How nine college students challenged segregation at a public library

On March 27, 1961, nine students from Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi risked violence, incarceration and their lives when they staged a “read-in”, at a whites-only public library. All nine were arrested. Ethel Sawyer Adolphe was just 20 years old when she and her fellow protesters became known as the Tougaloo Nine.

The “read-in” at the whites-only library in Jackson, Mississippi, inspired young people across the state to take action and galvanized a community around the fight for civil rights.

Transcript available here.

The “Seven Days of 1961” podcast features stories of resistance, told by the people who lived it and made history that year. Learn more about the heroic civil rights activists and the danger they faced at sevendaysof1961.usatoday.com.