Geneva Tisdale was working that day, in 1960, when four young black men sat down at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, and asked to be served. The management refused, and protests ensued. Six months of negotiations and sit-ins later, the Woolworth's management changed its policy and chose Geneva Tisdale and two of her co-workers to be the first African-Americans to eat at the lunch counter at which they worked. Thirty years later, Geneva Tisdale was still behind the counter. David Isay interviewed her the day it closed.

Reporter: David Isay / Photograph by Harvey Wang.

Please consider supporting the work of Sound Portraits and StoryCorps by making a donation.

This piece is available in the following audio formats [4:58 min]:
		28.8 kbps Real Audio
		56 kbps Real Audio
		ISDN Real Audio

		intro
		transcript

		Photo of the Woolworth's lunch counter, as acquired by the Smithsonian Institute.
		Photo of a Woolworth's lunch-counter sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi

home  |  ON-AIR |  in-print |  about |  education |  support |  store

Sound Portraits Productions, 80 Hanson Place, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Telephone (646) 723-7020 | Fax (646) 723-7026

Copyright © 2009 Sound Portraits Productions. All rights reserved.