A Brief History of the Sit-In Movement

Firing Line
The ranks of the protesters were filled with college and high school students. To prepare themselves for the abuses they feared they might face while sitting at hostile lunch counters, these protesters participated in an extracurricular course, in which they endured smoke blowing, hair pulling, coffee spilling and shouts of racist epithets. Anyone who lost his or her temper failed the course.

• Martin Luther King Jr. at Home