The Southern University 16:
A Tribute to 16 African-American College Students
Whose Sacrifices Improved the Lives of All of Us
by Jevaillier Jefferson
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For participating in the sit-ins of March 28 , 29 and 30, 1960, 16 African-American college students were expelled from Southern University and barred from all public colleges and universities in the state of Louisiana, their educations interrupted, their lives, those of their families, and those of African Americans forever changed.
We salute their dignity, forever recorded by the United States Supreme Court: "Thus, having shown that these records contain no evidence to support a finding that petitioners disturbed the peace, either by outwardly boisterous conduct or by passive [368 U.S. 157, 174] conduct likely to cause a public disturbance, we hold that these convictions violated petitioners' right to due process of law guaranteed them by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The undisputed evidence shows that the police who arrested the petitioners were left with nothing to support their actions except their own opinions that it was a breach of the peace for the petitioners to sit peacefully in a place where custom decreed they should not sit. Such activity, in the circumstances of these cases, is not evidence of any crime and cannot be so considered by the police or by the courts." Chief Justice Earl Warren for the U.S. Supreme Court
March 28, 1960
The S.H. Kress Department Store Group:
Janette Hoston Harris, Psychology
John Johnson, Law
Kenneth Johnson, Law
JoAnn Morris, Sociology
Donald Moss, Law
Marvin Robinson, Business, Student Government President
Felton Valdry, Biology
We salute them for their perception of a Movement for Freedom begun:
Student campus-leaders asked African-American students to participate in what they referred to as "The Cause." "We'd read about North Carolina A&T in February. We met at the law school, and talked about ways we could support North Carolina A&T College. We had a laundry list of things, but we cut it down to about four or five things," Dr. Janette Hoston Harris said.
On Feb. 1, 1960, Ezell Blair Jr. (who, in 1968, changed his name to Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond, freshmen at North Carolina A&T College, entered Woolworth's on Elm Street in Greensboro, NC They purchased sundries and school supplies. Around 4:30 p.m., they sit at Woolworth's lunch counter and order coffee. They are denied service, and remain seated until the shop's 5 p.m. closing time. They are later dubbed the Greensboro Four. This sit-in set off a wave of similar actions around the South, resulting in protests against Woolworth's and other popular store chains around the country. College students were fired up.
Hoston Harris said the group consulted strategist Major Johns to decide their exact plan. "It was decided that he wouldn't share the information with anybody, because if you share it with anybody, the whole campus would know about it. We wanted it to be a complete surprise," the former University of the District of Columbia professor recalled.
JoAnn Morris, then an 18-year-old freshman, is a native of Shreveport, 211 miles north of Louisiana's capital city. Her involvement in "The Cause" stemmed from Morris attending a meeting held in a gymnasium near her dormitory, Lottie Anthony Hall. The Alabama A&M University English professor said the meeting was set to feature a speaker who was a no-show after alleged threats by white Baton Rougeans.
After the meeting, Morris said, "Marvin (Robinson) and all of the ones who were there that I sat in with gathered into this little side room. I happened to be standing there, and they were saying, ‘Well, man, we don't have anybody to come to speak tomorrow night.' She suggested that her cousin, Shreveport civil rights activist Dr. C.O. Simpkins, could address Southern's students the next night. After Simpkins' speech, Morris said they decided to sit- in. They chose who would go. It was then that they decided Janette would go, and they needed one more person. My cousin looked around and saw me. I was just willing to just sit back and let them do their thing, not that I was hiding or afraid. Simpkins suggested that Morris accompany the group. She accepted."
We salute them for their courage: March 28, 1960 -- the day the students decided to carry out their plan -- arrived quickly. "They came and got us. I was walking to my dorm with my roommate, and they tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Come to a meeting.' I knew then, that was it," Hoston Harris said. She told her roommate, "If anything happens, call my parents. Just take care of my things." She met the group, which included law students John Johnson, Kenneth Johnson and Donald Moss, sociology major JoAnn Morris, Student Government Association president and business major Marvin Robinson and biology major Felton Valdry at the law center, got into a car with them and departed Southern's campus. During the drive, Major Johns advised them that they would be visiting S.H. Kress drug store in downtown Baton Rouge, purchase items and request service at the store's lunch counter. Morris bought Noxzema facial cleanser and a plant, while Hoston Harris bought cosmetics.
