Good Books
Please Be Seated (It's Your Right)
Ivy F. DeShield, contributing editor
On February 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College sat down at Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked to be served. The college freshmen became known as the Greensboro Four. —Author’s Note excerpt
The actions of the Greensboro Four were a continuation of the still ongoing struggle of citizens everywhere fighting for the restoration of the dignity and respect of all persons across our nation and beyond. Because of their successful efforts, and those preceding and following, in challenging segregation (Jim Crow) laws, most African-Americans, today, do not suffer the shame of being refused service in or admission into a public establishment, i.e. restaurant, movie theatre, hospital, library, etc., because of skin color.
University of North Carolina graduate and gifted journalist, writer, and poet, Carole Boston Weatherford, along with award-winning illustrator, Jerome Lagarrigue, recreated the setting for the famous 1960 lunch counter sit-ins in her historical children’s work, Freedom on the Menu: the Greensboro Sit-Ins. Weatherford’s simplistic, yet moving, account of the equal rights struggle from a young African-American girl’s perspective is the perfect read for children of all ages. The child, eight-year-old Connie, has a rather mature, matter-of-fact voice as she briefly describes the conditions of her world in the Jim Crow South, but reveals her delightful innocence in rare moments, like when she asks, “Who’s sick?” in response to her Daddy’s announcement that Dr. King is coming to town. As both her brother and sister become directly involved in the Civil Rights Movement after joining the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Connie begins to consider her own dreams and particular role in the uprising.
And to the surprise of Connie and Greensboro locals, her dreams soon become a reality when four local “colored” college boys take a stand for civil rights by sitting at a local lunch counter for four hours in protest of the then-current Jim Crow laws. Connie’s inexperience though leads her to wonder about their actions, but her Daddy affirms that the young men simply “wanted to be allowed to get [food], same as if they were white. To be treated fairly.” A simple act in demand of a simple human right; yet, the results were far-reaching and changed the course of history forever, as more students and supporters across the South banned together to exact fairness in the laws for everyone.
Weatherford’s forthright tale marks a major turning point in America’s narrative and the resurgence of the down-trodden through the willpower and stubbornness of young men who simply said, “Enough is enough.” To add, Lagarrigue’s softly painted illustrations reveal quietly distressed, earthy hues that beautifully reflect the murky, ambivalent atmosphere and attitudes of the period. Also, the indistinct, blurred features of his painted figures throughout the story from lunch counter to street corner, hint at the anonymity of the oppressors and the oppressed to emphasize the responsibility we all have in helping secure social, economic and political justice for humankind.
On July 25, 1960, blacks were finally allowed to eat at the Woolworth’s lunch counter. The first served were the lunch counter’s black workers. “I am very proud of that,” said Geneva Tisdale, who worked behind the counter for thirty-five years. “We’ve come a long way.” —Author’s Note excerpt