22-year-old leads sit-in, helping to enact ban on racial discrimination: Seven Days of 1961 podcast
On the "Seven Days of 1961" podcast, activists, many of whom were teenagers, share how they risked everything to challenge white supremacy.
On episode six: Joyce Barrett tells her story of being arrested during a sit-in at the Barnes' Drive-in in Annapolis, MD.
On Nov. 11, 1961, hundreds of Black and white college students from across the Northeast flocked to Baltimore and Annapolis to conduct sit-ins, aiming to draw attention to segregated restaurants along one of the nation’s most popular travel routes. Frustrated by what they saw as a tepid federal response to the discrimination common along U.S. Route 40 in Maryland, they fanned across the region, hopping from restaurant to restaurant, angering white patrons and needling business owners who refused change.
The “Seven Days of 1961” podcast features stories of resistance, told by the people who lived it. Learn more about the heroic civil rights activists and the danger they faced at 7daysof1961.usatoday.com.
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Joyce Barrett:
We practiced falling on the floor and assuming the fetal position with the arms over the face and the elbows next to the torso and knees pulled up and being nonviolent that we weren't going to fight back at all, no matter what was said to us or done to us.
Nathalie Boyd:
On November 11th, 1961, hundreds of black and white college students staged sit-ins and flooded restaurants along the US Route 40 in Maryland, their goal was to draw attention to and fight segregation along one of the nation's most popular travel routes. The mass protest was an important victory for the civil rights movement. It shed light on the fact that racism and discrimination didn't just exist in the Jim Crow South. I'm Nathalie Boyd, a podcast producer with USA Today. Joyce Barrett was 22 years old when she donned her Sunday best, joined a local caravan and headed to Annapolis, Maryland. She and 18 activists staged a sit-in at Barnes drive-in along Route 40. Joyce told us about her experience of that day and how she and her fellow protestors were determined to be a force for good. This is the Seven Days of 1961 podcast. Hear history from the people who made it.
Joyce Barrett:
I remember when Brown versus Board of Education was handed down on requiring its schools not be segregated anymore. That had an effect. I, you know, watched the resistance in the south to that. You know, I was watching the news and paying attention to what was going on and I decided to join the civil rights movement.
Nathalie Boyd:
Joyce initially became involved in the civil rights movement as a college student at temple university.
Joyce Barrett:
The first thing that involved me more directly in civil rights was when the four freshmen from North Carolina, A&T College in Greensboro were arrested for trying to be served in a five and 10 lunch counter. We picketed Woolworths every Saturday, and that was the beginning. And then, when I was at Temple University, the issue of segregated fraternities and sororities came up. It was in the student press and so on. It was very segregated. And I had friends who belonged to a black sorority Delta Sigma Theta, who asked me if I would join and I said yes. I pledged out to Sigma Theta in 1960 and you know, people were uncomfortable with it. There were white students who stopped talking to me, a professor stopped me on the street and he told me that there had been a meeting about me, where they were trying to find some way of expelling me, but they couldn't find anything I did that was wrong.
Nathalie Boyd:
Despite the resistance that Joyce faced, she continued to fight racial inequality and segregation.
Joyce Barrett:
And then we were invited to participate in Route 40 demonstrations in Maryland. Now I should explain what the Route 40 Campaign was about. There were a lot of segregated restaurants on the roads and in Baltimore and in Annapolis. And so a plan was made that on a single day, we'd have lots of people coming in who would go to lots of restaurants and sit-in to try to, you know, change their practices. And that's when I went, that was on November 11th, 1961. And then that was where I had my first arrest
Nathalie Boyd:
Through coordinated sit-ins protestors, hoped to challenge and change the racist eating arrangements of the famous travel route and to draw international attention to the segregation practices.
Joyce Barrett:
The weather was okay. It wasn't raining, it was nice. You know, it was November, it might have been a brisk day, I think the sun was out and we drove down in a car from fellowship house, a group of us. I was prepared to be arrested and so were others in the group. We were told to go to a church, a central meeting place for students coming in town from wherever. And we were divided into groups and each group was given a leader who was local. And we were taken to a diner type place.
Nathalie Boyd:
Joyce and her group of 18 other students entered Barnes drive-in and were immediately warned by the owner, Charles Barnes, that he didn't want coloreds in his restaurant. The group calmly slid into the booth and waited to be served.