Morris recalled sitting at the counter. "As we were sitting there, the young lady kept ignoring us. Finally the manager came and sat on the other end and ordered a bowl of soup or chili. I said, `See, Miss? It's not going to rub off. This man is sitting down here eating. Why can't you give us a bowl of whatever it was that we ordered?"
Hoston Harris' request got the restaurant's employees' attention, however. "I sat down and ordered a cup of tea. The woman was startled. She just looked at me. She didn't know what to do. I said, `Maybe you didn't understand. I'd like to have a cup of tea.'" She said the waitress looked at her again, and the manager told the waitress, "Tell her we don't serve Colored at the lunch counter. They can order here, but she has to drink it at the table over there behind that curtain." Hoston Harris said she told them, "No, I want to drink it here."
Morris said the police reached Kress within minutes. An officer whispered in each of the students' ears, "If you don't get up and leave I am going to have to embarrass you. Get up. You cannot sit here. If you don't get up and leave I am going to have to arrest you." The group was subsequently arrested, and endured a bumpy ride to a nearby all-Black jail. Hoston Harris said she and Morris shared a cell with four hardened female criminals between 25 and 30 years old. The women told the students, "Don't worry. You won't be in here long." This rang quite true for Hoston Harris; after her father spoke with his friend, Southern's president, Dr. Felton G. Clark, "Two men came to the jail and told me that I could be released. I said, ‘No, I am not going to leave until the others do.' We were all released a few hours later."
March 29, 1960
The Sitman's Drug Store Group:
John S. Garner, Political Science
Vernon Jordon, Political Science
March 29, 1960, John Garner and Vernon Jordan sat at a whites only lunch counter at Sitman's Drug Store.
The Greyhound Bus-Terminal Group:
Mary Briscoe (Kamaini), Political Science
Eddie C. Brown Jr, Political Science
Lawrence Hurst, Political Science
Sandra Ann Jones, Political Science
Mack Jones, Political Science
Larry Nicholas, Political Science
Charles Peabody, Political Science
Mary Briscoe (Kamaini), Eddie C. Brown Jr., Lawrence Hurst, Mack Jones, Sandra Ann Jones, Larry Nicholas and Charles Peabody "sat-in" at the Greyhound Bus-Terminal. All were arrested for disturbing the peace.
We salute their sacrifice: In the days that followed, there were huge rallies. The 16 students were summoned to a meeting with President Clark thereafter. Hoston Harris says they waited "a long time" before receiving the news that forever impacted their lives as Southern Jaguars. President Clark expelled the 16 students. They were told that they were barred from finishing their education in Louisiana. German emigrants and New York residents Albert and Toni Roothbert heard about the students' situation and funded about six of their educations, including those of Hoston Harris and Morris. Morris said she received additional funding from the National Service and Fund for Negro Students, NSFNS.
We salute their strength: Most of the six students received their undergraduate degrees from Central State University in Wilberforce, OH. Hoston Harris received a bachelor's in psychology in 1962, and Morris received a bachelor's in social welfare in 1964. Morris later received a master's in creative writing from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, KY., while Hoston Harris received a master's and doctorate from Howard University.
As the students finished their undergraduate work, they traveled to and from Louisiana to attend their trial. Hoston Harris and Morris described hostile conditions. "We sat for hours, from about 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., listening to other cases before our case was heard."
Asked by President Clark to write letters to a member of the State Board of Education apologizing and asking to be readmitted, they refused to do so. "Who is to say," says JoAnn Morris, "that we were not born for this"?
