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Sixty-five years ago, a group of high school students staged a peaceful sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in downtown Tampa.
On Thursday, local leaders honored the civil rights activists on the anniversary of that historic civil rights protest.
City leaders, including Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, and about 30 audience members gathered on the site of the former Woolworth in downtown Tampa for the celebration.
Participants of Tampa’s Woolworth sit-ins accepted a proclamation declaring March 1st as “Woolworth City Anniversary Day” outside of the former site of Woolworths.
The Woolworth sit-ins began in February of 1960 when a group of Middleton and Blake High School students refused to leave segregated food counters until they were served.
Leroy Long was a freshman at Blake High School when he attended the sit-ins. Now, decades later, he says the fight is ongoing.
“We have to keep working. We have to be vigilant. Because if we don’t, then a lot of things we worked to get to, can disappear.”
In the audience were many of the former students who actually sat in, including Barbara Wright.
“The various restaurants – like for instance, the Colombia restaurant, we had to go through the side door. That’s wrong. So the facts were there, I was not fearful, and I had faith if I sat in – if we picketed – that it would happen. And it did.”
The event also highlighted an upcoming play, When The Righteous Triumph, about the sit-ins.
Performances of “When the Righteous Triumph” at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts will take place March 6 – 9, 2025, with evening shows at 7:30 p.m. and matinees at 2 p.m. On March 15 and 16, additional 2 p.m. matinees will be held.
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