"March 4, 1960: The Courageous Stand Against Segregation at Texas Southern University"

March 4, 1960

We see Houston as so much with it being such a big and beautiful city. Even so

there’s still so much more that’s yet to be uncovered about this beloved place. One of the

main things I love about my city and what it includes is my admirable and dedicated

HBCU, Texas Southern University. We’ve been through so much as a university, but

there’s something in particular about where the greatness of this school and Houston

started to meet head-on. It started 64 years ago on this day, March 4th, when 13 students

took it upon themselves to plan a sit-in. At this time there was already so much going on

with segregation and racism as a whole; with that being said the sit-in was brought upon

due to a law student being brutally beaten by police. When this came to light these

distinct students had a plan of action where they were going to, in the end desegregate

Houston; seeing this happen to their fellow classmate and it especially happening to a

black person on their campus opened these students' eyes and gave them that hope and

say that things needed to change. Out of the many students that decided to include

themselves in this sit-in there was one individual that stood out to me; Dr. Halcyon

Sadberry Watkins ; she was one of the students who knew enough was enough when it

came to segregation. When the time came for them to do this sit-in they walked from the

Tiger Walk on campus all the way to what used to be a supermarket known as

Weingarten’s which is now a U.S. Postal Service at 4110 Almeda Rd. So many students

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were there to witness and be a part of this historical moment. Students walked into that

supermarket and walked up right to the front knowing they weren’t supposed to be sitting

there and did not care. Seeing signs that said, “ No Colored” or “ Whites Only”, showed

how bad and saddening it was for the black community. At that moment as those

students sat there at that front counter, waiting to be helped, even though they knew they

weren’t going to be their point soon would be proven. You’re probably wondering “Well,

what was their point?”. Their point was to show any and everybody that us as black

people should be treated equally as anybody else, no matter what they look like. While all

this was going on there were some behind the scene factors that were in effect to

desegregate Houston. The mayor of Houston at the time was discussing with other

businessmen on how this could pan out. Although nobody else knew what was going on

Houston did indeed become desegregated. It didn’t happen overnight, but it all started

because students from Texas Southern University saw that there needed to be a change.

Sixty- four years later, someone as myself who’s from Houston and never knew about

this until recently I can say there’s so much power and emotion when hearing about this

story and when and how it took place. Even as a current student at my HBCU, there’s

already so many commendable things about my school, but with this it just adds on to

how amazing this institution is. Not only that but it shows where we came from and the

progress we’ve made together as a whole. Stories like this need to be heard and known

about because this was definitely an eye opener to me to not take advantage of

opportunities that you’re able to have especially when not everyone before had that same

opportunity. Those students, to this day will forever and always be known as those

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college students from Texas Southern University who took a stand to put an end to

segregation in this adored city.