February 1960 in North Carolina marked a significant milestone in the Civil Rights Movement. On February 1st, four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, often referred to as A&T, began what would become a six-month long sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter in downtown Greensboro1. By the third day of the sit-in, White students from the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina had joined them2. Despite not being the first sit-in to occur, the national attention drawn by the “Greensboro 4” would spark youth-led movements across the Southern United States.
One of the organizations that took particular interest in the Greensboro sit-in was the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a group that would go on to create the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to encourage youth participation in the Civil Rights Movement2. One member of the SCLC was Reverend Douglas Moore, a former classmate of Dr. King. Following the beginning of the sit-ins in Greensboro, Rev. Moore invited Dr. King to come speak to students in Durham, a city 50 miles east of Greensboro. It was here on February 16, 1960 that Dr. King would give his “A Creative Protest” speech. This speech, also referred to as “Fill Up the Jails”, encouraged the continued practice of nonviolent action, encouraged White people to join the movement, and urged individuals to not fear being jailed for the cause3.
Despite being one of Dr. King’s most influential speeches, it was not recorded for future generations to hear. In 2013, scholars at North Carolina State University and the National Endowment for the Humanities began work to create audio reconstructions of the speech. This project involved recreating the acoustics at the sanctuary in which the original speech was given and then recording a performance of the speech from various vantage points. The various vantage points allow individuals to understand firsthand how the speech was experienced by attendees based on where they were located in the room. Following the positive reception of the initial project, the team expanded the project to include a fully immersive experience that could be used for public exhibitions and a website that would allow the project to be accessible to all4.
As part of the MSP’s celebration of Black History Month, Student Engagement invites you to join us in taking part in the Virtual Martin Luther King, Jr. Project. While we encourage you to explore the entire project, we will be specifically highlighting a few key elements of the experience.
- Read the “A Creative Protest” text.
- Listen from the perspective of the first row
- Watch from the 360 Simulation
- Answer the question “A Creative Protest is…” and consider what your creative protest could be
References
- Greensboro Lunch Counter. Retrieved from https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/greensboro-lunch-counter
- Library of Congress. Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In. 1998. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/educate/lunch.html
- vMLK Project Team.Virtual Martin Luther King, Jr. Project. 2019. Retrieved from https://vmlk.chass.ncsu.edu/experience/historical/
- vMLK Project Team. Virtual Martin Luther King, Jr. Project. 2019. Retrieved from https://vmlk.chass.ncsu.edu/about/phases/
