[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1796-1797]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, on the afternoon of February 1, 1960, in 
Greensboro, NC, four college freshmen from North Carolina A&T 
University changed the course of history. In an act of remarkable 
bravery, the four teens strode into the downtown Woolworth and sat at 
the ``whites only'' lunch counter. They ordered coffee, soda, and 
donuts, and as they expected, the store refused to serve them.
  The young men waited in their seats until closing time. They didn't 
know at the time whether they would be beaten, whether they would be 
dragged out, whether they would be arrested. But they did know right 
from wrong and that segregation was an intolerable injustice.
  The next day the four returned with two classmates. Again, the same 
order. They attempted to place an order for lunch. Again, the store 
refused.
  Each day more and more students joined the Greensboro Four, including 
white students from nearby colleges. By the end of the week nearly all 
of those more than 60, 65 seats at the lunch counter were filled. 
Eventually hundreds of sympathizers filled Greensboro's downtown 
streets.
  Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was already leading protests in other 
parts of the South against segregation in schools and on buses, but 
challenging the segregationist practices of privately owned business 
was something that was brand new. These four young men had opened a new 
front on the battle for civil rights.
  In the next weeks and months the sit-ins spread to department stores, 
to clothing shops, to restaurants. In my own hometown of Nashville, and 
Raleigh and Charlotte and Atlanta and dozens of other cities throughout 
the South, thousands and thousands of students and civil rights 
advocates staged sit-ins at businesses that had discriminated. Many of 
the participants suffered arrest and heckling and violence, but these 
brave citizens were determined to end the scourge of segregation.
  By April of that year, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 
or SNCC, was formed. The legendary organization led sit-ins around the 
country. Then, on July 25, 1960, Woolworth desegregated its lunch 
counters. By August of 1961, over 70,000 Americans had taken part in 
the sit-ins. Three thousand were arrested in the act.
  Finally, in 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act which 
outlawed forever segregation in public accommodations. A section of the 
Woolworth lunch counter can be seen not too far from here, at the 
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The counter and four stools 
and a sign advertising 29-cent banana splits sits in a place of honor 
on the first floor of the National Museum of American History.
  As we celebrate African-American history this month, we reflect on 
these events and so many other events, large and small, that have 
shaped our country. From slavery to segregation, we remember that 
America did not always live up to its ideals. In fact, we often fell 
far short of them. But we also learned that fundamental to our national 
character is the drive to live out the true meaning of our creed.
  In the 108th Congress we passed the African American Museum of 
History and Culture Act to establish a national repository for this 
great history. The new museum will house priceless artifacts, 
documents, and recordings. It will bring to life the vibrant cultural 
contributions African Americans have made to every facet of American 
life. Visitors from around the world will learn about 400 years of 
struggle and of progress. They will learn that the Capital itself owes 
its completion to America's first black man of science, Benjamin 
Bannaker, who reconstructed the city's layout from memory after Pierre 
L'Enfant quit the project.

[[Page 1797]]

  The new museum's council, which includes many of America's most 
prominent men and women in business, entertainment, and academia, will 
meet early this year to begin the hard work of selecting a site for the 
museum, hiring a director, building a collection, and raising funds. 
From blood banking to the modern subway, from jazz to social justice, 
the contributions of African Americans have shaped and molded and 
influenced our national culture and our national character.
  The African-American experience is one of the most important threads 
in the American tapestry. The National Museum of African American 
History and Culture promises to become one of our Nation's most 
prominent cultural landmarks.
  I yield the floor.

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