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Lonnie King was born on August 30, 1936 in Arlington, Georgia.

He went into the Navy for three years before becoming involved in
the Civil Rights Movement after reading about a sit-in in
Greensboro, NC, at the Woolworths lunch counter. King decided
to organize similar sit-ins in Atlanta, with the help of fellow students Joseph Pierce and Julian Bond. During the time King led the
Atlanta Student Movement, he was the victim of three instances of
violence on the part of white men. In addition, he was jailed for
contempt of Court for ten hours for sitting in the section of the
courtroom designated for white citizens.
Just start off by telling us your story and what you were involved in with the Civil Rights
Movement.
I was born in Arlington,, Georgia in 1936. I spent the first eight years of my life in that Southwest
Georgia town living with my grandparents. My parents divorced when I was two and my mother
left Arlington to see a job in Atlanta.
When my grandfather died in 1944, I was sent to Atlanta to live with my mother in the March of
1945. My mother had been a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church since 1939. At the Spring
Revival in 1945, I joined the church and began an association with Martin Luther King Jrs, family
that would late prove pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta, the South and around the
country.
As soon as I arrived in Atlanta my mother enrolled me in the Butler Street YMCA. I had to go to the
YMCA every day but Sunday. My association with the Y lasted from 1945 to 1954. During this period, I met every important Negro leader in Atlanta who patronized the YMCA. During the days of
segregation, the Butler Street YMCA was the Negro City Hall. The powerful Negro leaders plotted strategy for the uplifting of the Negro people, which included voter registration drives, initiation
of law suits against discrimination, etc. No white politician could be elected, after Negroes got the
vote in the middle 1940s, that did not have the endorsement of the Negro leadership which had its
headquarters at the YMCA. Because I was at the Y I met all of these men and taught several how to
plat table tennis. Unaware at the time, I was being trained for leadership that was an important
ingredient in preparation for my future role in the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta. When I
emerged as the leader of the Student Movement in Atlanta, I already knew all of the movers and
shakers in the Negro community. Therefore, it was relatively easy to access the most forward thinking Negro leaders.
I graduated from David T. Howard High School in 1953, and enrolled in Morehouse College. I
attended Morehouse for only one year, and decided that I would enroll in the United States Navy in
order to secure the benefits of the G. I. Bill that would provide me with money for an education and

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also assist me in buying a home. I served in the Pacific Theater during the Korean Conflict from
1954 to 1957. I was discharged in August of 1957 and returned to Morehouse in the fall o f 1960. In
February of 1960, I was a senior at Morehouse and organized the Atlanta Student Movement that
changed Atlantas racial climate between 1960 and 1962.
It is my contention that the student-led Human Rights Movement in Atlanta, Georgia during the
period 1960-1965 was the catalyst for most, if not all, of the racial progress that buttressed Atlantas
claim that it was the city too busy to hate. The
student-led Civil Rights Movement erupted on
campuses of the Atlanta University System in 1960
like a dormant volcano, and successfully challenged segregation laws that had been present in
Atlanta and the South since the dawn of the 20th
century.

Approximately 95 percent of the students who

participated...were the
frst in their respective
families to go to college...many defied their
parents and risked their
lives to end segregation
based on race.

However, very little attention has been given to the

background and opinions of the thousands of
nameless Negro students, who marched, picketed,
faced jail terms, and conducted the most successful
boycott of Atlanta merchants in the history of the
Civil Rights Movement. In addition, Atlanta
University Center students initiated Freedom
Rides to test the Boynton v. Virginia ruling by the
Supreme Court, executed boycotts of chain grocery stores which resulted in the hiring of Negroes
above menial capacities. In addition, they successfully filed a law suit in federal court that ended
discrimination in parks and recreational facilities, initiated Kneel-Ins at white churches because
Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America, In addition, they started a newspaper,
The Atlanta Inquirer, which still operates today.
Approximately 95 percent of the students who participated in the Atlanta Student Movement were
the first in their respective families to go to college. And in so doing, many defied their parents and
risked their lives and careers to end segregation based upon race. An example of the type of student
the writer is referencing was a 16 year old freshman student from Birmingham, Alabama who was
attending Morehouse College in 1960. While there is no record that he defied his parents wishes by
participating in the Sit-Ins, it is clear that he wanted to be a part of the movement to end segregation.
This young man was arrested during the first sit-in on March 15, 1960, and brought before the Fulton
County Juvenile Court to be tried and sentenced for violating the State of Georgias recently passed
Anti-trespass law. The judge, after hearing the prosecutors charges, effectively expelled the young
man from Morehouse when he ordered that he had to be out of Georgia by sundown that day or be
sentenced to reform school in Georgia until he turned 21.