We salute them for vanquishing power foes, state governors and legislatures requiring Blacks to be forever segregated citizens obedient to the will of the white majority: No state law gives either the governor or the legislature the authority to expel students or to bar them from all state institutions of higher learning. Through intimidation, Governor Earl K. Long of the state of Louisiana ordered the president of Southern University to expel 16 students who had violated no University regulations. He gave the 16 students no due process. The day the first seven students were arrested, The Baton Rouge Advocate quotes Governor Long as saying, "I would suggest those who are not satisfied, like the seven at the lunch counter, return to their native Africa." The Louisiana Legislature amended its statutes after the Southern 16 sit-ins as follows: "No person shall without authority of laws go into or upon … any structure … which belongs to another … after having been forbidden to do so … by any owner, lessee, or custodian of the property or by any other authorized person. …" U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, agreeing with the Southern 16 answered: "Restaurants, whether in a drugstore, department store, or bus terminal, are a part of the public life of most of our communities. Though they are private enterprises, they are public facilities in which the States may not enforce a policy of racial segregation." Justice Douglas opinion was the first against racial discrimination in places open to the public. That opinion leads to the public accommodations law.
The Southern 16 lost at all levels of the State judicial system, District Court, Court of Appeals, the Louisiana Supreme Court. The Trial or District Court said that "the mere presence of Negroes in a white waiting room… was sufficient evidence of guilt," Taylor V. Louisiana, 370 U.S. 154(1962).The State Attorney General argued the State's case against the Southern 16. He lost only with the U.S. Supreme Court.
We salute them for freeing the presidents of state-run HBCUs from political pressure: The Governor of Louisiana ordered the President of Southern University to expel the Southern 16. No doubt Southern's president, Dr. Felton Clark, was under tremendous political pressure in 1960 to expel the 16 students. Members of the Louisiana Legislature made it clear that no president of a State run institution of higher learning could accept any of the 16 students.
We salute their families: Hoston Harris' family was forced out of Monroe, LA after her arrest. Hoston's Insurance Agency's houses were burned down. Her family moved to D.C. after her father was arrested on alleged, suspicious charges. JoAnn Morris says that her cousin left Shreveport for New York City after his house was bombed. A dentist in Shreveport, he was told that his license might not be renewed. All of the families incurred additional fees for tuition at and travel to institutions in other states.
Dr. Charles Harris Wesley, President of Central State College, was the only Black college president courageous enough to admit the expelled Southern students.
We honor their place in history: Their case, Garner v. Louisiana, was dismissed for lack of evidence on Dec. 11, 1961, setting a precedent for desegregating Southern restaurants. Hoston Harris said case attorney Thurgood Marshall, who would later become a Supreme Court Justice, advised the students to "stay strong and be careful in this environment."
Constant contact between members of The Southern 16 and the Southern University Alumni Federation's national president, Donald Wade, resulted in John Johnson, Donald Moss, Janette Hoston Harris and Marvin Robinson addressing Southern's 2003 Alumni Conference. Attending the alumni was "shocked" to hear these stories, and after Donald Moss' speech, "there was not a dry eye in the place."
We honor him whose pain continues: John S. Garner who transferred to law school at Howard University never got his law degree. Married with two children, he worked two jobs to sustain his family while studying law at Southern University. The move was too great for them. "They ruined my life," he says. He refused to accept an honorary degree from Southern.
We Salute Their Accomplishments: When Frederick A. Douglass was chided for agreeing to meet with his former **** master, Mr. Auld, he said, "I have nothing against him. He was trying to make a living. My freedom was my responsibility. It was not his to give. Had I remained a ****, I would have blamed no one but myself." You can hear the 16 saying, "Our freedom is our responsibility. It is not theirs to give. If we remain second-class citizens, we have no one to blame but ourselves." Their actions caused Blacks across the nation to assert their own freedom. But for them, we might all still be second-class citizens.
