Principals in 1957 protest gather at unveiling

BY MATTHEW E. MILLIKEN

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- The five men and one woman who gathered beside North Roxboro Street Sunday afternoon came from different backgrounds. But they had one thing in common -- a connection to the moment commemorated by Durham's newest state highway historical marker.

The group included Douglas Moore, the Methodist pastor who led North Carolina's first sit-in; Virginia Williams, who along with Moore is among three known living participants of the sit-in; Billy Marsh, a lawyer who represented Moore, Williams and others arrested for trespassing on the whites-only side of Royal Ice Cream; Ugo Coletta, great nephew of the owners of Royal Ice Cream, the only white person in the group; Charles Dunham, who converted Royal Ice Cream to a restaurant; and R. Kelly Bryant, who unsuccessfully sought recognition for the sit-in until community members helped him.

Around 150 people gathered on the northeast corner of North Roxboro and Dowd streets as the six individuals assembled beneath the shrouded marker, which stood on a roughly 6.5-foot-high pole.

Organizer Eddie Davis tried to get everyone to face the same way.

Bill Bell assisted. "Billy, turn around," Durham's mayor shouted from the crowd.

Marsh complied. And at 3:41 p.m., at Davis' urging, spectators began counting down from 10.

At one, some people yelled "Pull!" The group did. The black shroud slid off.

The plaque's silver background glittered in the sun. Its text: "Segregation protest at an ice cream parlor on this site, June 23, 1957, led to court case testing dual racial facilities."

The event may never assume the prominence of the 1960 Greensboro Woolworth's sit-in, which sparked similar protests around the state and region. But the new plaque may broaden recognition of the 1957 protest.

As Bryant put it: "We hope the dedication here will last for history."

Pastor Kenneth Hammond, whose Union Baptist Church owns the land where Royal Ice Cream and Charlie Dunham's once sat -- it is now home to Union Independent School -- gave the invocation.

"We thank you for those upon whose shoulders we are able to stand and continue the fight for equality, liberty and justice," Hammond said.

Moore, a former Washington, D.C., city council member, said he had nearly forgotten the sit-in when Davis called to organize a 2007 commemoration. That led to a successful campaign for the highway marker.

"I was delightfully surprised when the people of Durham began to look at what happened on this site and began to work on something positive," Moore said.

He said he had been dry-eyed through many funerals, including his mother's and grandmother's, but shed tears Sunday morning.

Moore urged the crowd to tell their children what the plaque represents. "Now you've said something to the world and this state," he said. "We will not forget those who struggled for us."

Williams recognized representatives of absent fellow protesters and noted that one protest participant, Jesse Gray, had led the 1963 "rat rent strike" of tenants of vermin-infested Harlem apartments in New York City.

She praised Davis and Bryant for persuading state officials to devote a plaque to the sit-in. She joked that Bryant had insisted upon having a monument even if he himself had to be propped up on the site.

Marsh wryly reminisced about being called to the jail to help the protesters, who were never actually handcuffed or put behind bars.

Upon being told the defendants were students -- although he said they all turned out to hold jobs -- he recalled asking a telephone caller, "Do they have any money?"

Marsh joked that Moore was a member of the "brokest" group he had ever met.

"If they'd been served," the attorney said "he couldn't have purchased a glass of water."