ECSU and NC Civil Rights Trail to Unveil Historic Marker Honoring Civil Rights Student Activists

Posted By: Kennedy Williams on October 10, 2022

Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) and the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail will unveil a historical marker honoring Elizabeth City State Teachers College (ECSTC) students who led early sit ins in 1960. The unveiling and celebration are scheduled for Thursday, October 13, 2022, at 3 p.m. at the site of the former W.T. Grant Store, 301-303 East Main Street, where the sit ins began.

In February 1960, a group of students from Elizabeth City State Teachers College (now ECSU) changed downtown Elizabeth City forever. In defiance of Jim Crow, they chose to sit in at the lunch counter of the W. T. Grant Department store at 301-303 East Main Street. Until now, this episode of civil rights history has been largely forgotten.

This marker will be the first of its kind in Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County. It is part of the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail, a venture funded by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, supported by North Carolina Office of Archives & History and Visit North Carolina, and led by the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission. The Commission is working with communities across the state to designate up to 50 sites where trail markers will be placed.

The marker is the result of a grant application ECSU submitted in 2021 with the support and approval of Elizabeth City government, in particular, the 2020-2022 Elizabeth City Council and then-mayor Betty Parker.

SOURCE Elizabeth City State University
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Kennedy Williams
From Loganville, GA
Spelman College class of 2020
Member Since July 2016

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