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Moreover, the judge also mandated that he file monthly reports, detailing his whereabouts until he
became 21 years of age. This student was banished from the State of Georgia for having the audacity
to walk up to a lunch-counter and request a hamburger. One can only imagine the kind of human
being who would levy a sentence on anyone for such a minor act that on its face violated state law,
but fell short of violating moral laws based upon universal human rights.
The young man eventually enrolled and graduated from Talladega University in Alabama, and later
matriculated at Yale University where he earned a
Ph.D. degree. He subsequently taught at major universities in the United States. The actions of the
white juvenile court judge were a microcosm of the
ruling communitys attitude on race in Atlanta in
1960.
Atlantas white community in 1960, controlled the
economy, the political leadership, the police, hate
groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the
Columbians as well as many Negro leaders. Total
segregation was the common denominator in all
southern communities.

...underneath the smiling or compliant

attitues, there resided a
simmering discontent for
the inhumane treatment
that would one day
erupt.

In Atlanta in 1960, any segment of the white community could uphold the status quo of segregation
by employing any means necessary to force compliance with the universal concept of white
supremacy. In other words, any white person who felt so inclined could become a vigilante, with
impunity, and inflict harm on a Negro for getting out of his/her place.
This attitude had been in place since the middle of the 18th century when the residents of Georgia
took control of the colony of Georgia (in opposition to James Oglethorpe) because they wanted to
have the opportunity to consume alcoholic beverages and institute slavery.
After the white immigrants gained complete control, they developed a culture based upon whiteness
with people of color being inferior and never to be included as members of the human race with
fundamental rights and privileges of citizens. In this regard, Georgia was not unique from all other
areas of the South.
I contend that in spite of the total submersion of any humanity, Negroes in Atlanta and the South
were not oblivious to the injustices inflicted upon them, and for the most part, suffered in silence,
however, underneath the smiling or compliant attitudes, there resided a simmering discontent for
the inhumane treatment that one day would erupt.
In this regard, Victor Hugo, the famous French writer, stated in the 19th century there is no force on
Earth as powerful as an idea whose time has come. In addition, Nelson Mandela, the great South

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African fighter against Apartheid once asserted that Education is the most powerful weapon you
can use to change the world. When one fuses these two immortal expressions, it becomes apparent
that the critical mass necessary to change the laws of segregation in the South had arrived by 1960.
Therefore, on February 1, 1960, four young men from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical
University in Greensboro, North Carolina sat down at a Woolworth lunch counter and requested
service. This simple act became the catalyst, the volcanic eruption that ultimately spurred over
70,000 college students throughout the South to
take leave of their common-sense and directly
challenge segregation laws and customs that had
been in place for eons.

...the image of the

Negro was that of a
group that had accepted
the inevitablity of continued segregation...

Prior to this time, the image of the Negro was that

of a group that had accepted the inevitability of
continued segregation, and their only hope for
securing an end to this duality in a so-called
democracy lay in the bosom of the federal courts
which made rulings that were oftentimes delayed for years. As news of the direct, non-violent
actions of the Greensboro Four spread throughout the country over the wire services, it was noted
in the Atlanta Constitution on February 3rd, 1960.
When I read the account of the Greensboro sit-in while eating his daily breakfast at Yates and Milton
Drug Store on the corner of Chestnut and Fair Streets near Morehouse College, it served as a wakeup call for him. I had recently returned to Morehouse after serving in the United States Navy for
three years. During my naval tour, I experienced life outside the segregated South and quickly
determined that Greensboro should not be an isolated incident because segregation was ubiquitous
throughout the South, including Atlanta, the city too busy to hate. He solicited Joseph Pierce and
Julian Bond, also Morehouse students, to join him in organizing a movement in Atlanta.
Over the next 18 months, Julian Bond and I organized thousands of other students and adults to
wage a relentless economic, political, and religious battle to rid Atlanta of the visible signs of segregation. Joseph Pierce, the writers high school and U. S. Navy buddy, was not able to continue
because he feared that his aunt who had reared him would lose her position as a public school
teacher in the Atlanta school system.
After conducting an extensive recruitment program, the top elected student leaders from the six colleges that comprise the Atlanta University Center formed the Committee on Appeal for Human
Rights (COAHR). I was elected as the Chairman. There were 19 members of this policy-making
board, with each institution having three representatives.
The historiography of the student movement in Atlanta would be much richer with their contributions duly recorded for posterity. With these brave souls on board, the Freedom Force for Human

