Patterson Drug Store Sit-In (1960)
The Patterson Drug Store Sit-in is one event from Lynchburg history that keeps coming up in my research and conversations. In Episode 9 of the the Lynchburg Neighborhood podcast, I sat down with Dan Harrison, pastor of Church of the Covenant, to try to learn about Bev Cosby, a longtime religious and social leader in Lynchburg. In our conversation, Dan told me about several civil rights moments from Lynchburg history, including the Patterson Drug Store Sit-In of 1960. Listen from the 18:52 mark to 23:00 to hear about the Sit-In and how it led to the first integrated cafe in Lynchburg.
I grew up in Lynchburg and never once learned about this sit-in or any other Lynchburg Civil Rights moment during school. We spent a little bit of time on the most famous sit-ins, marches, speeches, etc. that were in the textbook, but we didn’t hear about anything from our own backyard. My conversation with Dan and others led me to want to know more about this Sit-In, so I did what I always do when I want to know more about Lynchburg history: I went to the Jones Memorial Library. Their archive and collection of historical documents including newspapers, books, and photos is an incredible resource to any citizen historian. All historical photos and newspaper clips are provided courtesy of the Jones Memorial Library.
One of my goals with this post is to put all the local coverage together in one place for researchers and curious people, both now and in the future, who want to know more about this particular event from Lynchburg history. Perhaps, a local teacher can use these articles and interviews as teaching tools for their students so they can understand what happened here.
The sit-in occurred on December 14, 1960, so I grabbed the December 1960 The News microfilm out of the filing cabinet and placed it on the reader. I pulled up the paper from the morning of the sit-in to see what was leading on the Local news page at that time in history. As you can see below, the community was thinking about schools, taxes, weather, and the water supply.
On Thursday, December 15, 1960, the morning after the sit-in, the front page talked about “Rioting Crushed” in Algiers, peace hearings at the U.N., foreign troops, and a coup in Ethiopia. A small insert states, “Six Students Arrested Here After Sit-In”, and points to B-1.
The lead story on B-1, Local, reads “Six Students Jailed Here After Sit-In.” The subtitle reads, “Four Whites, Two Negroes Bailed on Trespass Charges.” Where? Patterson Drug Store at 1020 Main Street in Downtown Lynchburg. Who? George Brumback. James Hunter. Rebecca Owen. Mary Edith Bentley. Barbara Thomas. Kenneth Green. Ages 19 to 28. All college students at Lynchburg College, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, and Virginia Theological Seminary and College.
The article states that four other downtown lunch counters were integrated without incident in November. The six walked into Patterson’s Drug Store at 5:25 PM and sat down at the lunch counter. They were told they would not be served and were asked to leave. They declined. Police were called. Lt. Puckett reviewed the newly passed state law on trespassing with the six. They again declined to leave. The officer placed them under arrest and called for the patrol wagon. The two photos that ran with the article show the six students waiting to be taken to jail.
“Miss Thomas carried a Bible with her into the drug store, and to jail.”
Friday’s paper included a lengthy editorial entitled “Lynchburg’s Sit-In” that characterizes the whole incident as “unfortunate”. After scolding the “unthinking action” of these out-of-town students, the editorial begins a defense of the state’s new trespass law and private property rights.
Back on the Local page, the lead story is “Racially-Mixed Group is Served,” which tells of “four white college girls and their Negro girl companion” that went to the downtown lunch counter at Peoples Drug Store at 9:45 PM the night before.
The article reads “The Negro girl did not ask for service but accepted and drank a soft drink which had been ordered by one of her friends. All five girls sat at the counter. As the girls drank their drinks in Peoples Drug Store, the manager told his waitress to close the counter, and he turned out display window lights and some other store lights in the store.”
The president of the Lynchburg College student body said: “On behalf of the student body of Lynchburg College, I would like to emphasize that the participation of Terrill Brumback and Jim Hunter in the sit-in demonstration Wednesday evening represents in no way a majority of the feeling of the students. In fact, it is a very small minority.”
The article below states that the two student sit-ins were linked. It also indicates that the two Randolph-Macon students were on probation.
One storyline to follow throughout this thread is two large local institutions, Lynchburg College and Randolph College, wrestling with how to respond to this event involving their students. To be too supportive of their students and publicly embrace their actions could potentially make them look “too radical” as some in the community already believed them to be.
Three letters to the editor with three different viewpoints. The first writer, William D. King, defends the action of Sit-Inners and appealed to Christian ideals as justification. The second and third letters appeal to the “outside agitator” angle including this line, “If they don’t like the way we are conducting our affairs, why do they come here?”. The writers signed their names below their opinions as “Caucasian” and “Puzzled” of Lynchburg.
