The Importance of Students During The Civil Rights Movement

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Recommended: Fight against racial discrimination and segregation

Eyes on the prize: Ain’t Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961) shows the importance of students during the Civil Rights Movement. The first part of the episode shows black college students who staged sit-ins in Nashville, refusing to leave lunch counters until they were served. When those students were arrested, other black residents began boycotting other places to eat, shops, and buses to protest. They also refused bail and packed Nashville’s jails to full capacity. During the lunch counter movement, livid mobs attacked the student protesters with taunts, physical intimidation, and arrest. Though somehow, in spite of it all, the students refrained from fighting back. Soon afterwards, students began to challenge segregation in other college towns throughout the South. Ben West, Nashville’s mayor, called for “law and order” when the students arranged a boycott of the city’s downtown shops and gained a lot of attention from the national media. There was then a march on city hall, where students challenged Mayor West to openly acknowledge the wickedness of segregation and lift the segregat...

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