Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 2-28-20

Feature
Organizer Recalls Lunch Counter Sit-Ins 60 Years Later
CLARENCE FORT Civil Rights Activist
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On February 1, 1960, four African American students at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College made his- tory. The young men kicked off a national non-violent move- ment by sitting down at the lunch counter in F. W. Wool- worth.
Police were called, but they could not be arrested or forced to move. The managers closed the counter and the young men returned the following day.
In Tampa, a young barber named Clarence Fort met with Robert W. Saunders, Sr., the Field Secretary for the State NAACP. They decided to stage a sit-in in Tampa using high school students.
That year was a leap year, and 28 days later, on February 29th, at 4 p.m., a group of about 35 high school students gathered at St. Paul A. M. E. Church. The group, led by Fort, President of the Youth Council of the NAACP, George Edgecomb, Presi- dent of the Middleton High School student body, and Shafter Scott, President of the Blake High School student body.
Lunch counter sit-in at Woolworth in Downtown Tampa in 1960.
ticipated in the trial period of desegregating the lunch coun- ters.
Fort said their next proj- ect was the Tampa Transit Bus Company. “We got with Mr. Saunders and wrote a letter telling them that we were going to boycott the buses if they didn’t hire Black drivers.
“About two weeks later, they told us if we could find 2 experienced drivers they would hire them. We found two drivers and from that it mushroomed.”
Fort said the next obstacle the group tackled was the Trailways Bus Company. “I ap- plied 7 times before I was given an interview.” Fort said they told him he needed a year’s experience and he got it.”
Fort said they gained sup- port from Tampa Mayor Ju- lian Lane and Governor Leroy Collins. Both lost their respective elections after providing their assistance, he noted.
“I became the first African American in Florida to drive for Trailways. When the time came for the interview, I had to take my wife. They inter- viewed me for 8 hours and her for 4 hours,” he recalled.
After 8 years of working as a bus driver for the company, Fort was hired by the Hills- borough County Sheriff’s Of- fice from which he retired.
He said the changes were moderate, but the opportuni- ties were created. “The oppor- tunities are still there, but these kids must take advan- tage of them.”
They marched down to the
Woolworth’s in downtown Tampa, and took a seat at the lunch counter. Fort recalls that the police were called, but they protected the students and wouldn’t let anyone get near them.
The managers turned the lights off and closed the lunch counter. The students left, but when the lunch counter re- opened, they returned and the lights went back out.
Fort said this continued for about 5 days until Rev. A. Leon Lowry told them the city fathers were going to try and find a solution. The older Civil Rights activists worked out a plan and the lunch coun- ters were integrated.
None of the students par-
PAGE 4-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020