Dockum Lunch Counter Sit-in, 1958
During the summer after our junior year at East High, a courageous group of Black high school and college students conducted sit-ins at Dockum’s lunch counter in downtown Wichita. They are now getting long-deserved credit for this successful, non-violent protest that launched an important strategy of the Civil Rights Movement.
According to author Gretchen Cassell Eick, as described in Dissent in Wichita, when Alfred Jones (at right) was not in school he was one of the regulars who along with others organized by the NAACP were picketing downtown Wichita businesses, like Dockum Drugs, with the goal of pressuring the businesses to serve and hire Blacks.
Only one photo of the sit-ins survives, since only one newspaper, the Black-owned Enlightener, covered the story. Drugstore owners feared the bad publicity and were important advertisers in the White-owned newspapers, which did not report on these activities. So far, no Class of 1960 students have been identified in the news photo above.
On February 1, 2021, NBC ‘s Today Show broadcast two stories about the Dockum sit-ins. Click on the links below to see the stories:
5:58How the Dockum Drug Store sit-in led to emotional moment of …Today Show
6:18How The Dockum Drug Store Sit-In Led To Emotional Moment …YouTube · TODAY
A Washington Post article on February 6, “The brave but forgotten Kansas lunch counter sit-in that helped change America,” provides an exciting narrative of the planning, training and bravery for this civil rights activity in Wichita.
We invite you to share your own perspectives either as a participant or as an observer in civil rights and social justice activities in the ’50s as well as in the ensuing six decades. Also, please share information on resources such as books, movies, and online media that will contribute to our understanding.
– David Kroenlein, Marilyn Bellert, Gene Carter, Diane Zinn
Resources
Gretchen Cassel Eick, Dissent in Wichita
‘Hope For The Future’: The Dockum Sit-In, Sixty Years On | KMUW NPR
On Caring/The Project chronicles the Dockum sit-in with photos, interviews, video reports, and a link to Dr. Ron Walters’ article, The Great Midwest Sit-in Movement, 1958-1960. A 20-year old WU student at the time, Walters organized and led the Dockum’s sit-in.
I went to Colorado for a week with Alfred, and when we went into a diner to eat, he was told that he was not welcome, but the rest of us could stay and eat, We all left together in rage… but NO! We did not burn down the diner!