Survivors recall Tougaloo Nine sit-in 65 years after Jackson library protest
On March 27, 1961, nine students from Tougaloo College staged a sit-in at the whites-only Jackson Municipal Library, an action long cited as a catalyst for the civil rights movement in Mississippi, Mississippi Today reported. Joseph Jackson Jr., one of the participants, told Mississippi Today he feared for his life while jailed after the protest.
The group — Joseph Jackson Jr.; Meredith Anding Jr.; James “Sammy” Bradford; Alfred Lee Cook; Geraldine Edwards-Hollis; Janice Jackson Vails; Albert Lassiter; Ameenah E. P. Omar (born Evelyn Pierce); and Ethel Sawyer Adolphe — were members of Tougaloo Southern Christian College’s North Jackson Youth Council of the NAACP, Mississippi Today reported. Medgar Evers, the NAACP field secretary for Mississippi, helped organize the sit-in and arranged bail money and legal counsel, the outlet said.
The students first visited the George Washington Carver Library for Black patrons, then entered the whites-only Jackson Municipal Library and began reading and using the card catalog. When librarians called police after the students refused to leave, officers arrested them on charges of breaching the peace, Mississippi Today reported. Jackson, 88, told the outlet, “The silence got to me, because here I am in Mississippi, where Negroes could just disappear.”
Sheriff J.R. Gilfoy, who could accept bail, left town and the students remained jailed for about 32 hours, Mississippi Today said. Supporters at nearby demonstrations were met with clubs, dogs and tear gas; the outlet said Evers, several women, two children and an 81-year-old man were among those attacked. The Tougaloo Nine were fined $100 each and given 30-day jail terms that were suspended on the condition they not take part in further demonstrations, Mississippi Today reported.
The NAACP filed a class-action lawsuit in 1962 challenging the whites-only library branch, and a federal court ordered integration, Mississippi Today said. Author Michael J. O’Brien, whose 2025 book “The Tougaloo Nine: The Jackson Library Sit-In at the Crossroads of Civil War and Civil Rights” chronicles the protest, presented a slideshow and read excerpts at a March 25, 2026, program at the Two Mississippi Museums, Mississippi Today reported. Jackson said the struggle for freedom is ongoing, and Albert Lassiter, 84, told Mississippi Today he believes the country has made substantial progress because of the work of activists who followed the movement.
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