Civil Rights demonstrations at Woolworth, Jamaica, Queens, Ralph Diamond, Vice President, Local 259 U.A.W.
To Use This Document
With Your Students
Date
1960
Description
Black and white photograph depicting an organized Long Island Civil Rights demonstration in Jamaica, Queens in front of the Woolworth building. Man wearing a sign that reads: "JAMAICA BRANCH / N.A.A.C.P. / SUPPORTS / SOUTHERN / SIT-INS" and holding a sign in his right hand that reads: "MEMO TO / WOOLWORTH / SERVING ALL / SERVES / AMERICA! / CORE.: Beginning February 1, 1960, students in Greensboro, North Carolina, conducted peaceful demonstrations called sit-ins that finally led to the desegregation of the lunch counter at F. W. Woolworth in July of that year. In New York, Saturday, March 5 was selected by the NAACP as a day of statewide sympathy picketing to amplify the power of the voices in Greensboro. Protests took place in Jamaica (pictured here), Flushing, Astoria, and Hempstead, and continued at various sites across New York every Saturday for many weeks. Hempstead’s NAACP chapter president Rev. Robert C. Chapman explained to the press, “We are trying to help the [store] chains understand that this is no less an affront to us than it is to our brothers in the South.” This powerful collection of photographs shows people of different races and generations working together in their own community to make national change.
Type
Photograph
Region
Long Island
Era
Postwar United States
Topic
African Americans, Civil Rights, Community
Repository
Identifier
2014.003.0008
Source
Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY, Gift of Eugene Burnett, 2014
Rights
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