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Rights in Atlanta was about to launch into uncharted waters filled with waves of racism, segregation, unequal opportunity, shorter life spans, etc. The only guiding principle serving as oars for
their journey in the choppy seas of segregation was a belief in a higher moral authority as espoused
to King Nebuchadnezzar by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Bible when he was going to
burn them in a fiery furnace.
Therefore, on March 9, 1960, the students published An Appeal for Human Rights which many
observers believe was the signal philosophical document that laid out in crystal clear language the
yearnings of Negroes to be free from segregation
and discrimination immediately. The most salient
and unexpected sentence in the document was
We do not intend to sit passively by and wait for
our rights to be meted out one at a time.
Therefore, we intend to use every legal, non-violent method to secure rights that should be ours by
virtue of being a citizen in these United States.

...3600 Negro students...responded...by

articulating their
demands for justice,
equality, and desegregation...

The Appeal was published in a full-page advertisement in the Atlanta Constitution, The Atlanta
Journal, and The Atlanta Daily World. (Ironically, the white newspapers published the Appeal and sent
an invoice to Dr. Rufus Clement, President of Atlanta University, but the Atlanta Daily World, the first
Negro daily in the United States, demanded cash or certified funds before they would run the advertisement).
The document was a shock wave in the Negro and white communities and laid the philosophical
foundation for the Movement that was to begin six days later on March 15, 1960. The advertisement
was so powerful that it was reprinted (for free) as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times,
The Nation magazine, and was read into the Congressional Record by Senator Jacob Javits of New
York in 1960. Moreover, students from Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama used the language of
the Appeal almost verbatim in a publication they released in 1962 under the title This we believe.
I contend that the Appeal for Human Rights was comparable to the writings of many other people of
color who argued against Americas hypocrisy on race. For example, John Russworm and Samuel
Cornish in the initial publication of Freedoms Journal in 1827 posited We published this paper
because we wanted to tell the world our own story because others have for too long told it for us
and alleged that Negroes were happy in Slavery.
Additionally, David Walkers Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829 further brought forth
scholarship from Negroes that further debunked the lie that Negroes were happy and content to be
slaves in America. Walker argued, in part, that all inhabitants of the Earth are called men, but we
(colored people), and our children are called brutes!!! And of course are, and ought to be SLAVES to
the American people and their children forever!! ! To dig their mines and work their farms; and thus

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go on enriching them, from one generation to another with our blood and our tears.
A generation later the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a former slave, gave many speeches that
articulated the inhumanity of slavery. One of his most memorable was the one in which he argued
What does July 4th mean to the Negro? White Americans celebrated their freedom and independence from the tyranny of the British Empire; however, what freedoms does the Negro have to celebrate?

...in 1960, Negro students became the generals and the foot soldiers
in their unparalleled
quest for freedom.

A half century later, W. E. B. Dubois wrote in this

same vein when he wrote the Souls of Black Folks.
In this work, Dubois forecast the coming of a time
when the masses of Negroes would throw off the
shackles of segregation and new forms of slavery
and strike a blow for their freedom. He stated
Someday the Awakening will come, when the
pent-up vigor of ten million souls shall sweep irresistibly toward the Goal, out of the Valley of the
Shadow of Death, where all that makes life worth
living Liberty, Justice, and Right is marked For White People Only.

