August 21, 2014
Zaina Kahuk
News Writer
Headlines
On Thursday, the city paid tribute to the five men who put their own safety on the lines to change the segregation that prevented African Americans from entering the public libraries. Organizers commemorated the 75th anniversary of a civil rights protest in Alexandria. 96-year-old Ferdinand Day was friends with the five men who began the protest, ” “Alexandria was a typical Southern city with all the problems of the Deep South”. Rose Timmons Dawson,the Alexandria Library’s director, remembers these bold men as heroes, “They went to the shelf, took down a book, sat down at a table, and began to read and for that, police arrested the men and charged them with disturbing the peace.” Organizers of the anniversary celebrations say that the main point is that we can all learn from the past.
