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southerner’s way of saying “Niggers”) were going to integrate their church and that we had better leave. We tried to give reasons why we
should attend, but nothing we said made a difference. There was extreme anger on their faces, and we left. So much for serving God at that

church on Sunday mornings!

As we gathered in the front of our campus to start the march and sit-in, our college President made some important remarks, and we

proceeded to go downtown. While headed to our destination, we were met by an army of policemen, police dogs, and firemen with water

hoses. They were blocking the street and shouting, “Turn around! You cannot cross this line!” At that point, our President directed us to
turn the corner to take another route into town. This made our attackers angry because they had to alter their plans by disconnecting the

water hoses and move the police toward our location.

This whole scenario did not work. We sang as we marched, and suddenly, it started to rain. I mean rain, rain, rain…a very hard downpour.

The unexpected weather made us all laugh because the police brought water hoses for us, but the rain came, and everybody got wet! As it

poured down raining, the troops started to regroup, and our President directed us to retreat to the campus. Once we got behind the wall
of our college, the police couldn’t go further without trespassing because the college was private! My involvement in the Civil Rights

Movement gave me and the other students great satisfaction. We began to shout, sing, and point fingers (not the middle one) to make the
police understand – “You can do nothing to us now!” It was an experience I will never forget!

After we got back on campus, the President called for us to assemble in the Chapel. We prayed, sang, and thanked God. Our President
encouraged us, and we made plans for our next march. The only unfortunate outcome was that most of us ended up in the infirmary with

colds, aches, and pains from being soaked in the rain.

We were frequently drawn out of our dormitories at night because of bomb threats that were increasingly being made. And, did I mention

that during this time, Talladega, Alabama, was the headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan? This was the Klan’s persistent tactic to terrorize our
campus. Scary! We never walked the campus alone, particularly at night. To have been a participant in these monumentally historic events,