Nelle Artis Coley (1909–1999)
Public School Teacher Greensboro, NC “There are no limitations unless you put them on yourself. So when those youngsters began the Greensboro sit-ins, we just commended them. I thought it was a forthright thing to do.” In 1960 protests against the segregated lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro that started the historic “sit-ins” did not happen without the encouragement of parents and teachers who supported young people in their bold statements about inequality. One of those teachers was Nelle Coley, whose father’s insistence on her education and her mother’s dictum—“Your word is your bond”—emboldened her to lead. She also came to have her own philosophy, “Somewhere, short of eternity, we ought to learn to live with each other.” < > |