On May 14-15, 13 of the Southern 16 received honorary bachelor's degrees in the majors they were studying at the time of their expulsion, three received honorary law degrees at the spring 2004 commencement exercises, recognition long overdue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jevaillier Jefferson, a Los Angeles-based editor, received her bachelor's in print journalism from Southern University in 1994.
We salute their dignity, forever recorded by the United States Supreme Court: "Thus, having shown that these records contain no evidence to support a finding that petitioners disturbed the peace, either by outwardly boisterous conduct or by passive [368 U.S. 157, 174] conduct likely to cause a public disturbance, we hold that these convictions violated petitioners' right to due process of law guaranteed them by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The undisputed evidence shows that the police who arrested the petitioners were left with nothing to support their actions except their own opinions that it was a breach of the peace for the petitioners to sit peacefully in a place where custom decreed they should not sit. Such activity, in the circumstances of these cases, is not evidence of any crime and cannot be so considered by the police or by the courts." Chief Justice Earl Warren for the U.S. Supreme Court
March 28, 1960
The S.H. Kress Department Store Group:
Janette Hoston Harris, Psychology
John Johnson, Law
Kenneth Johnson, Law
JoAnn Morris, Sociology
Donald Moss, Law
Marvin Robinson, Business, Student Government President
Felton Valdry, Biology
We salute them for their perception of a Movement for Freedom begun:
Student campus-leaders asked African-American students to participate in what they referred to as "The Cause." "We'd read about North Carolina A&T in February. We met at the law school, and talked about ways we could support North Carolina A&T College. We had a laundry list of things, but we cut it down to about four or five things," Dr. Janette Hoston Harris said.
On Feb. 1, 1960, Ezell Blair Jr. (who, in 1968, changed his name to Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond, freshmen at North Carolina A&T College, entered Woolworth's on Elm Street in Greensboro, NC They purchased sundries and school supplies. Around 4:30 p.m., they sit at Woolworth's lunch counter and order coffee. They are denied service, and remain seated until the shop's 5 p.m. closing time. They are later dubbed the Greensboro Four. This sit-in set off a wave of similar actions around the South, resulting in protests against Woolworth's and other popular store chains around the country. College students were fired up.
Hoston Harris said the group consulted strategist Major Johns to decide their exact plan. "It was decided that he wouldn't share the information with anybody, because if you share it with anybody, the whole campus would know about it. We wanted it to be a complete surprise," the former University of the District of Columbia professor recalled.
JoAnn Morris, then an 18-year-old freshman, is a native of Shreveport, 211 miles north of Louisiana's capital city. Her involvement in "The Cause" stemmed from Morris attending a meeting held in a gymnasium near her dormitory, Lottie Anthony Hall. The Alabama A&M University English professor said the meeting was set to feature a speaker who was a no-show after alleged threats by white Baton Rougeans.
After the meeting, Morris said, "Marvin (Robinson) and all of the ones who were there that I sat in with gathered into this little side room. I happened to be standing there, and they were saying, ‘Well, man, we don't have anybody to come to speak tomorrow night.' She suggested that her cousin, Shreveport civil rights activist Dr. C.O. Simpkins, could address Southern's students the next night. After Simpkins' speech, Morris said they decided to sit- in. They chose who would go. It was then that they decided Janette would go, and they needed one more person. My cousin looked around and saw me. I was just willing to just sit back and let them do their thing, not that I was hiding or afraid. Simpkins suggested that Morris accompany the group. She accepted."
We salute them for their courage: March 28, 1960 -- the day the students decided to carry out their plan -- arrived quickly. "They came and got us. I was walking to my dorm with my roommate, and they tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Come to a meeting.' I knew then, that was it," Hoston Harris said. She told her roommate, "If anything happens, call my parents. Just take care of my things." She met the group, which included law students John Johnson, Kenneth Johnson and Donald Moss, sociology major JoAnn Morris, Student Government Association president and business major Marvin Robinson and biology major Felton Valdry at the law center, got into a car with them and departed Southern's campus. During the drive, Major Johns advised them that they would be visiting S.H. Kress drug store in downtown Baton Rouge, purchase items and request service at the store's lunch counter. Morris bought Noxzema facial cleanser and a plant, while Hoston Harris bought cosmetics.
