Corner Bar Sit In, October 28th 1960

What you see in front of you is The Loft. Today this is a popular bar for Kent State students to drink and socialize with their peers. But it also provides historical context from the Civil Rights era, since it was linked with the protests and sit-ins that occurred through the early 1960s. Known then as the Corner Bar, it repeatedly refused to serve Black students. So one Friday night in October 1960, the Kent Council on Human Affairs (KCHA) organized a sit-in there, with eleven of its African-American members taking a table and ordering drinks. Almost an hour into their sit-in, during which white students around them were served but not these Black students, John McCann, a white colleague of theirs, arrived and ordered a drink, which was served to him. McCann refused to pay for his drink until his colleagues were served. The Black patrons were served after the arrival of Sergeant Roy Thompson along with two other patrolmen.

On October 28, 1960, when the Kent Council on Human Affairs organized a sit-in to protest racial discrimination at the Corner Bar in Kent, they were not responding to a singular, random event. It was, rather, the result of growing frustration with regular discrimination against African-Americans. Already on April 16, 1946, an African-American Kent State University student and World War II veteran, John C. Williams, and several other African-American students had been denied service at a local restaurant. In response, Williams wrote a letter to the editor of the Kent Stater in which he said

“I think that it is disgraceful when university students and veterans at that, can’t go into a restaurant and get a meal without being discriminated against because they are Negroes”.

This frustration was representative of the spreading national sentiment regarding civil rights in the African-American community.

During the Kent State homecoming in 1954, two African-American women attempted to eat at a downtown restaurant but were denied service. They did not object to the discrimination and left without incident. Later that night, four African-American couples attempted to eat at the same restaurant. They were served but told to

“eat their food with rapidity and depart.”

This time the students did not leave quietly. One of the Black men objected to the restaurant's demand. Police were called and the owner closed the restaurant until the African-American students left. He then reopened the restaurant for the rest of the night. Eight years before, Black protest against racial discrimination had been limited to a letter to the editor of the school paper. In 1954, the same year the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the Black men stood up for themselves and their rights in person.

On October 28, 1960, eleven African-Americans Kent State students went to sit in at the Corner Bar, a restaurant where Blacks had previously been denied service. Since these students were members of the KCHA , they organized this sit-in in accordance with the federal Civil Rights Act of 1957. Stating that students were to be served not based on race or discrimination. The eleven waited to be served for nearly an hour while white students around them were receiving service. When they complained, the owner, Mrs. Josephine Cox, told them that the bar was understaffed. One of their white colleagues, John McCann, who had already been at the corner bar stopped to talk to his friends.

“I layed a $5 on the bar and told her i was buying a round” McCann said, “She’d serve me. But not them”.

Eventually, the police arrived and talked to the Corner Bar's owner, Mrs. Cox, served the drinks to the eleven students. This sit-in was successful in obtaining service for African-Americans at the Corner Bar.

John McCann stated, “You read about things like this happening in the South and you pass them off… but when they happen in the town you’re going to college in, you begin to wonder what people are all about”.

This is not the last time the KCHA or John McCann would actively fight racial discrimination in Kent. The following April, McCann, a member of the KCHA, would write an opinion piece for the Daily Kent Stater targeting discrimination in off-campus housing. In the article he references the actions of the KCHA at the Corner Bar, relating them to the discrimination observed in the off-campus housing system.

Byrd, Al. “Negro Students Stage Local Sit-Down Strike.” Daily Kent Stater (Kent) November 1st 1960.

de Groot, John. “Students In Kent Stage Bar Sit-In Demonstration; No Violence Is Reported.” Record-Courier (Kent) October 29th 1960.

"Students Sit In at Kent Bar." Akron Beacon Journal (Akron) October 29th 1960, 1.

Hollister, Ronald L, Wilbur R. Patterson, William T. Metts, Albert T. Metz, "Racial Discrimination In Local Restaurant Spoiled Homecoming," Kent Stater (Kent) November 4th 1954.

Holt, Thomas C. The Movement: The African American Struggle for Civil Rights. New York, NY. Oxford University Press, 2021.

McCann, John. “Charges Discrimination In Off-Campus Housing.” Daily Kent Stater (Kent) April 14th 1961.

Williams, John C. "Negro Vets Object To Discrimination." The Kent Stater (Kent) April 19th 1946. Vol. XXI ed, No. 62 sec.2.