The Lynchburg Interracial Committee commented that “student sit in-demonstrations here last week hurt racial good will” and hopes in the future “young people in Lynchburg, as well as adults, will seek the advice of the committee on matters of racial relations before taking action tending to break down the good will that the committee, along with mature persons of all races, has sought so diligently to build up.”
More letters to the editor. The first writer thinks “things are moving just a bit fast in the wrong direction”.
The News editorial for January 2, 1961. In this survey of things in the area and the future outlook, The News writes “Race relations continue to be good and with assurance of being better instead of weakened. One or two youthful disruptions and threats to this should not be allowed to set back the progress made.”
Sit-Inners Defend Their Action. Point by point, they address the ways some have tried to “justify injustice.” To those that say they are moving too fast or that the sit-in wasn’t necessary to reach their goal of equality, they write, “throughout history, some demonstration of political pressure, either subtle or overt, has preceded all social progress.” They conclude in this way: “We have taken seriously the most basic principles of our Judeo-Christian heritage - the sacredness and worth of human personality. These, we believe, represent a Higher Law than the law of governments.”
The article below notes that the anti-trespass law, passed by the 1960 General Assembly, is being challenged at the state level in Virginia with the plaintiffs seeking an injunction against enforcement of the law.
The News Editorial on Friday, January 6, 1961. The text indicates that the judge accused the defendants’ lawyer of “trying to put on a show” and says that “when the crowd that jammed the courtroom began cheering the defense speech and jeering the judge’s admonitions, the judge was forced to clear the courtroom of all spectators to preserve any semblance of order.”
The first editorial continues: “A handbill which had been largely circulated among the Negro people prior to yesterday’s trail invited them to ‘come down to court that morning… two outstanding lawyers will handle the case.’ It was the form of handbill advertisement one might expect for a tent revival or county fair or visiting circus. While one must question the competency with which the case was handled, one cannot doubt the validity of the handbill. It appeared to advertise a good show and everyone who came saw just that.”
The editorial below says that the 30-day jail sentence was “fair and deserved” and suggested that the students could’ve chosen any number of alternatives including “writing a letter to the editor.”
In this January 6, 1961 article about the sit-in trial, the defense attorneys argued the constitutionality of the trespass law, but Judge McCarron denied it saying, “I’m not going into the constitutionality (of the law) when a hearing is going on in Federal Court.” The article makes note of the two out-of-town defense attorneys, referring to “Negro Attorney L. W. Holt” as a “dapper, fast-talking Norfolk attorney”. Defense Attorney Julian Golden of Kentucky presented this case, “Two eternal questions are in the heart of every man - Who am I? and What is my Destiny?” “We are,” Golden told Patterson, “sons of God and destined to be brothers to each other.” The article states that “Prolonged applause followed Golden’s speech.”
A change to the Letters to the Editors section: Letter writers must publish own names now.
This article, “Negro Minister Protests Court Segregation Order”, is about a protest by Rev. Virgil A. Wood of Diamond Hill Baptist Church against the segregated courtroom seating during the sit-in trial. Rev. Wood stated that “two thousand Negroes do not like it and will not accept courtroom segregation and will be present to show it.”
Rev. Wood was a major Civil Rights leaders in Lynchburg and is discussed on this podcast episode with Dr. Owen Cardwell, Jr., one of the first two students to desegregate E.C. Glass in 1962.
Another editorial from The News on the sit-in case.
It may be helpful to put the leadership and ownership of The News in context as you read their editorials and coverage. Last year, I sat down with Joe Stinnett, who was managing editor of “The News & Advance” in Lynchburg. In our conversation, we discussed the history of the local newspaper, particularly in the 1960s and surrounding race. Joe has written articles and done presentations about the history of the paper, including this 2017 article. The full podcast is included below, but Joe shared that, for a long time, the newspaper would not run any black obits, black weddings, or black social news. Joe also cited the following quote from Pastor Haywood Robinson of Diamond Hill Baptist Church about The News, “The newspaper was against everything that a black kid wanted. Many white people were afraid of it. The paper got its power from being the voice of the community and that’s what was so frightening about it.” For this reason, it’s important to read critically with an understanding of the perspective and point of view behind coverage. The 44:50 mark is a good spot to start for specific conversation about this topic.
The six students begin serving their sentence as police oust rector from trial for sitting in a “section reserved for Negroes”.
Local colleges indicate that their students status are not affected by their sentencing.
The six students receive books and visits from local clergy daily.
While their Main Street location has been the center of much controversy, Patterson Drug Store opens its fourth Lynchburg store on Tate Springs Road.
Another editorial from The News on Friday, February 10, 1961 on “Respect for Law”.
Plans announced to picket Patterson Drug Store. Rev. Wood comments, “The only kind of protest which changes things is the kind those courageous six have made. Perhaps the only kind of message Lynchburg could hear would be to have its jails filled up.”
