Dependable Erection

Monday, December 17, 2007

Royal Ice Cream sit-in to get highway marker

Via email from community activist John Schelp:
This afternoon, the State marker commission in Raleigh
voted to erect a State marker in Durham for the 1957
Royal Ice Cream sit-in.

The Durham delegation, led by R. Kelly Bryant and
Virginia Williams, did us all proud.


The N&O notes:
The new marker will be just the state's fourth commemorating a civil rights event. In all, more than 1,500 historic markers dot the state's highways, each denoting a person, place or event that members of this committee -- a revolving collection of history professors from across North Carolina -- have deemed of statewide significance.


Only four events in the history of the civil rights movement in the state of North Carolina are worth remembering? That can't really be true, can it?

UPDATE: More from N&O and Herald-Sun. The H-S story notes the approved text of the new marker:
"Segregation protest at an ice cream parlor on this site, June 23, 1957, led to court case testing dual racial facilities."

Got to say that seems a bit weak to me.

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posted by Barry at 4:24 PM Digg this

2 Comments:

  • Yep, that's what we've been saying. Of the 1,513 State markers across North Carolina, only four are for Civil Rights.

    Go to the NC Archives/marker site... http://www.ncmarkers.com/search.aspx

    Go down to KEYWORDS and click on "Civil Rights." Three markers will appear (apparently the State has another on the way, making it four).

    And now, finally, we can add Durham's 1957 sit-in.

    ~John

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:16 PM  

  • We were surprised to see the marker text as part of the State commission's vote -- and felt it could be improved.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:04 AM  

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