Joyce Barrett:
We were all very careful to be proper. I wore a dress gloves and I may have worn a hat, but you know, we behaved properly ad we had nonviolent training before we left. One of the things we did was what to do if someone tries to knock you to the ground from the seat in the restaurant. We practiced falling on the floor and assuming the fetal position with the arms over the face and the elbows next to the torso and knees pulled up and being nonviolent that we weren't going to fight back at all, no matter what was said to us or done to us.
Joyce Barrett:
Now in Maryland, they had a ritual for how to get us arrested, that they would call the police. The police would give the owner or the manager, a copy of the state law, and they would have to read from the state law telling us we were trespassing and they weren't going to serve us and we should leave now. So they did that and we refused to leave. And we were arrested. And we were arrested in Annapolis, Maryland. And that's the jail we serve time in.
Nathalie Boyd:
Once arrested, Joyce used the Jail, No Bail strategy initiated by the Rock Hill Nine in South Carolina earlier that year.
Joyce Barrett:
We didn't want to post bail. You know, the goal of the sit-ins was to make the system unworkable if possible, system of segregation, unworkable. So you know, fill the jails. And if you take bail within a day or two, you're not keeping the jails filled. We believed ardently in nonviolence. And while we were in jail, we wanted to do good. And we found out that the room was that we were in was pretty old and beat up and they were planning to paint it and we volunteered to paint it for them. And we did, and it made the papers, which surprised us. But, you know, we were happy to show that we were forces for good and not forces for bad.
Nathalie Boyd:
Joyce spent 19 days in jail, including her 23rd birthday.
Joyce Barrett:
But I think it was a very important expression of, you know, the dissatisfaction with segregation. We wanted to end segregation. That wouldn't happen overnight. So, but we wanted to play a role in making segregation unworkable. You know, I knew it would take a long time, but I felt that each person does their part, it makes the world a little better.
Nathalie Boyd:
In June, 1962, after an academic group declined to hold its annual convention in segregated Baltimore, the city council outlawed the discrimination in hotels and restaurants. Nine months later, Maryland lawmakers did the same. As polls showed, most Americans believe racism was harming the nation's image. The freedom fighters had prevailed. Today, Joyce still remembers moments in her life where she recognized segregation and its evils. She reflected on walking into a segregated DMV prior to her involvement in the Route 40 sit-ins.
Joyce Barrett:
So they took me over to the motor vehicle. The building was shaped like a shoebox. And the end I had to go in, had two doors, one said colored, and one said white. But anyway, I went in the white door cause I had to get the license. And when I got inside, there was a room divider that I was next to, that was taller than my head. You know, on the other side of the room divider were black applicants. But the thing that occurred to me was that under segregation, you saw half a person, you know, that dividing line, half a person. I'm concerned if we look at history, the civil war was in ended in 1865. There was a lot of activity and so on, but Jim Crow continued to exist. And then the sit-ins began in 1960. That's almost a hundred years later. We finally had the civil rights act passed in 65 and I think a lot of white folks said, oh, good problem solved. But no, we were left with stereotypes, which we still have stereotypes today as to what you should be like, depending on your religious or racial or immigration group and under stereotypes, you see half a person and that's what we're stuck with today.
Joyce Barrett:
I think the word racism isn't necessarily helpful cause it's too vague. But if you talk about stereotypes and we do education in schools, not to pay attention to stereotypes, it's ridiculous. Let's get rid of stereotypes, which I think is today's situation. And I'll mention a singing group that I love, the Black Puma sing a song called Colors. And its says I love all the colors. And I think they're singing about the fact that people come in all colors and that's the way we should approach things. And all colors are beautiful and we should be happy with all people of all colors.
Nathalie Boyd:
The seven days of 1961 podcast is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Boyd. Marc Ramirez reported on this episode and Jasper Colt produced the interview. You can see images of Joyce and you can read Mark's story to learn more about the Route 40 Campaign at 7daysof1961.usatoday.com. Thank you for listening. Tell your friends about the podcast. We want more people to hear these personal stories about acts of resistance that helped in segregation. Please write us a review on apple podcasts. It helps more people find the show and you can tweet us at USA today. The next episode is our final one. You'll hear from Sylvia copper, who was one of 1,500 black students who protested the arrest of demonstrators in Louisiana. Four years later, their Supreme Court case secured first amendment rights for future protestors. That's next time. See you then.