Wade in the Water

The title today is a Negro Spiritual that we learned about at the International Civil Rights Center &  Museum in Greensboro, NC.

Our first stop today was Furnitureland, a mega, mega store with more furniture than I could have ever imagined. Also the world's largest chest of drawers.

Luckily, our consultant guided us through several floors and many galleries so we saw all the modern leather couches. An amazing place and we found two couches that we like and now have to make a decision. We headed to Jamestown to a recommended restaurant called Southern Roots. A cute place with scrumptious food. So many choices for me on the menu. I decided on a small quiche with two sides. It was a tough decision and I ended up with a Vidalia onion pie and eggplant fries. Both were amazing and my taste buds are still happy. Jeff had meatloaf and enjoyed it.

Then we drove another 15 minutes to Greensboro, NC. This small town made lots of civil rights history. It was the site of the famous sit in at Woolworth's lunch counter. The civil rights museum is located in the Woolworth building and we saw the actual lunch counter with original dishes, cutlery, signage and everything else. We took a guided tour with LT, who is an amazing lady. She speaks beautifully and with passion and also sings and acts out some of the information. Lots of visuals. Videos, photos, signs and things like old Coke machines tell the story surrounding the lunch counter sit in which lasted all summer and ended in the desegregation which spread nationwide.

Sadly, no photography was allowed inside, but we will not forget what we saw and learned today about courage and doing the right thing. The focus of the museum is the actions taken in the 60's including the freedom riders and college students helping to register voters. Also information about the KKK, lynchings and other horrid things that occurred. As luck would have it we had a group of 1963 Dudley High School alums in our group who had grown up here in Greensboro and knew many of the students involved in the sit ins and also adults who helped shape the community. They enriched our experience with their own stories and memories.

We learned about the song Wade in the Water as it started out sung by slaves as a code to teach how to escape and later was sung in churches. Finally it became part of the protests. Outside we could see the Woolworth sign still on the building and a small bronze statue commemorating the events that happened there.

The four college freshman who changed history by their courage to sit down and ask to be served.