TAMPA, Fla. — When you think about the Civil Rights Movement, you may think of cities like Selma, Atlanta and Memphis—but it turns out Tampa was also instrumental in the collective fight for equality.
“I feel like Tampa and Florida aren't really discussed all the time when it comes to our civil rights.” actor Clay Christopher said.
LET ME SET THE SCENE FOR YOU
In the 1960s, many popular lunch counters in Tampa didn’t allow Blacks to dine in, and local civil rights activists wanted to change that.
“Right here where we’re standing, on the corner of Franklin and Polk in Downtown Tampa, was the location of the Woolworths department store,” said Rodney Kite-Powell, a historian with the Tampa Bay History Center.
Kite-Powell told me about Tampa’s first lunch counter sit-in. Inspired by the very first sit-in at the F.W. Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina, local activists and students here decided to do the same on Feb. 29, 1960.
“A group of young African American men and women came here hoping to be served by the Woolworth staff, but instead, they encountered a ‘lunch counter closed’ sign,” he said.
Though the original store and lunch counter has been gutted, you can still find remnants of the segregation that existed during that time in the form of plaques engraved in the ground.
“And it’s my understanding they were placed here at the request of Woolworths as a way to either prohibit or limit any kind of protests that would occur here at their lunch counter, at their store," Kite-Powell said. "And as you can see, it says ‘Leased by F.W. Woolworth Company. Crossing by permission only. Permission revocable at will,’ which means you couldn’t have any protests, marches or anything like that here without the expressed permission of Woolworth."
SPREADING THE MESSAGE
To keep this local civil rights history alive, Stageworks is putting on a play called “When the Righteous Triumph," which will tell the story of what happened during that sit-in.
I got a chance to sit in on their rehearsal.
“And then, we’re going to burn your ugly body until there’s nothing left but your black ash. Do you understand me, boy?" one character said.
“Thank you for your opinion on what you’ve meditated deeply," another stated.
Clay Christopher will be playing Reverend A. Leon Lowry, a local civil rights activist involved in organizing the sit-in.
“I really hope that this play will bring to light what a pivotal person he was in our community. I hope that this play will show what was going on in our community during this time,” said Christopher.
Reverend Lowry died in 2005, but Christopher recently got the opportunity to meet his wife.
“I was very fortunately blessed by Mrs. Lowry with a pair of the reverend’s suspenders. They’re beautiful. You can just tell the man was all gentlemen,” said Christopher.
Mark E. Leib wrote the play, and he said, as a Jewish man whose people have also gone through institutional discrimination, it was important for him to tell this little-known Tampa history.
“I think that we cannot understand each other—white, Black—in any way if we don’t know how we got to where we are today," Leib said. "I think that understanding the Civil Rights Movement as it affected us in Tampa, Florida is important if we’re going to respect each other."
THE SACRIFICE
The sacrifice of the men and women who staged the sit-in wasn’t in vain.
“Finally, a few months later, those lunch counters were integrated, and it was a slower process than, perhaps, people wanted, but it was a more peaceful process than certainly anybody fear,” explained Kite-Powell.
The play will be performed in the Channel District of Downtown Tampa between March 16 and April 2.
For ticket information, click here.
