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State places historical marker to commemorate 1957 Durham sit-in

Fifty-one years ago today, seven black people sat down and waited for service in the whites-only section of Durham's Royal Ice Cream parlor.

Then, they got arrested. Late this afternoon, they get commemorated.

"It just shows that a lot of things have changed in 50 years," said Eddie Davis of Durham, who spearheaded an effort to get a state historical marker placed at the Royal Ice Cream site.

Sit-in made civil rights history

Fifty years ago this afternoon, seven people waited for service in a Durham ice cream parlor.

Service didn't come. They were black. The room where they sat was for whites only.

What did come was a request to leave, then an awkward standoff with a perplexed waiter, then arrests, trials, convictions for trespassing, appeals as far as the U.S. Supreme Court, and fines of $25 each and costs for committing one of the South's first sit-ins for civil rights.

Civil rights protest finally gets its due

The vacant lot at the northeast corner of Dowd and Roxboro streets doesn't look like much. But an ice cream parlor once stood on that spot, and more than 50 years ago, seven bold African-Americans made history.

The June 23, 1957, sit-in there didn't attract the attention of a similar protest nearly three years later at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro. But on Monday, nine history professors decided it was significant enough to earn official state recognition. So after five decades and two attempts by Durham activists, the state next year will place an official North Carolina highway marker on the site, denoting the location of the Royal Ice Cream Co. sit-in.

It will be just the fourth dedicated to the civil rights movement.

50 years after sit-in, a reunion

With hugs and handshakes all around, a remembrance of a landmark civil rights sit-in Saturday looked like a homecoming.

Some people squinted through their glasses at the person standing nearby, searching their memories for that long-ago, much younger face.

Saturday's event, which took place at the Durham County Library, marked 50 years since seven young people marched into the Royal Ice Cream parlor on North Roxboro Street and placed their orders, only to be hauled away to jail. They were black, and they had sat down in seats meant for whites.

Fifty years ago, four black students began a peaceful protest to change America

On Feb. 1, 1960, four black teens sat down at a "whites-only" Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr. and David Richmond wanted much more than the coffee and donuts the waitress refused to serve them. Their goal was to stop the unfair treatment of blacks at that lunch counter and many other places in the United States.

The "Greensboro Four," along with friends and supporters, continued to return to the lunch counter every day. After six months, the students were finally served.

Peaceful Protesters