When you think about the Greensboro sit-in at Woolworth’s whites-only lunch counter, you probably think about the A&T Four — the male freshmen widely credited with the movement.
But Linda Beatrice Brown, a Bennett College alumna, wants people to know that there were hundreds of young women who participated in the sit-ins, too. She was one of them and says there was a time when half of her college was incarcerated for protesting.
“If it hadn't been for the Bennett women … I mean, the Bennett women sustained this constant pressure," Brown said. "So I was really tired of Bennett not getting the credit that Bennett deserves for this movement.”
Her book, Belles of Liberty: Gender, Bennett College, and the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro, North Carolina, was originally published in 2013. It’s being reissued with a new preface drawing parallels between the fight for justice in the 1960s and today.
Brown will be speaking about her book at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro on Saturday at 4 p.m.