ASU event marks 60th anniversary of sit-in against segregation

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February 25, 2020

A three-day event is marking the 60th anniversary of the first Alabama sit-in against racial segregation.

Five of the surviving demonstrators will be on hand Monday for a remembrance at Alabama State University in Montgomery. Civil rights lawyer Fred Gray also will participate.

A student sit-in began on Feb. 25, 1960, at the Montgomery County Courthouse snack bar.

Thirty-five black women and men asked to be served in defiance of the city’s segregation law.

They were inspired by similar sit-ins in North Carolina.

Then-Gov. John Patterson made Alabama State expel any students who participated by threatening its state funding.

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