG was an all-women’s college (WC-UNC), the Black Stocking Girls were at the peak of avant-garde. They were disciples of the beat poets and were known for their progressive beliefs on social and sexual affairs. Their long black stockings had a shock-value in the conservative south. There was no real art building, so they painted in the gymnasium, where they were despised by the less avant-garde “North Carolina Bible Belt girls,” as Betsy Toth, puts it.

The first documented white protestors at Woolworth’s were Black Stockings Girls. They all lived in the New Guilford Dormitories, where they snuck boys in and spread rumors of a baby being buried beneath the floorboards. Since then, the New Guilford dormitories have been renamed Mary Foust.

Ann Dearsley was a senior, and the oldest of the three. She was editor of the Coraddi, where she published her short story, “Stephen,” one month after the Sit-Ins. There’s nothing in her writing that suggests overt political feelings. Her writing is lyrical and clearly motivated by poets like Robert Frost, whom she met during an Art Forum as editor of the Coraddi.

Oral interviews with the Black Stocking Girls point to Dearsley being the ringleader of the group. Most say it was because she was older, but it could have something to do with her pragmatic, straightforward views on life, especially on the subject of a segregated south.

“That’s the silliest thing we’ve ever heard, you can’t buy a cup of coffee ’cause you’re black,” recounted Dearsley. “And we said, ‘well, we figure that needs to change.”

Eugenia “Genie” Seamans was a sophomore, studying to be an Art Therapist. She was from a southern family. She worked in the cafeteria, along with a group of students from A & T University, whom she was accused of flirting with during the Sit-Ins.

There’s little to suggest that Seamans had any political impetus for joining the Sit-Ins. In her oral interview with University Archives, she recalls wanting to join the Sit-Ins “as a Southern person, to show that not all Southerners were as bigoted as we are sometimes portrayed.”

Marilyn Lott was a sophomore, studying English. She was studious, took theater seriously and was annoyed by the other girls of New Guilford who would spend their time playing bridge, a popular card game in 1960. It could have been due to her demanding schedule, performing and doing technical assistance for the theatre, that Lott recalls almost nothing of Seamans or Dearsley before the Sit-Ins.

In fact, none of the girls remembers exactly when and where they met. Seamans and Dearsley say the cafeteria, Lott is not so sure. All that’s clear is that each of them made it to the Woolworth’s counter around noon of Feb. 4, 1960.

February 4th

There were very few televisions at WC-UNC, and in Feb. of 1960, they were never left the Kennedy-Nixon debate. The newspaper was the only way of obtaining any local news, and that’s how Dearsley and Seamans discovered the protest at Woolworth’s.

They met during breakfast, being that the Black Stocking Girls were a tight-knit group, and both Seamans and Dearsley agreed that they would attend the protest after class. Lott had a brother who attended Greensboro College. He called her on Feb. 3 to explain what was happening, and she decided she would go.

All three had the same destination, but they walked separately. They took the same route, through the back entrance of WC-UNC that connects to Market Street and downtown, to the Woolworth’s on South Elm. It was a cold day; they wore their class jackets.

“I walked downtown. I walked instead of taking the bus because I wanted that sense of thoughtfulness, and purpose, and thinking about what I was doing,” recalled Seamans. “So I walked by myself, downtown, from campus and I didn’t know exactly what was happening, and I just walked into Woolworth’s and walked back to the back where the lunch counter was and it became apparent what to do, which was to get a seat.”

By the time Seamans arrived, the other two were already seated at the counter. Although there was no planning, no prior speech, in each girl’s testimony, the words they give to the waitress are exactly the same. “They were here first.”

The Jacket

The WC-UNC class jackets made the girls immediately recognizable in media photography. It was well publicized, they were dubbed, “the WC3.”

The jackets are made of wool and bear the WC-UNC’s emblem. Lott estimates that a comparable jacket would cost around $300 today.

The administration’s reaction to the students who participated in the Sit-Ins varies with each account. Dearsley recalls being expelled from WC-UNC by Katherine Taylor, who was Dean during the Sit-Ins. Dearsley claims she was reinstated when her father called Dean Taylor from London, demanding that she change her mind.

Seamans paints a different picture of Dean Taylor. Seamans recalls that the Dean was supportive of her involvement with the protests, although she was warned of repercussions within the legal system. This contradicts Lott’s story, which like Dearsley’s, claims that Dean Taylor reprimanded the students for their involvement in the Sit-Ins.