The following resolution was approved in City Council’s Mon., Feb. 22 meeting to recognize and honor the actions of Civil Rights activists in Richmond 50 years ago:

Richmond City Council and Mayor Dwight Jones Official Recognition Award honors the 50th Anniversary of the 1960 Richmond Two-Day Downtown Civil Rights Protest Marches and Sit-ins.

The Honorable Dwight C. Jones, Mayor of Richmond, and The Honorable members of Richmond City Council, the governing legislative body of Richmond , do hereby unite together in solidarity and common purpose to publicly commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1960 Richmond Two-Day Downtown Civil Rights Protest Marches and Sit-ins, held on February 20 and 22, 1960 in Richmond, Virginia.

Modeled after the successful civil rights work of Mohandas K. Gandhi in South Africa and India , the use of coordinated acts of protest and nonviolent civil disobedience were employed in United States of America (especially in the South) in response to prevalent racial discrimination and segregation practices. These organized acts of public dissent were designed to publicly confront and change long-held social rules, laws and customs, which included denying people the use of same facilities and accommodations based on their race.

The organized Richmond protests included more than 200 African-American students from Virginia Union University , an historically black college, who marched from the campus to the downtown business district and cumulated with protesters exercising the use of “sit-in” tactics by visiting restaurants and lunch counters and refusing to leave until they were served. Originally scheduled for February 20, 1960, the protest was extended to a second day when establishments closed rather than serve them. On the second day, February 22, 1960, 34 of the protesters were arrested at the Thalhimers Department Store for their staged sit-ins at the downstairs lunch counter and upstairs Richmond Room restaurant and charged with trespassing. The resulting convictions of these students, who became know as the “Richmond 34”, were appealed through the legal process to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, in June 1963, ruled that trespass laws could not be used to further racial discrimination.

These acts led to additional protests and boycotts in Richmond and through these and many organized civil rights actions and court cases across the nation, new national laws were written to protect civil rights. These new laws included the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination based on race, religion, color or national origin in employment and public accommodations; and, the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965 that restored and protected voting rights for all U.S. citizens.

Therefore, The Honorable Dwight C. Jones, Mayor of Richmond, and The Honorable Members of Richmond City Council do officially commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1960 Richmond Two-Day Downtown Civil Rights Protest Marches and Sit-ins held on February 20 and 22, 1960 in Richmond, Virginia and brings this to the attention of our community that they may share in remembering these important events.

– The information above was provided by Steven Skinner with the City of Richmond.