The Editorial Staff

Fifty-six years ago, four African American students at North Carolina A&T State University chose to defy all odds by sitting at the whites-only lunch counter at the Woolworth store in downtown Greensboro.

Despite being taunted, threatened and denied service, these men — and scores of others — continued their crusade for justice by repeatedly demanding service from their white counterparts.

Eventually, the movement gained steam and was copied by demonstrators in many other Southern cities, such as Nashville and Richmond. Then, after five months of persistent protest, Woolworth’s gave into the moral demands of the protesters and quietly agreed to serve African Americans at the lunch counter.

Now, we’re well aware of the popularity of this story — it’s hard to live in Greensboro and not know certain parts of it by heart. But one thing our staff was completely apathetic about was the media coverage of the event; and, specifically, the coverage provided by The Carolinian.

So, this week we delved into our archives and located the reporting conducted by our predecessors in 1960.

And, we must say, we were pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

In the February 12, 1960 issue of The Carolinian, an extensive report on the events at Woolworth’s was published.

In this article, the hard news of the event was accurately reported. Hence, the article detailed the origins of the movement, the failed negotiations to cease the protest and even the “anti-Negro protests” that accompanied the sit-ins at Woolworth’s.

Nevertheless, the tone of the article communicates a deep understanding of the plight of African Americans during this tumultuous time period. For instance, when outlining the rationale behind early settlement negotiations between Woolworth’s and the protesters, The Carolinian noted, “This action was taken in the hopes of achieving more quickly negotiations which would settle the strike peacefully and legally as well as being a means of expressing our personal sentiments concerning freedom, equality and the rights of the individual as expressed in the Constitution.”

And, more than that, the article detailed the actions of the many UNCG women — at this time, we were still a Women’s College, by the way — who marched down to Woolworth’s and joined the protesters in an act of solidarity.

As a student organization, we were very proud to learn of our past. You see, it’s nice to know that student journalism in the early ‘60s at UNCG was attuned and willing to hold progressive views on race in the segregated South.

Of course, the actions of The Carolinian and those Women’s College students who protested institutional racism at Woolworth’s pale in comparison to the heroic actions taken by the Greensboro Four and the other African American students that spurred a national movement.

Yet, The Carolinian, a white newspaper in a segregated city, should serve as an example of honest and truthful reporting in an atmosphere that may reject such activism; and we’re proud of that.