Sponsored by Nashville Public Library. They succeeded because they had right on their side, and also because they had the courage it took to stay the course even when their lives were on the line. The seeds of revolution were planted in a church fellowship hall, in dorm rooms and in a rented house along Jefferson Street. They were nurtured in a pivotal emergency meeting at First Baptist Church Capitol Hill, with all who were there convinced that the very idea of America was up for grabs.
When the revolutionaries were ready, they attacked. More than 50 years ago, a group of Nashville college students joined forces with local preachers to create a nonviolent army that went to war with the segregated South. While similar groups did the same kind of work in other cities, the Nashville students had the first and most wide-ranging success in the decade when Jim Crow was routed. They stayed at it with such resolve that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
And later, when violence threatened to break them, the students defied the adults who advised them and kept going. They rode buses into police-sanctioned assaults in Alabama, knowing they might die - a decision made during that crucial First Baptist meeting, after one of them, John Lewis, posed two simple questions. The students were - and are - complicated human beings. Many would go on to achieve spectacular successes, while others met spectacular failure. But most would come to view the protests as the most important undertaking of their lives.
The students came together under the Rev. In the fall of , Lawson started holding workshops on nonviolent action. As Lawson stood or sat on one side of the fellowship hall and the students sat in rows of chairs, they talked about Jesus, Gandhi and Thoreau. Or they would role-play a sit-in, with some students pretending to ignore those who stood behind them, yelling slurs and blowing smoke in their faces.
Lawson taught the students to react to violence by turning the other cheek and taking the blows. And yet the students were meticulous about their own conduct. Be friendly and courteous. Always face the counter. The Nashville sit-ins began on Feb. On the first two weekends, waitresses refused to serve the students, so they sat at the counters and quietly did their homework. On the third Saturday, Feb.
