The beginning of this month was the 50th anniversary of the first sit-in at an establishment in the Deep South. On that day, four black men asked to eat lunch at the counters at the Woolworth store that were reserved for whites.
The end result?
We can now sit anywhere we want in Woolworth’s restaurant section.
Errrr…
Can’t do that now. No more Woolworth’s exist anymore per se, but the company still exists as Foot Locker. The W/W’s that was closest to where I grew up closed in 1993 for a very ironic reason, lunch counter and all. I actually have some fond memories of the Woolworth’s on Cherokee Street in South St. Louis City, because that’s where I bought my first baseball glove, my second baseball glove, my first jockstrap, my second jockstrap, my first cans of eyeblack, my first pocket calculator, a bevy of school supplies, Super Mario 3, my first wristwatch, my second wristwatch, and my third wristwatch, though when I bought the third wristwatch, it was far discounted in the store’s Going Out of Business sale. And of course I did partake of their food on frequent occasions.
Do you care to take a guess what might have drove it out of business?