“Charles G. Patterson, Jr., President of Patterson Drug Co. Inc., had little to say Friday night about the impending picketing. ‘There’s not much that can be said - they’ve done it before,” he said.
“(Rev.) Wood said he had attempted to visit all six students at the city jail, but had not been allowed to see the four white students since Monday, the day they were imprisoned for their 30-day terms. White clergymen have not been permitted to see the two Negro students, he added.
Below that, Rev. John Teeter, vicar of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, protests to the U.S. Attorney General about being thrown out of the segregated courtroom.
Visitors to Sit-Inners held to close relatives. “Newsmen and a group of Lynchburg College students were told to move on when they conversed with one of the jailed students through a window” and that “they would be thrown in jail if they insisted on speaking to the prisoners through the jail windows.”
The article continued indicating that a lawsuit was planned “to sue the federal government in an effort to bar federal funds from all segregated schools and colleges.”
More editorials and letters to the editor, February 12, 1961. In particular, the first letter to the editor by “Negro Seminary Students” states, “The method we choose is instituted by our Lord in his teachings while on earth: ‘Love ye one another as I have loved you.’ Herein lies the strength of our student protest movement. We believe in ‘Justice towards all and Malice towards none.’ On this critical issue, we will not accept a compromise. We will not retreat a single inch. We will be heard around the world.”
As other letters and publications attempt to portray the Patterson Six as agitators and radicals, the second letter to the editor by H. Richard Hiner, Jr. of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia describes the six students beyond just their actions that day:
A Phi Beta Kappa member and past president of the Methodist Student Movement for the State of Virginia
An organist at one of the Lynchburg churches and daughter of a Methodist minister
The son of a former dean of students at Lynchburg College who is now head of the social welfare department of the Christian Church
Another daughter of a Methodist minister
A Korean war veteran and seminary student
An English major whose father is a government employee and mother is a public school employee
In the third letter, Richard Martin, a ‘54 Lynchburg College graduate and Minister at Charles Wesley Methodist Church in McLean, Virginia, states: “There is a moral issue in this matter, and when persons with an aroused conscience decide to do what is right and not what is expedient, though they must suffer, the moral law is being fulfilled. In the final analysis, this is the law by which we will be judged and by which we must judge ourselves.”
The News editorial on the “Importance of Being Informed.”
A prayer service led by Rev. Wood and Rev. Harold A. Carter is held for jailed students with over 40 persons attending. The article states that “the hymns and prayers broke the early morning stillness enveloping the neighborhood, and as the service continued stragglers approached the bleak jail through the fog singly and in pairs to attend the session.”
Also, the article notes that, “Unnoticed by most of the group were two cars parked at discreet distances from the jail, loaded with Lynchburg policemen who were there to see that nothing disturbed the quiet neighborhood.”
Another Lynchburg clergyman denounces segregation. Rev. Cornelius C. Tarplee said then, “There are whole areas of our country where men are divided in separate waiting rooms as they prepare to travel by train or bus. They are born in separate delivery rooms or segregated hospitals. They are nurtured in separate schools; they worship in separate churches; they work in segregated jobs; they play in separate parks; they get sick and are treated in those separate wards in which they were born; and they die and are laid to rest in separate burial grounds. Our dream of liberty for all is disturbed by the reminder that there are thousands of restaurants, motels and hotels where 18 million of our countrymen are not free to be served.”
The News, Local Section, Tuesday Morning, February 14, 1961
“8 More Negroes Booked for Sit-Ins” at downtown Lynchburg lunch counters. The demonstrations against this anti-trespass law and segregation continue. In other local news, the town of Amherst approves a rezoning, a branch bank will be built, the Governor considers raising taxes, and the weather is starting to warm after a cold spell.
Finally, while researching this event at the Jones Memorial Library, I stumbled upon a box of original photos (published and unpublished) from The News coverage of this event. These photos really pop off the page and make the events seem more real and current than the scanned microfilm. I have included these photos in the gallery below. I want to express my gratitude to the Jones Memorial Library for their assistance with research, their cooperation in sharing these historical items, and the valuable service that they provide in keeping our area’s history alive and accessible.
If you walk downtown to 1020 Main Street today, this vacant lot is all that remains. The site where the demolished Patterson Drug Store once stood is now owned by Ralph “Chopper” Wilson, a prominent African American businessman and one of Lynchburg’s leading real estate investors.
Billy Hansen is a commercial real estate appraiser, broker, writer, and teacher serving the Lynchburg and Central Virginia area with Hansen Realty Advisors. Billy is also on the board of the Jones Memorial Library and the host of The Lynchburg Neighborhood, a podcast about Lynchburg’s people and its history.