RICHMOND—
In 1960, the tension from the civil rights movement is simmering throughout the south.
Young black college students and some whites challenged the laws of segregation."I think there was just kind of a feeling that something was going to happen", said Dr. Raymond Hylton, Virginia Union University History Professor.
With Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visiting black college campuses such as VUU, the movement picks up steam. The students staged protests and sit-ins at segregated stores and restaurants. A sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina was the first to test segregated system. The V-U-U students would do the same in downtown Richmond twenty days later.
V-U-U protester, Leroy Bray said "the thrust of the university then we can effectuate some change here and we don't need to accept the status quo ". He also added when blacks went to the segregated stores, they could not try on the clothing and they definitely eat at any of the restaurants.
February 20th, 1960 was day one of a two day movement. More than one hundred V-U-U students sat down at "white only" restaurants at Woolworth's, Grants and Thalhimer's. Elizabeth Thalhimer Smartt is the granddaughter of the late William Thalhimer Junior. She recalls the story her grandfather told her about that day. "Some manager from the restaurant called my grandfather and said black students have sat at the lunch counters. They're reading books. They're not ordering. They're just sitting. When the black students sat down, the restaurants shut down. On February 22nd, the students tried again. The crowd of protesters was even bigger. Leroy Bray was just a 19 year old freshman when he went to Thalhimer's.
"We walked in the door and sat at the lunch counter on the first floor. Some went into the Richmond room. You see the workers becoming busy. I suspect they called the higher ups, " said Bray.
Smartt remembers her grandfather's story about that day. "He said by law the police needed to come to ask them to leave because they had violated trespassing laws."
"The police came in and asked us to leave and if we didn't leave we were going to be arrested," said Bray.
Out of hundreds of student protesters, only 34 were arrested at Thalhimer's. Bray was one of the first to be arrested. "I had no idea how I was even going to get out of jail", said Bray.
Bray never found out who bailed him out, but he did know that the Richmond 34 got what they wanted. It became a test case that would eventually go the U.S. Supreme Court.
Thalhimer's was torn down in 2005 at its Broad and 6th Street location. The Thalhimer family says the decision to call the police that day was all about saving the family business. "It would have collapsed. The business would have collapsed," said Smartt.
She remembers how her grandfather felt during that time. "He said I would have integrated earlier, but I couldn't. It would have not been accepted by the majority of his clientele."
The Thalhimer's still took a hit. The sit-ins led to a year-long boycott and a two and half million dollar loss when blacks and sympathetic whites stopped shopping. Then, the family received threats when they tried to integrate more.
"The threats were apparently bad enough to have police guard outside and inside the house," said Smartt.
William Thalhimer's efforts to integrate early didn't go unnoticed, President John F. Kennedy commended him and other southern store owners at the white house. Leroy Bray says the Thalhimer's were victims too and remembers the man he met at the courthouse when the Richmond 34 went on trial.
"He said to us if you ever need a job come and see us and I did that", said Bray.
Bray ended up getting a job with Thalhimer's. How, he's a pastor at his own church in Chesterfield. 50 years later, the protesters, the university and the Thalhimiers are remembering how 34 students nudged the conscience of a city and a nation.
"What did we learn and how can you be an agent for change and I can be an agent for change and look what they did," said Smartt.
Sit-In | Stand Out A Project Recognizing the 50th Anniversary Of the Thalhimers Lunch Counter Sit-In February 17-22, 2010
