NASHVILLE, Tenn. – On April 20, 1960, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., stood at a podium at Fisk University and said he had come to Nashville “not to bring inspiration, but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community.” Hundreds of students from Fisk and other historically Black colleges had been sitting down for weeks at whites-only downtown lunch counters.
Many were jailed, and their attorney’s home was bombed on April 19, prompting King’s visit. But the students had also just pressured the mayor to admit, publicly, on the steps of City Hall, that segregation was morally wrong.