February 22, 1960, bore witness to an event that would forever change the social, political, and economic life of a city, a state, and millions of inhabitants. The arrest of 34 Virginia Union University students during a sit-in protest at the most upscale department store in Richmond, Virginia, heralded the upending of a long-established way of life and a change of direction from which there would be no turning back. The students would see their actions galvanize a community into effecting wide-ranging reforms in ...
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February 22, 1960, bore witness to an event that would forever change the social, political, and economic life of a city, a state, and millions of inhabitants. The arrest of 34 Virginia Union University students during a sit-in protest at the most upscale department store in Richmond, Virginia, heralded the upending of a long-established way of life and a change of direction from which there would be no turning back. The students would see their actions galvanize a community into effecting wide-ranging reforms in desegregation and play a significant role in ending the nearly 70-year grip on power of one of the nation's strongest political machines. Bafflingly, their achievement faded into obscurity, and only in recent years has its importance been recognized.
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On February 22, 1960, 34 students from Virginia Union University participated in a sit-in at the lunch counter and restaurant at Thalhimers Department Store in downtown Richmond. The police arrested the students and jailed them briefly for trespass. The students were tried and convicted with each fined $20.00. Three years later, the Supreme Court reversed their convictions.
The Richmond 34 were part of a much broader series of sit-ins during 1960 that began in Virginia and North Carolina and spread to other states. Other sit-ins at the time, particularly at Greenville, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee, received substantially more attention. For many years, the Richmond 34 were little remembered, a situation that began to change in 2010 with the 50th anniversary of the event.
This book, "The Richmond 34 and the Civil Rights Movement" (2020) tells the story of the Richmond 34 and the role they played in ending segregation in Richmond. The authors are Dr. Kimberly A. Matthews, professor of leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University and Dr. Raymond Pierre Hylton, professor of history at Virginia Union University. The book is part of the Images of America series of local histories published by Arcadia Press.
I hadn't known of the Richmond 34 before reading this book. They deserve to be remembered, and this photographic history is a fitting tribute. Matthews and Hylton set the stage with two introductory chapters. The first offers an overview of Richmond from its fall to the Union Army of the Potomac near the end of the Civil War through Reconstruction and its aftermath, and through the Byrd Machine which controlled Virginia and Richmond politics through 1960, enforcing a rigid scheme of Jim Crow. The second chapter offers a short history of Virginia Union University, a Historically Black University, from its founding in 1899 through 1960 and its role in educating generations of Black students and in encouraging activism and the sit-in.
The middle two chapters of the book discuss the sit-ins and their aftermath with pictures of the students marching downtown, the sit-in itself, and the arrests. The Richmond 34 were part of a broader group of about 300 students who also sat in at other segregated eating facilities in downtown Richmond. The protests and the arrests were relatively quiet. Following the arrests of the Richmond 34, students continued their protests in what was called the Campaign for Human Dignity which lead to the desegregation of Thalhimers by early 1961 followed by the desegregation of most of Richmond by 1963. The highlight of the book is the photographs and brief biographies of many members of the Richmond 34, many of whom went on to graduate study, distinguished careers, and further civil rights activism. With a few exceptions, those who participated in the sit-in remained largely unsung.
The final two chapters cover the years the Richmond 34 remained mostly forgotten followed by the commemorations they received beginning in about 2010. Between 1960 and 2010, much changed in Virginia, including the election of a Black governor and a Black mayor. In 2010, Richmond held extensive commemorative activities for the Richmond 34, including the laying of stone monuments with the names of each of the 34 engraved at the University and at the site of the former Thalhimers Department Store. Activities and gatherings continued through the decade. Many members of the group returned to participate, and their arrest records from the 1960 sit-in were expunged. With time, many members of the group were dying. They received tribute and recognition for their idealism and action at last.
The story in the book ends with its 2020 publication and with the pandemic. However, the group's story continues. On February 23, 2024, the Richmond Performing Arts Alliance unveiled a mural by Hamilton Glass and Germany Ray depicting the sit-in and located within the Dominion Energy Center. the site of the former Thalhimers Department Store. Plans also were announced for the installation of a permanent art gallery which would commemorate the Richmond 34 and their place in history.
This is an outstanding book that documents the achievement of the Richmond 34. History is sometimes made in small places by unknown heroic people. This book offers a personal portrayal of the people that made up the Richmond 34. I was moved by the opportunity to meet them and to learn their story.
