#sit-in

“This bathroom sit-in sets an example of the righteous defiance and solidarity needed under a second Trump administration,” Gender Liberation Movement said in a press release, citing support from transgender and cisgender participants. The group said survivors of sexual violence also joined the protest to demand that proponents of bathroom bills stop falsely accusing trans women of endangering cis women when they use women’s facilities.  

Photo credit: AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, file

On February 1, 1960, 66 years ago today, 4 Black college students sat at a whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC. In doing so, they inspired thousands to stand up and march for equality and justice. Remembering the Greensboro Four today on the first day of #BlackHistoryMonth.

 The U.S. civil-rights movement – a desire for equality and freedom for Blacks – can trace its roots to the mid-1950s, but it was a slow process. In Nashville, downtown department stores gladly took the money of Black customers, but banned them from using washrooms or restaurants. By late 1959, student leaders and Christian groups in the city had an idea – disciplined, non-violent demonstrations. Months of planning took place during which the students were advised, “Do not strike back or curse if abused. … Do show yourself courteous and friendly at all times. … Remember the teachings of Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. Love and nonviolence is the way.” On this day in 1960, at about 12:40 p.m., 124 college students walked into Kress, Woolworth’s and McClellan stores, made some purchases, then sat at the lunch counters. They were refused service. So the demonstrators sat there quietly and left after a couple of hours. The scene would be repeated several times over the next few months, sometimes met by violence from angry white customers. The discrimination caused national and local outrage. By June, justice prevailed, the lunch counters were desegregated and the Nashville sit-ins became a model for peaceful civil-rights demonstrations.  - Philip King, Globe&Mail

Truthfully, he lost me at his worries over "Islamophobia", but he's moving in the right direction considering he teaches at Berkeley.