World War II Sit-In in Chicago

From the Feb. 23, 2014, Chicago Tribune "Birth of the sit-in" by Ron Grossman. //// Before the more famous Civil Rights sit-in in Greensboro, NC, eighteen years later, there was a sit-in by 28 blacks and whites at the Jack Spratt Coffee House on East 47th Street in May 1942. (I have seen other sources say it was 1943.) //// This place regularly refused service to blacks. That was kind of strange because the United States was busy fighting a war to save democracy overseas while blacks were denied basic rights by law in the South and custom in the North. Of course, bad treatment was the lot of blacks during the war both on the homefront and front lines. //// I wrote more about it in todays entry to the Cooter's History Thing Blog. //// Things I Didn't Know. --GreGen