True to Dubois prediction, in 1960, 3600 Negro students in the Atlanta University Center, responded
to the voices of Russworm, Cornish, Walker, and Douglass, and many other unnamed souls, by articulating their demands for justice, equality and desegregation within the boundaries of a higher
moral law rather than city, state or federal laws because; as of 1960, the only laws in force demanded
segregation in all aspects of life between Whites and Negroes. When the Atlanta movement began, it
became a major part of the overall thrust for freedom by over 70,000 other Negro college and high
school students in the South. The time for liberation had arrived.
Wars are usually planned by generals, and young foot soldiers carry out the battle plan. However,
in 1960, Negro students became the generals and the foot soldiers in their unparalleled quest for
freedom.
The Atlanta Student Movement began direct action on March 15, 1960, and embarked on a course
that was foreign to several members of the established Negro leadership. That group had operated for years in an environment laced with modern day paternalism, economic reprisals, and
threat of, or actual violence. They, along with most southern white liberals had bought into a strategy of gradualism designed to acclimate the white community to end racial segregation and discrimination in a legal step-by step process, mandated by the federal courts that in all likelihood
would have taken over100 years.
This strategy, on its face, was reasonable and prudent considering the racial environment in Atlanta
and throughout the South at the time. It was common practice that whenever a Negro reared

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his/her head to speak out or challenge the status quo, they were met with threats, violence, economic reprisals, and far too often death. All Negroes in the South, especially the Deep South, knew that
the culture of the South demanded that Negroes stay in their place.
When the students challenged segregation head-on in Atlanta, they stirred up the smoldering racial
lava like volcano that was always simmering below the surface of the smiling and compliant
Negro. Many older Negro citizens who had endured discrimination, humiliation, and a lifetime of
being the other found new courage and became
vicarious sit-inners, picketers, kneel-inners,
litigants in federal court, and so forth.
Moreover, most scholars who have written about
this period have failed to fully discuss the role of
the adult Negro leadership that provided invaluable assistance to the young students in their
unprecedented attack on segregation in Atlanta.

Therefore, [Atlanta]
was a city that embraced
white people whose
income placed them in
the one-percent, some in
the middle class, and
prepoderance in the
lower class.

Much of the emphasis, when discussing the role of

the adult Negro leadership in 1960, has been
focused on the activities of less than five older
Negro leaders who operated under a modern day
system of Paternalism that was prevalent throughout the South, and elevated to an art form by
John Henry Hammond in South Carolina during the Antebellum Period.
I argue that the actions and voices of the innumerable Negro leaders who were not appointed by the
white Power Structure are crucial to any examination of how the Negro community broke the back
of segregation in Atlanta. These unsung and undocumented heroes of the Civil Rights Movement in
Atlanta must be included in the historical tapestry of that period so that current and future generations can review and appreciate their unprecedented unity with the objectives and goals of the
Atlanta Student Movement.
For example, Norris Herndon, descendant of a slave with the largest amount of wealth in the South
was the most powerful supporter of the Movement. A conservative estimate of his financial and inkind contribution to the Movement was in-excess of $100,000. A more complete documentation of
his contributions will be included in the dissertation on the Atlanta Student Movement which is
under development by the writer. Herndon was not alone in his support of the student movement.
There was a sizeable number of other businessmen, businesswomen, professionals, public service
employees, maids, janitors, preachers, lawyers, educators, etc., who walked picket lines, provided
free gasoline for students, made lunches and in general provided the spiritual substance to the
young students and created an environment of Yes We Can rid Atlanta, Georgia of segregation.

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The older Negroes, in general, could not walk the picket lines for fear of economic reprisals, but they
could lend their moral, spiritual and financial support to the noble effort. There was a saying during the Movement days in Atlanta that asserted Segregation is dead; the only question was when
was the date of its funeral? This expression represented the common theme of the Movement in
1960. The students knew that in appealing to a higher moral law, rather than mans law, they would
eventually prevail. The only question was when would the White power structure yield and allow
Negroes to take the first step towards first-class citizenship.
A review of how this system worked in Atlanta is
crucial to understanding the dynamics in play as
the young students tirelessly worked to achieve
their objectives. The students had to fight the four
or five Negro leaders annotated by the white
power structure, the white business community, the
Chamber of Commerce, the political and judicial
system in Atlanta, and the political system in the
State of Georgia headed by then Governor Ernest
Vandiver. The outcome of the students efforts were
never certain in 1960, but their courage and determination were absolute.

...the segregationist
forces in Atlanta...were
totally intransigent in
maintaining their position because they were
born and nurtured in a
society imbued with virulent racism.

