In Chap­ter Three, titled “The Sit-Ins,” the nar­ra­tive unfolds the sig­nif­i­cant events lead­ing up to and includ­ing the sit-in protests in Nashville dur­ing ear­ly 1960. Before John Lewis returned to Nashville in Jan­u­ary, local min­is­ters were inten­si­fy­ing their efforts to inte­grate lunch coun­ters, but they encoun­tered per­sis­tent resis­tance from depart­ment store own­ers. Despite their efforts, the move­ment faced stag­na­tion until North Car­oli­na A&T stu­dents orga­nized a suc­cess­ful sit-in at a Wool­worth’s lunch counter on Feb­ru­ary 1, cap­tur­ing nation­al atten­tion and inspir­ing stu­dents across the South.

Ange­line But­ler and oth­er Nashville stu­dents felt invig­o­rat­ed by the devel­op­ments in Greens­boro. While James Law­son, ini­tial­ly pre­oc­cu­pied with his stud­ies, hes­i­tat­ed in orga­niz­ing a response, the excite­ment among stu­dents grew. John Lewis and his peers felt a strong desire to act, lever­ag­ing the momen­tum cre­at­ed by the Greens­boro sit-ins. A meet­ing at Fisk Uni­ver­si­ty saw sev­en­ty-five atten­dees, with some stu­dents unfa­mil­iar with non­vi­o­lent protests but eager to join.

As the Nashville stu­dent move­ment orga­nized sit-ins for Feb­ru­ary 12, they pre­pared metic­u­lous­ly, guid­ed by Law­son’s teach­ings on non­vi­o­lence. Stu­dents were instruct­ed to dress neat­ly, bring books, and be ready for arrests. Lewis felt appre­hen­sive about the new­com­ers’ readi­ness but rec­og­nized their col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to the cause. The sit-in on that Sat­ur­day drew sig­nif­i­cant num­bers, with stu­dents split into groups occu­py­ing var­i­ous stores down­town.

Dur­ing the protests, Lewis faced harass­ment and vio­lence from white counter-pro­test­ers but remained non­vi­o­lent, adher­ing to the prin­ci­ples of satya­gra­ha. As stu­dents were arrest­ed, their resolve and cama­raderie deep­ened; some felt lib­er­a­tion in their actions despite the risks they took. The excite­ment and pride in their achieve­ments grew, and soon after, the move­ment attract­ed increased media atten­tion, ignit­ing sup­port from the com­mu­ni­ty.

The sit-in protests pro­gressed beyond Nashville, with stu­dents from oth­er cities join­ing the cause. How­ev­er, the move­ment faced chal­lenges, includ­ing legal reper­cus­sions and increased oppo­si­tion from white seg­re­ga­tion­ists. The chap­ter illus­trates the grow­ing con­fi­dence and uni­ty among young Black activists and the crit­i­cal sup­port from local fig­ures, ulti­mate­ly lay­ing the ground­work for fur­ther activism in the civ­il rights move­ment. Through per­se­ver­ance and unwa­ver­ing faith, the Nashville Stu­dent Move­ment sought to dis­man­tle seg­re­ga­tion and advo­cate for equal­i­ty, spear­head­ing a piv­otal shift in the strug­gle for civ­il rights .