In February 1960, a student-led demonstration at the segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparked anti-segregationist protests at campuses across the southern United States.
One such protest was the Alabama State College demonstration, where Eleanor Moody-Shepherd, St. John Dixon and James McFadden refused to leave their local courthouse diner until they were served.
More than 50 years later, these three civil rights activists sat alongside three UT students on Thursday night to discuss the motivations and critical experiences that mold roles as student leaders.
Organized by the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program, the panel was moderated by Moody-Shepherd, dean of students of the New York Theological Seminary and the only female participant of the 1960 Alabama State College sit-in. She opened the discussion with a question of what constituted a comprehensive definition of “social justice.”
Dixon, one of nine students expelled from the university under orders from Gov. George Wallace for participation in the protest, said identifying the injustice taking place in the 1960s was simple.
“It very easy for me to make a decision to join a group of students who were willing to take a chance with their life,” Dixon said. “It wasn’t just a local decision. It was part of a national discussion.”
Dixon further explained that he believes everyone has an internal responsibility for activism.
“We must answer the call wherever we are,” Dixon said.
Rilwan Balogun, senior in journalism and electronic media and student panelist, said his call for activism was born out of the events of Ferguson, Missouri, and the court’s refusal to indict Officer Darren Wilson last fall. Balogun recalled his experience alongside fellow UT students as they blocked Cumberland Avenue traffic for over 40 minutes in support of the idea that “Black Lives Matter.”
“During the protest, I didn’t just see people who looked like me who were in support with us,” Balogun said. “I saw there were a lot of people in solidarity with us.”
Panel attendee and junior in human resources Drew Vaughn said his new leadership studies minor provides him a more balanced eye when analyzing social justice issues on campus. Leadership skills are essential, Vaughn said, but the most important skills to maintain when trying to correct a social injustice are communication and an eagerness to understand other people’s perspectives.
“One of the biggest aspects of [leadership] is modeling the way where you need to have the numbers, but you also need to have the information to understand where people are coming from,” Vaughn said. “With those three words ‘Help me understand,’ you can get a bigger picture of their perspective and you have more vantage point of similar issues from different periods of time.”
