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Civil Rights Speaker Takes Students Back to Georgia, 1963

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By Chéye Roberson
Sentinel Correspondent

Lulu Westbrook-Griffin speaks to students at Western Middle School.
Lulu Westbrook-Griffin speaks to students at Western Middle School.

Lulu Westbrook-Griffin recently shared with students at Western Middle School a little known horror story of the Jim Crow South—a story in which young African-Americans in the Georgia of 1963 protested segregation laws only to be thrown into an abandoned Civil War stockade for 45 days of hunger and abuse.

Westbrook-Griffin knows the story firsthand: She was among those imprisoned, and she was only 13 years old.

At Western, her presentation started with a short video clip from “Lulu and the Girls of Americus, Georgia, 1963,” a 2003 documentary film about Westbrook-Griffin’s experience in the stockade.

When the video ended, Westbrook-Griffin began to sing the freedom song featured ion the clip: “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around, turn me around, turn me around. Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around…” The audience members clapped in sync. It was the song she and her fellow protesters sang as they as they held hands and kneeled in defiance of the racial slurs that were hurled at them just before the German shepherds were set upon them and water hoses began to knock them down.

The incident began outside of a segregated movie theater in Americus, Ga. When she was 10 years old, Westbrook-Griffin had become a member of SNNC, a student committee devoted to nonviolent protest. It was important to the committee that they use nonviolent tactics to make a stand against the laws of segregation.

In July of 1963, Lulu and the other youths attempted to pay admission and walk through the front door of the movie theater. They were met with a blockade of hostile police and members of the KKK. Thirty-two girls, including Westbrook-Griffin, were taken by paddy wagon to Leesburg, Ga., 30 miles from their home. There, they were imprisoned with no mattresses and no water, except for a dripping shower drain. There were barred windows with broken glass. The girls were fed once a day. They were not charged with a crime, and their parents were not notified of their whereabouts.

Westbrook-Griffin said she lost ten pounds in the jail, but gained scrapes and bruises from the cement floor. One day, a photographer came to the window and took pictures of the girls in their condition. The picture landed in the hands of the Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; shortly thereafter, President John F. Kennedy made sure the girls were released and returned to their families.

“Americus, Georgia, was so filled with hate and bigotry,” Griffin said. “Rooms to see the doctor had a colored sign for blacks and a white sign for white, fountains, theaters…”

Western students Amy Barratt and Kegan Laczkowski, 13, came up to Westbrook-Griffin at the end of her speech to thank her for sharing her story.

“It points out the difference between then and now,” said 13-year-old-student Keagan Lazkowski. “They did it without violence.” He added, “I think that’s awesome.”

“It’s important to listen to a story like this because it shows you can make a ginormous change and without people like her maybe we’d still be in segregation,” said Amy Barrat, 13.

Westbrook-Griffin made the analogy of a stone in a pond: “It has ripples. That’s exactly what one voice can do.”

Students were thankful to have the addition of Westbrook-Griffin’s account to what they had learned in class.

“It’s good to hear from somebody who lived through it. We hear how they were hosed and stuff, but you can’t hear from a textbook her personal story,” said Barrett.

It’s the goal of the school to give the kids special insight into the material.

“We try to bring in a speaker who has experience with the civil rights movement every year,” said Western Middle School Principal Gordon Beinstein. “They can always read it, but it becomes real to you. Thankfully, kids live in a world where this doesn’t happen.”

Beinstein wants the kids who see the presentation to understand that “All the rights, all the freedoms we have—someone fought for that.”

When asked by a student if Westbrook-Griffin hates or could ever forgive the men who held her in the stockade she answered, “Of course I have forgiven them.” She added, “I don’t like to use the word hate. My mom and dad would not let me get away with it.”

Westbrook-Griffin was thankful that she had church in her life to help hold her community together. It was where the SNCC held its meetings and where she learned many freedom songs.

“The church was our refuge,” said Westbrook-Griffin.

Westbrook-Griffin felt it was important to come out and speak to the kids because “the culture they live in is so technological. They don’t have to hide behind social media.” She added, “Loving the life you have and being the best you can be—love, justice, truth—that’s Dr. King’s dream. You can be the change in this country. One person can make a difference.”

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