Substantial desegregation of lunch counters had taken place in border and Upper South states, but
Atlanta was the big kahuna, and a paradox. Without question, it was the most cosmopolitan city
with a huge number of highly respected white and black institutions of higher education. Moreover,
it was also the headquarters of Coca Cola, which had a net worth of 500 million dollars by 1960.
This accumulation of capital made the leadership of Coca Cola the undisputed business and political
leader in Atlanta. However, on the dark side, Atlanta was also the home of the re-birth of the Ku
Klux Klan. Therefore, it was a city that embraced white people whose income placed them in the
one-percent, some in the middle class, and preponderance in the lower class.
On the Negro side of town there was only one person with great wealth, and several hundred people who were teachers, postal workers, Pullman car porters, and professionals. However, 87 percent
of Negroes were economically poor making an average salary of 2200 per year, while whites average salary was 3200.00 per year.
Yet in spite of a reputation for moderation and progressiveness in matters of race relations, Atlanta
was just as segregated as any other city in the South. The only difference between Atlanta and other
cities in the Deep South on questions of race was geographic location. However, there was one difference between Atlanta and the other cities and in the South with regard to economic development.
In the latter half of the 19th century, Henry Grady, editor of the Atlanta Constitution argued with

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northern industrialist that Atlanta was the hub of a New South. This slogan knew that that the key
to economic success lay in attracting investments to the city. This trend was amplified in many
advertisement campaigns in the North touting Atlantas location, climate, transportation advantages,
and 97 percent Anglo-Saxon work force.
The Movement had support from many religious
denominations in the Negro community, but
Jewish community leaders were AWOL when their
moral and human rights verbal commitments were
called into question by the actions of the students.
Historically, Jews had a liberal reputation on race
issues, however, an examination of the racial attitude of the owners of Richs during the Atlanta
Student Movement, discloses that their actions
against students who were protesting discriminatory practices were blatantly racist, insulting, and at
complete variance to their liberal reputation with
regard to racial issues.

...the segregationist
forces in Atlanta...were
totally intransigent in
maintaining their position because they were
born and nurtured in a
society imbued with virulent racism.

Without doubt, the segregationist forces in Atlanta in 1960, (whites and Jews), were totally intransigent in maintaining their position because they were born and nurtured in a society imbued with
virulent racism.
In order to move these forces, the students had to plan extensively and build a community movement, led by the students that finally toppled the old Guard in the white and Negro communities
on the issue of desegregation. In sum, Ivan Allen Jr., the mayor of Atlanta from 1961 to 1968 wrote
in his biography that but for the Student Movement, Atlanta would have been segregated for another 100 years.
White churchmen and their congregations were also silent during the Movement. When the students ventured to visit their congregations in the Kneel-In Campaign, most of them refused the students admission to the House of the Lord.
Most writers have not laid the foundation of what elements served as the catalyst for the arrival of
the New Negro in 1960. The Atlanta Student Movement may not have been comprised of New
Negroes as had been predicted since the latter part of the 19th century, but they were willing to risk
their lives to bring about a better future for themselves, their progeny and other Negroes who desperately wanted to end segregation, but due to fear of violence, loss of employment, and terroristic
activities; they remained silent until the Movement of the 1960s. Though previously silent, they
were a potent economic giant that would change the racial history of Atlanta when they banded
together in the common cause of ending segregation.
2012 D.C. EvErEst ArEA sChools PubliCAtions

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In June of 1960, the student leaders initiated the economic boycott technique and called for Negros in
Atlanta to ClosE out Your ACCounts With sEGrEGAtion AnD oPEn uP Your
ACCCounts With FrEEDoM. This strategy allowed the Negro masses to pool their monies
through selective withdrawal of patronage of the downtown.
Standing alone, their individual income was meager, but when meshed with the income of over a
hundred thousand other Negroes; they were a powerful force. Most authors have not included the
voices of ordinary folks in their presentation, yet it was the 87 percent of Negroes who were working
in menial positions that allowed the boycott to succeed.
For example, when I took economics at Morehouse under Dr. E. B. Williams, he explained to his students that the key to success for Negroes would come when they realized their economic power by
organizing the individuals who made meager incomes. He pointed out that the margin of profit at
that time for department stores was approximately 8 to 10 percent. This discussion, and many others from other outstanding professors that taught me, formed the foundation of strategies I
employed in conducting the activities of the Atlanta Student Movement.

Lonnie King currently resides in Atlanta, GA, with

his wife, Ora Sterling King. They have two daughters and a son. King is now a historian, and recently,
his portrait was hung in the Martin Luther King Jr.
International Chapel Hall of Honor at Morehouse
College.