Side 1: Tampa's Former F.W. Woolworth Store
On Feb. 29, 1960, about 40 students from George S. Middleton and Howard W. Blake high schools staged a peaceful sit-in at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter at 901 N. Franklin St. Led by Clarence Fort, president of the NAACP Youth Council, and the Rev. A. Leon Lowry, NAACP state president, the young protesters challenged Tampa's segregated public accommodations.
Tampa Mayor Julian B. Lane initially assigned police to escort the students from the store. After about a week of demonstrations, Lane agreed to appoint a biracial committee to address the protesters' complaints. By September 1960, Tampa's lunch counters were integrated without the violence that marked desegregation efforts in many other parts of the country.
(Continued on other side)
Side 2: Participants in the Historic Action
Some of the participants on Feb. 29, 1960 included:
George S. Middleton High School
- George Edgecomb, President of Student Council
- Alberta Gaskins
- Arnold Dubose
- Arthenia Joyner
- Barbara Wright
- Carl Warren
- Doris Cross
- Eloise Gordon
- Inez Anderson
- Jacqueline McKinney Preston
- James "Jim" Hargrett Jr.
- Joy Lawe Armstrong
- Nelson Griffith
- Pearl Higdon Urshery
- Tereceia Vann
- Theodore Lawe
Howard W. Blake High School
- Shafter Scott, President of Student Council
- Bernard Clark
- Bernard Flowers
- Betty Austin
- Carmen Griñan
- Eddie McIntosh
- Evelyn Alexander
- Florida Gonzalez
- Henry Carley
- Hildreth Fleming
- John Billups
- Leroy Long
- Mary Franklin
- Ronald Cherry
- Wilbert Malphus
- William Wood