that this could change through “steady education” and in a “friendly way.”
Students from Antioch College and faculty from Wilberforce, the first private African American college in the United States, staged a creative and peaceful approach to eliminate the segregated seating in the Little Theatre.
The students arrived thirty minutes early for a movie. The black students sat in the section designated for blacks. The white students sat as they normally would. Then slowly, black students moved to the white section. Whites went to the back and sat.
. . .
CHILDREN AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
CHILDREN AND young people played an important role in the civil rights movement. In early May of 1963, hundreds of students of all ages marched in Birmingham, Alabama. They wanted to end the segregation that existed in their city. Children and their families could only go to fairgrounds on “colored days.” They weren’t allowed to visit city parks, which they supported with their taxes. Blacks had to use separate restrooms, fitting rooms, and even drinking fountains. Young people marched and rallied against this separation and inequality. Police responded by taking protesters, some as young as nine years old, to jail. Firemen used high-pressure water hoses to try to disperse the crowds. And, in a very famous image, police dogs attacked a seventeen-year-old who defied the anti-parade ordinance the city had enacted. The image landed on the front page of the New York Times. This photograph and reports of the violence concerned the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Ultimately, through negotiations, the city agreed to desegregate lunch counters, restrooms, fitting rooms, and drinking fountains. Children helped make a difference.10
. . .
The owner was overwhelmed with the shifting of students, and couldn’t do anything about all of the patrons moving about.
The owner complained to the mayor, the police department, and, even, a county judge. But the city officials would not do anything about the situation because no laws were broken.
The owner took down the rope that separated the blacks in the back from the whites in the front.
VIRGINIA (SECOND FROM THE BACK) AS A YOUNG WOMAN OUT WITH HER COUSINS
© 2016 The Arnold Adoff Revocable Living Trust
From that point on, Virginia and Marlene could watch movies in the theater wherever they wanted.
The town of Yellow Springs is where Virginia was formally educated. Virginia was one of only a few black students through her early school years. Her older siblings, including sisters Barbara and Nina, and brothers Buster and Billie, preceded her in the Yellow Springs school system. So too did her cousins. But otherwise, there were few African American children at the schools.
When she began attending Bryan High School, hers was the only non-white face smiling from pictures of the cheerleading squad.
Virginia did not seem to be troubled by this. She just always tried to do her best.
“If our white classmates were proper, then we were more so,” Virginia later wrote. “If they were bright, we felt we had to be smarter, and often we were smarter and we were proud of ourselves for showing that we were as good as they were. But, oh, how terrible for children to always have to think this way. What an awful toll it took on our spontaneity.”11
VIRGINIA RECEIVES RECOGNITION FOR A SPEECH CONTEST
© 2016 The Arnold Adoff Revocable Living Trust
Virginia was a good student, obeying one of the few rules her mother had, to stay on the honor roll. She played basketball, had a number of friends, and often got together with her cousins for fun.
She was writing and participating in speech contests, too. And she was being recognized for her efforts.
. . .
THE OHIO CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1959
THE SIGN stating “We cater to White Trade Only” hung in the window of a restaurant in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1939. The peaceful protest at the Little Theatre by the students and faculty from Wilberforce and Antioch Colleges happened in 1942. Yet, a law that prohibited discriminating against people of other races in public facilities was passed years before, in 1884. The law was not very effective in private businesses. The Ohio General Assembly enacted the Ohio Civil Rights Act of 1959. Along with eliminating discrimination in employment, the act also guaranteed all persons access to public facilities and private businesses.
SIGN ON A RESTAURANT IN LANCASTER, OHIO
Photographer: Ben Shahn. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, reproduction number LC-USF33-6392-M4
. . .
But high school accolades were one thing. Where would Virginia’s passion for writing take her?
The answer was literally right up the road.
But it wasn’t an easy path getting there.
DID YOU KNOW?
The United States Government did not pass the Civil Rights Act until 1964, five years after Ohio passed its legislation.
CHAPTER THREE
PLOT TWIST
I remember one time telling my older sister that I was going to be a famous writer someday; and of all the responses she could have given, she said, “Oh goody, then I’ll be famous too.”*
VIRGINIA’S PATH to becoming that famous writer began just over a mile away from her home.
At the end of a long day working in the Tearoom at Antioch, Virginia’s father would share stories of the students he served and had discussions with. When she was in high school, Virginia began working with her father at the Tearoom. Here she met students from all around the country. Many of them were from New York City and told stories of what they loved and missed about the big city.
Both young men and women made their way to classes under the shadow of the twin bell towers on the campus of Antioch College. Black and white students mingled on the grounds of the college, sharing ideas and studying together. Not only was Antioch the first college to offer equal opportunities to both young men and women, it was also among the first to offer the same to African Americans.
Through her experiences while working in the Tearoom, Virginia began dreaming of going to Antioch. She hoped to study writing and, perhaps, become that famous author by moving to New York City. It was a big dream. Her parents could not afford the tuition at the private college. As the top graduating student at Bryan High School, she should have received a scholarship to Antioch.
But she didn’t.
The head of the theater arts program at Antioch, Paul Treichler, and his wife, Jessie, were friends of the Hamiltons. The Treichlers did not feel it was right that Virginia did not receive a scholarship. So they intervened. Mrs. Treichler contacted the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation on Virginia’s behalf.
The foundation was created in 1947 by Charles Noyes in memory of his wife, Jessie. Jessie was as beautiful inside as she was on the outside. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1885, the same year the world’s first skyscraper was built in Chicago. Skyscrapers would play a role later in her life, as her husband, Charles, bought and sold them in New York City. One of his most famous real estate deals was selling the Empire State Building in 1951 when it was considered a “white elephant,” or a building too expensive to maintain.
Jessie devoted much of her life to helping others. She was a leader with the Brooklyn YWCA, one of the first in the country. Through