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. On day three, police attacked a peaceful crowd of observers awaiting the trial's outcome, the first known use of police dogs on a p...