HIGH POINT, N.C. — February 11th marks the 64th anniversary of High Point's historic Woolworth's sit-in.
WFMY News 2 spoke one-on-one with an organizer who was only a teenager at the time.
Mary Lou Andrews Blakeney started working as a civil rights leader at the age of 15. She helped organize the first ever Woolworth's sit-in by high school students.
She said the group was inspired after four North Carolina A&T students performed a sit-in at a Woolworth's in Greensboro 10 days before.
On February 11, 1960, 26 high school students from William Penn marched to Woolworth's in High Point.
Blakeney wanted to sit down at a restaurant and do her homework. She was not allowed because of her skin color.
"We went to the counter and took all the empty seats we could find and sat down," she recalled. "A waitress said 'you can't sit there.'"
Under the leadership of civil rights leader Reverend Benjamin Elton Cox. Blakeney, among 26 students stayed at the restaurant counter. She relied on faith as the group was surrounded by cops.
"I asked the Lord to take the wheel. We just want equal treatment, we want to be treated like human beings," Blakeney said.
The Woolworth's closed early that day and no one was arrested.
It sparked peaceful protests for integration that continued nationwide. Now at 78-years-old Blakeney said the results of her bravery years later brings her to tears.
"I cried when I went to go sit down at one of the Five and Dimes that I couldn't before," she recalled, "It was just a wonderful time to be alive, that's one of the proudest things I've ever done."
Sunday the February 11th Association is hosting a prayer vigil to remember the historic day.
The African American Initiative of the United Way of Greater High Point is assisting with the event.