Gloria Claudette Grinnell holds a poster commemorating the Richmond 34 sit-in in 1960.
California native recalls discrimination, jail time in Virginia
By Nancy Gross
Things were different in 1960, especially in the South, where the movement toward civil rights was slow and discrimination was overt. Courageous people had to take a stand — or a sit — for fairness.
As part of Black History Month in February, Ojai resident, Gloria Claudette Grinnell returned to Richmond, Va., to mark the 50th anniversary of the downtown sit-ins in which she participated as a Virginia Union University student.
Grinnell had grown up in San Francisco and San Diego. Discrimination in her youth in California, she said, was covert. “The South was different, quite different.” Richmond had been the capital of the Confederacy, and Grinnell, though she had experienced racial slurs and stereotypes, was not used to the way the community’s black people were repeatedly spoken down to. She didn’t fully understand their difficulty speaking up.
The college, however, was an all-black school, and Grinnell said it was the first place she learned any black history. Her teachers and classmates called her “California.”
Martin Luther King Jr. had spoken to humanities classes at VUU. His message of nonviolent resistance rang in the years of two VUU ministry students, Charles M. Sherrod, now a college professor in Albany, Ga., and the late Frank G. Pinkston. They recruited students in the cafeteria to take some action.
For three days, hundreds of dressed-up VUU students went into downtown Richmond and sat down at department store lunch counters where only whites were served. In stores like Thalhimers, Woolworth’s and Grant’s, Grinnell said “You also couldn’t use the facilities. You couldn’t try on clothes.”
The students were denied service, but refused to leave.
The first attempts only caused the lunch counters to close for the day. The arrest on the third day was what the organizers were looking for, to call attention to the inequality in such a way that Jim Crow laws would come under legal scrutiny.
It was the holiday for George Washington’s birthday, Feb. 22, 1960, and 34 students, who came to be called the Richmond 34, were arrested at the Thalhimers lunch counter.
Grinnell said, after hours in jail, “The vice president of religion put his house up to bail us out.”
The students inspired others to picket, boycott and protest; within a year the stores opened their lunch counters to everyone. Three years later NAACP lawyers won a suit in the Supreme Court, and the arrests of the Richmond 34 were called unconstitutional.
These were important birth pains leading to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
As part of Black History Month in February, Ojai resident, Gloria Claudette Grinnell returned to Richmond, Va., to mark the 50th anniversary of the downtown sit-ins in which she participated as a Virginia Union University student.
Grinnell had grown up in San Francisco and San Diego. Discrimination in her youth in California, she said, was covert. “The South was different, quite different.” Richmond had been the capital of the Confederacy, and Grinnell, though she had experienced racial slurs and stereotypes, was not used to the way the community’s black people were repeatedly spoken down to. She didn’t fully understand their difficulty speaking up.
The college, however, was an all-black school, and Grinnell said it was the first place she learned any black history. Her teachers and classmates called her “California.”
Martin Luther King Jr. had spoken to humanities classes at VUU. His message of nonviolent resistance rang in the years of two VUU ministry students, Charles M. Sherrod, now a college professor in Albany, Ga., and the late Frank G. Pinkston. They recruited students in the cafeteria to take some action.
For three days, hundreds of dressed-up VUU students went into downtown Richmond and sat down at department store lunch counters where only whites were served. In stores like Thalhimers, Woolworth’s and Grant’s, Grinnell said “You also couldn’t use the facilities. You couldn’t try on clothes.”
The students were denied service, but refused to leave.
The first attempts only caused the lunch counters to close for the day. The arrest on the third day was what the organizers were looking for, to call attention to the inequality in such a way that Jim Crow laws would come under legal scrutiny.
It was the holiday for George Washington’s birthday, Feb. 22, 1960, and 34 students, who came to be called the Richmond 34, were arrested at the Thalhimers lunch counter.
Grinnell said, after hours in jail, “The vice president of religion put his house up to bail us out.”
The students inspired others to picket, boycott and protest; within a year the stores opened their lunch counters to everyone. Three years later NAACP lawyers won a suit in the Supreme Court, and the arrests of the Richmond 34 were called unconstitutional.
These were important birth pains leading to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Grinnell said, “There’s a monument downtown where Thalhimers used to be.” A memorial was unveiled on the campus during her trip, with the names of the Richmond 34 inscribed. At that time, Grinnell was Gloria C. Collins.
Grinnell points out that racial attitudes varied around the country, and even in Richmond. At the time of her arrest, the policeman was respectful. Her aunt, Alfreda Madison, a teacher who later became a New York-based White House news correspondent and columnist, and who helped desegregate a bus station, saw her on television and told her, “I saw the officer helping you into the paddy wagon.”
Grinnell’s family was part of the wave of people fighting racial injustice. Her uncle was a Civil Rights attorney for the Norfolk 17, who aimed at school desegregation through civil disobedience in 1958. Her mother, Zenoia Madison, became the first black female real estate broker in San Diego.
Even so, Grinnell recalls having been a regular confused college kid. “I changed majors three times.” During the protests, she said, many Virginia-raised students fled once the police arrived. She didn’t understand why, but later realized their families, barely getting by, could and did lose homes, businesses and revenues when their children’s names were shown on the news.
The university, a Richmond theater and a Marriott hotel gave free lodging and a very expensive lunch, not served at a counter, to these now-grown students who dared to sit-in 50 years ago. Honorees were treated to shows, and a concert by John Legend. Grinnell found the South “just lovely” on this visit.
Grinnell and her husband, James, moved from Los Angeles to Ojai six years ago, wanting to enjoy the quiet, intellectually stimulating community.
Grinnell has a doctorate in human behavior and worked for 20 years as a teacher at all grade levels. She then spent 19 years as part of an at-risk student intervention department with Los Angeles Unified School District. She likes taking classes: photography, mural painting, Spanish and writing.
James, who she said “is an extremely nice man,” was a time management engineer and then an attorney. They have two children, both in marketing, and she said, “My son is the vice president of Dr. Pepper.”
What an inspiring story. People like this need more praise for what they have done for our country.
Mrs. Grinnell and her family are amazing. If only more people were that courageous.
I meant to say, “… I will know this about her.”
Many thanks to Nancy Gross for this great story about fighting racial injustice. This is the kind of story about Ojai residents I especially enjoy reading! Now if I meet Gloria Claudette Grinnell at an event, I will now this about her.