Morris recalled sitting at the counter. "As we were sitting there, the young lady kept ignoring us. Finally the manager came and sat on the other end and ordered a bowl of soup or chili. I said, `See, Miss? It's not going to rub off. This man is sitting down here eating. Why can't you give us a bowl of whatever it was that we ordered?"
Hoston Harris' request got the restaurant's employees' attention, however. "I sat down and ordered a cup of tea. The woman was startled. She just looked at me. She didn't know what to do. I said, `Maybe you didn't understand. I'd like to have a cup of tea.'" She said the waitress looked at her again, and the manager told the waitress, "Tell her we don't serve Colored at the lunch counter. They can order here, but she has to drink it at the table over there behind that curtain." Hoston Harris said she told them, "No, I want to drink it here."
Morris said the police reached Kress within minutes. An officer whispered in each of the students' ears, "If you don't get up and leave I am going to have to embarrass you. Get up. You cannot sit here. If you don't get up and leave I am going to have to arrest you." The group was subsequently arrested, and endured a bumpy ride to a nearby all-Black jail. Hoston Harris said she and Morris shared a cell with four hardened female criminals between 25 and 30 years old. The women told the students, "Don't worry. You won't be in here long." This rang quite true for Hoston Harris; after her father spoke with his friend, Southern's president, Dr. Felton G. Clark, "Two men came to the jail and told me that I could be released. I said, ‘No, I am not going to leave until the others do.' We were all released a few hours later."
March 29, 1960
The Sitman's Drug Store Group:
John S. Garner, Political Science
Vernon Jordon, Political Science
March 29, 1960, John Garner and Vernon Jordan sat at a whites only lunch counter at Sitman's Drug Store.
The Greyhound Bus-Terminal Group:
Mary Briscoe (Kamaini), Political Science
Eddie C. Brown Jr, Political Science
Lawrence Hurst, Political Science
Sandra Ann Jones, Political Science
Mack Jones, Political Science
Larry Nicholas, Political Science
Charles Peabody, Political Science
Mary Briscoe (Kamaini), Eddie C. Brown Jr., Lawrence Hurst, Mack Jones, Sandra Ann Jones, Larry Nicholas and Charles Peabody "sat-in" at the Greyhound Bus-Terminal. All were arrested for disturbing the peace.
We salute their sacrifice: In the days that followed, there were huge rallies. The 16 students were summoned to a meeting with President Clark thereafter. Hoston Harris says they waited "a long time" before receiving the news that forever impacted their lives as Southern Jaguars. President Clark expelled the 16 students. They were told that they were barred from finishing their education in Louisiana. German emigrants and New York residents Albert and Toni Roothbert heard about the students' situation and funded about six of their educations, including those of Hoston Harris and Morris. Morris said she received additional funding from the National Service and Fund for Negro Students, NSFNS.
We salute their strength: Most of the six students received their undergraduate degrees from Central State University in Wilberforce, OH. Hoston Harris received a bachelor's in psychology in 1962, and Morris received a bachelor's in social welfare in 1964. Morris later received a master's in creative writing from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, KY., while Hoston Harris received a master's and doctorate from Howard University.
As the students finished their undergraduate work, they traveled to and from Louisiana to attend their trial. Hoston Harris and Morris described hostile conditions. "We sat for hours, from about 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., listening to other cases before our case was heard."
Asked by President Clark to write letters to a member of the State Board of Education apologizing and asking to be readmitted, they refused to do so. "Who is to say," says JoAnn Morris, "that we were not born for this"?
