1963 was a turbulent year for African-Americans and civil rights advocates. Fires raged in Birmingham, Alabama; NAACP field assistant, Medger Evers, was assassinated; and there was the famous March on Washington. On the small, normally quiet campus of the then Morgan State College now Morgan State University, a storm brewed and erupted but didn’t hit the national papers. This storm, however, had an impact on the college, the city of Baltimore and on Alpha Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. It also had a continuing impact on at least one Delta girl who for the first and only time in her life broke the law and broke the bonds of her strong Catholic and “military brat” background that insisted upon order and obedience. It also tested and cemented the bonds of sisterhood that remain firm forty years later.

In 1963 African-Americans were in a struggle to end segregation and violations of civil rights in American. We were called “colored people” or “Negroes” at that time. The campus of Morgan State College was located in what was then a suburb of Baltimore and like most suburbs in America at that time there were newly built shopping centers with restaurants, large and small department stores and the movie theatre which was always the center of a young person’s life.

Morgan’s students could not attend the theatre at the shopping center right across the road from the campus. Few of us could afford automobiles at that time; therefore, we had to catch two public buses and travel to what was “our” side of town to the Negro theatres. Yes, those were nice theatres such as the Royal Theatre on Pennsylvania Avenue where the likes of Duke Ellington to James Brown performed. The issue was that if we wanted to see a movie we couldn’t walk across the street to the local theatre as no Negroes were allowed in that theatre.

The student government at Morgan organized a movement following the ideology of Dr. Martin Luther King which resulted in a nonviolent picketing of the theatre. On the night of February 15, 1963 after the members of Alpha Gamma Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. completed their weekly sorority meeting, we went over to the theatre to join the picketing. We sang Delta songs, a tradition after meetings as we walked over to the theatre and joined the picket line. We sang “Good News the Deltas are Coming!”

Indeed the Deltas did come with the same enthusiasm and dedication to social issues as our Founders when they marched in Washington, DC with the Suffrage Movement. As we joined the picketers our song changed to “We Shall Overcome.” Although the night was brisk we were warm and enflamed by the moment.

Surrounded by other students from Morgan, police officers and police dogs, the press and each other we felt the pride that comes with youthful confidence and the indignant outrage that as magnificent as we were, we could not simply attend the theatre of our choice.

As the evening wore on something I could never imagine took place. One my courageous and normally very reticent sorority sisters made history by crossing the picket line and entering the theatre. This was considered trespassing and punishable by arrest, a criminal record and possibly the end of a career that had not yet begun. This nineteen-year old Delta girl had the strength to take a stand that put her in the hands of an unjust legal system. I was in shock as were the other students that included in their numbers the all male members of Morgan’s famous ROTC program.

No one planned to go to jail that night, but this Delta girl said “enough” and she took the steps that changed our lives. It was incomprehensible that we would allow our soror to go to jail alone. One by one the Deltas of Alpha Gamma Chapter entered the theatre and were read our rights by white police officers with the owner of the theatre glaring at us with outrage. I remember standing in the lobby of the theatre feeling a mixture of fear, pride and a kind of safety as I was with my sorors and no harm would come to me if we remained together.

The police officers put the members of the Alpha Gamma Chapter into the paddy wagon, and sped off with its siren wailing. We were carried to the notorious Pine Street jail where prostitutes were taken when there was an occasional round up in the port city of Baltimore. At that time, even the jails were segregated. Unknown to me at the time my grandfather was watching the evening news and saw what looked like his granddaughter being put into the paddy wagon. He quickly dismissed the thought, as surely his “Shin Shin” (an endearing name for me), was not among this group of bold coeds.

Upon our arrival at Pine Street jail the reality of where we were hit us as we slept that night on hard wooden benches in a smelly dark jail cell. A few of us made telephone calls to family and boyfriends from whom we were severely chastised. We were determined and convinced that we had done the right and honorable thing. The next morning a judge charged us with trespassing and disorderly conduct and sent us to the large city jail. Imagine Deltas being charged with disorderly conduct! What a lie! This fired us with more determination to end the injustice of segregation. Upon arrival at the jail we underwent the indignity of being stripped and bathed with lye soap from head to toe by a white jail matron who had no sympathy for our cause. To her, we were criminals and she went about her work with relish.

Throughout that first night dressed in rough blue prison clothes and hair kinky from the lye shampoo we sang, “We Shall Overcome” and Delta songs. We talked with other inmates and learned that they admired us and began to sing with us. The hallow walls of the dank prison echoed with the sound of female voices mixed with fear and pride.

As the days went by our ranks grew as more than 12% of the student population of Morgan went to jail and there were over 1500 people picketing the theatre. We learned that our cause became the major news of the city of the Baltimore attracting the attention of local powerful civil rights activists. After we spent seven days and seven nights in the Baltimore jail the owner of the theatre succumbed to public criticism and the courage of Morgan students and integrated his theatre. He dropped all legal charges against us.

When we returned to the campus all classes were cancelled and we were given free visits to the hair stylist, a feast in the Refectory, and accolades by the administration of the college. Some of us received much negative input from our loved ones as these were dangerous times and they feared for our safety. Except for the inconvenience of being in a hostile and very uncomfortable environment, we were treated well and learned much from our fellow inmates. I believe that we may have changed some lives or at least showed others what a united front can accomplish. For me, I know I will never forget those seven days and seven nights in February 1963 and I know the meaning of Sisterhood.

Ginger Toney
Williamsburg Alumnae Chapter