The Tougaloo Nine: The Jackson Library Sit-In at the Crossroads of Civil War and Civil Rights

During a dramatic three-day period in March 1961, nine students from historically Black Tougaloo College staged sit-ins at the all-white Main Library in Jackson, Mississippi.The students conducted their protest, were arrested, held in jail overnight, and convicted of "breach of peace"-the first time that charge had ever been brought in a Mississippi courtroom.Meanwhile, students at Jackson State College held sympathy protests, and the police responded harshly on both day one and day two.On day three, police attacked a peaceful crowd of observers awaiting the trial’s outcome, using attack dogs, billy clubs, and tear gas to disperse the crowd, the first known use of police dogs on a peaceful gathering during the civil rights era. The protests occurred while Mississippi was preparing to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the state’s secession from the Union and the commencement of the Civil War.The library sit-in preempted the state’s Confederate extravaganza which brought more th