We salute them for vanquishing power foes, state governors and legislatures requiring Blacks to be forever segregated citizens obedient to the will of the white majority: No state law gives either the governor or the legislature the authority to expel students or to bar them from all state institutions of higher learning. Through intimidation, Governor Earl K. Long of the state of Louisiana ordered the president of Southern University to expel 16 students who had violated no University regulations. He gave the 16 students no due process. The day the first seven students were arrested, The Baton Rouge Advocate quotes Governor Long as saying, "I would suggest those who are not satisfied, like the seven at the lunch counter, return to their native Africa." The Louisiana Legislature amended its statutes after the Southern 16 sit-ins as follows: "No person shall without authority of laws go into or upon … any structure … which belongs to another … after having been forbidden to do so … by any owner, lessee, or custodian of the property or by any other authorized person. …" U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, agreeing with the Southern 16 answered: "Restaurants, whether in a drugstore, department store, or bus terminal, are a part of the public life of most of our communities. Though they are private enterprises, they are public facilities in which the States may not enforce a policy of racial segregation." Justice Douglas opinion was the first against racial discrimination in places open to the public. That opinion leads to the public accommodations law.
The Southern 16 lost at all levels of the State judicial system, District Court, Court of Appeals, the Louisiana Supreme Court. The Trial or District Court said that "the mere presence of Negroes in a white waiting room… was sufficient evidence of guilt," Taylor V. Louisiana, 370 U.S. 154(1962).The State Attorney General argued the State's case against the Southern 16. He lost only with the U.S. Supreme Court.
We salute them for freeing the presidents of state-run HBCUs from political pressure: The Governor of Louisiana ordered the President of Southern University to expel the Southern 16. No doubt Southern's president, Dr. Felton Clark, was under tremendous political pressure in 1960 to expel the 16 students. Members of the Louisiana Legislature made it clear that no president of a State run institution of higher learning could accept any of the 16 students.
We salute their families: Hoston Harris' family was forced out of Monroe, LA after her arrest. Hoston's Insurance Agency's houses were burned down. Her family moved to D.C. after her father was arrested on alleged, suspicious charges. JoAnn Morris says that her cousin left Shreveport for New York City after his house was bombed. A dentist in Shreveport, he was told that his license might not be renewed. All of the families incurred additional fees for tuition at and travel to institutions in other states.
Dr. Charles Harris Wesley, President of Central State College, was the only Black college president courageous enough to admit the expelled Southern students.
We honor their place in history: Their case, Garner v. Louisiana, was dismissed for lack of evidence on Dec. 11, 1961, setting a precedent for desegregating Southern restaurants. Hoston Harris said case attorney Thurgood Marshall, who would later become a Supreme Court Justice, advised the students to "stay strong and be careful in this environment."
Constant contact between members of The Southern 16 and the Southern University Alumni Federation's national president, Donald Wade, resulted in John Johnson, Donald Moss, Janette Hoston Harris and Marvin Robinson addressing Southern's 2003 Alumni Conference. Attending the alumni was "shocked" to hear these stories, and after Donald Moss' speech, "there was not a dry eye in the place."
We honor him whose pain continues: John S. Garner who transferred to law school at Howard University never got his law degree. Married with two children, he worked two jobs to sustain his family while studying law at Southern University. The move was too great for them. "They ruined my life," he says. He refused to accept an honorary degree from Southern.
We Salute Their Accomplishments: When Frederick A. Douglass was chided for agreeing to meet with his former **** master, Mr. Auld, he said, "I have nothing against him. He was trying to make a living. My freedom was my responsibility. It was not his to give. Had I remained a ****, I would have blamed no one but myself." You can hear the 16 saying, "Our freedom is our responsibility. It is not theirs to give. If we remain second-class citizens, we have no one to blame but ourselves." Their actions caused Blacks across the nation to assert their own freedom. But for them, we might all still be second-class citizens.
On May 14-15, 13 of the Southern 16 received honorary bachelor's degrees in the majors they were studying at the time of their expulsion, three received honorary law degrees at the spring 2004 commencement exercises, recognition long overdue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jevaillier Jefferson, a Los Angeles-based editor, received her bachelor's in print journalism from Southern University in 1994.
