Kevyanna Rawls

University of Memphis Sit-In Commemoration Looks Back and Forward

On April 23, 1969, 75 BSA members at the University of Memphis staged a sit-in at then-President Cecil Humphreys’ office because he refused to provide $1,750 to bring U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the first Black person to be elected from New York to Congress, to speak to the association.