The International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro is best known for its dedication to, and remembrance of, the struggle of African-Americans for freedom and civil rights – however, this month, which is Women’s History Month, the museum is turning its attention to another group of people who have had to struggle mightily to break through societal barriers: women.
As a highlight of the museum’s attention to women, on Thursday, March 28, the museum is putting on a special event – “Women Breaking Barriers.” The evening program will include a panel of prominent women with a focus on “dismantling of barriers that women face in the spheres of politics, education, religion and the corporate world.”
Two of the speakers on that panel will be Kathy Manning, the 2018 Democratic candidate for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, and Tara Green, the professor of Literature and Gender Studies, African-American and African-Diaspora Studies at UNCG.
The program will be moderated by Elma Hairston, who’s the founder and managing director of the career consulting company Dynamic Images International, LLC.
This week, Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston – a co-founder of the museum that’s had some well publicized struggles over the years – said the museum is doing a lot to get the community involved. He said the museum is coming off a successful Black History Month in February and will have more exciting programs in the future.
Last month, as a signature event, the museum held a large reunion of the people who participated in the Sit-In protests in 1960.
On Saturday, Feb. 9, the museum held its annual gala and Alston said that was highly successful as well.
This month, in celebration of March being Women’s History Month, the museum is also holding Saturday Story Hours with the topics related to strong women. On Saturday, March 16, the story hour will be about “Twenty-six women who changed the world” and on March 23, it’s titled, “Pies from nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott.”
The museum, which opened in 2010, commemorates the launch of the Sit-In protest at the whites-only lunch counter in the F.W. Woolworth’s building on Elm St. in Greensboro. On that day, four NC A&T State University students sat down at the lunch counter and refused to move. That non-violent protest to challenge the policy sparked similar protests across the country.
