Atlanta Student Movement

In February 1960, here at the site of Yates and Milton Drugstore, three students from Morehouse College-Lonnie King, Joseph Pierce, and Julian Bond-began to rally students from Atlanta's other five historically black institutions- Atlanta University, Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College- and launched the Atlanta Student Movement that helped to destroy Jim Crow in the American South. Following publication of An Appeal for Human Rights, authored by Roslyn Pope, the students waged a non-violent campaign that led to the desegregation of restaurants, movie theaters, parks and other federal, state, and local facilities. The first student sit-ins at 11 eating facilities in downtown Atlanta on March 15, 1960, led to the arrest of 77 students. Black and white leaders eventually negotiated a settlement that desegregated lunch counters in October 1961.