Kress Building Downtown Baton Rouge State Level Significance

Kress Building • Downtown Baton Rouge • State Level Significance • Ethnic Heritage • First Louisiana Sit. Ins of Modern Civil Rights Movement -1960

Kress Building, East Baton Rouge Parish .

Party wall, masonry construction Remodeled 1930 s in Moderne style “L” shaped footprint Third Street Facade Reads as two stories Windows replaced; some openings boarded over

Main Street Facade Partly encircles Levy Building L-Shaped plan reflects growth & enlargement Reads as four stories Architectural features more restrained Windows also replaced

The Sit-In Movement Greensboro, North Carolina, February 1, 1960

Non-Violent Direct Action vs. Lengthy Court Cases

Well-behaved & non-violent no matter what

By end of February sit-ins in 15 cities in five states: North and South Carolina Tennessee Florida Virginia 100 cities by November 1960

Baton Rouge Sit-Ins March 28, 1960 Kress Department store Sitman’s Drug Store (lost) Greyhound Bus Station (lost)

Seven Southern students peacefully challenge segregated lunch counter

Weapons Search of Protester Felton Valdry

Paddy wagon – jail transport – on the right

Janette Hoston Harris with her jail identification bracelet

Opposed sitins as threat to university. . . Expelled protesters Southern President Felton G. Clark

Withdraw or stay in school? Southern students fill out withdrawal slips

Importance of Sit-Ins Scholars recognize as distinct and significant phase of Civil Rights Movement No more second class citizenship Inspired others to act via non-violent direct action Accelerated pace of social change New and younger class of black leaders Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Led to court cases that helped overturn segregation

Garner vs. Louisiana December 1961 Thurgood Marshall & A. P. Tureaud U. S. Supreme Court. . . • overturned convictions of students for disturbing the peace • affirmed the principle that a licensed public business could not discriminate or operate in a segregated fashion.

Exceptional Significance • Only four years shy of 50 year threshold • Civil Rights Movement is “period of time which can be logically examined together. ” — Bulletin 22 • Sit-In Movement and Baton Rouge Sit-Ins are subjects of scholarly study. Movement called “watershed in the history of black protest” in U. S.

Kress Building of Exceptional Significance to Louisiana and eligible for National Register