Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for July 25, 2017

Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day

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By Scott Rasmussen

The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.

July 25, 2017: On July 25, 1960, Geneva Tisdale, Susie Morrison, Anetha Jones, and Charles Best became the first black Americans served at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. The store served them as the first step in integrating its lunch counter. All four were Woolworth’s employees.

The stage for this moment was set on February 1, 1960, when four black students walked into a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina.

As described in my new book, Politics Has Failed: America Will Not:

“

Nobody knew it at the time, but Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil were about to make history. The students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College bought a few things, sat down at a segregated lunch counter, and politely asked to be served. They were refused, but did not back down. They stayed all day until closing. Within days, more than 300 students joined the protest in Greensboro. In the 97 years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the political system had not effectively ended segregation. Within a few months of the Greensboro Four’s sit-in, the first black customers were served at that Woolworth’s lunch counter. The reason for the change was simple and it had nothing to do with politics. Black consumers boycotted the store. The sit-ins and publicity surrounding them drove away other customers. The store simply got tired of losing money. The sit-in movement spread throughout the South. There was, of course, resistance. Often it was the political system that led the resistance. But, in the end, it was action outside of politics that brought integration to American lunch counters and other facilities.

”

The political resistance to change had been evident since the earliest days of the civil rights movement. After the Montgomery bus boycott desegregated bus lines in 1956, the city's political leaders implemented new ordinances that perpetuated segregation in the city. According to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., these ordinances made it a crime "for Negroes and whites to play together or participate jointly in any sport or game, even checkers, or to use the same parks or playgrounds." And, as King put it, "The two elements that are still most responsible for active segregationist sentiment are the newspapers and the politicians."

King acknowledged that progress came from outside the political process: “What lobbying and imploring could not do in legislative halls, marching feet accomplished a thousand miles away.”

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Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.

• July 24, 2017 – 121,000 pounds of cocaine seized by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents
• July 21, 2017 – 19 fatal airplane accidents in 2016; second-safest year ever
• July 20, 2017 – 12 men have walked on the moon
• July 19, 2017 – 9 countries surpass the U.S. in government trust ranking
• July 18, 2017 – 2,173,000 Americans incarcerated
• To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.

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Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia weekdays at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Click here to check out the latest update.

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Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.

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• Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day