Atlanta Student Movement Historical Marker

At the former site of Yates & Milton Drug Store (presently the Student Center on the campus of Clark Atlanta University), a Georgia Historical Society marker tells the story of the Atlanta Student Movement that began in 1960. The movement began when three Morehouse College students - Lonnie King, Joseph Pierce and Julian Bond - formed the Committee on the Appeal for Human Rights and involved all the historically black institutions of the Atlanta University Center (AUC). After Roslyn Pope of Spelman College published "An Appeal for Human Rights," the AUC students conducted sit-ins at segregated lunch counters throughout Atlanta, movie theaters, parks and the Georgia State Capitol. When the students targeted the Magnolia Room at Rich's Department Store in downtown Atlanta, Martin Luther King, Jr. and his brother A.D. King joined them and were arrested with 77 student demonstrators. Protests involving more than 2,000 students at businesses continued until October 1961, when desegregation of the facilities was achieved.