Louisiana Civil Rights Trail Marker Honors Site of New Orleans’ “CORE Four” Sit-in
NEW ORLEANS — A new Louisiana Civil Rights Trail marker will soon commemorate the site one of the most significant moments in New Orleans’ civil rights history — the lunch counter sit-in led by four local college students who challenged segregation in the heart of downtown New Orleans.
The marker will be unveiled at 3 p.m. Tuesday, June 9 at 1001 Canal Street, which is now the Ruby Slipper Cafe, but was once the site of the former McCrory’s Five and Dime store, where on Sept. 9, 1960, four students took seats at a whites-only lunch counter and quietly requested service. The students — Rudy Lombard of Xavier University, Oretha Castle Haley of Southern University at New Orleans, Cecil J. Carter of Dillard University, and Sydney Goldfinch, a white student attending Tulane University — became known as the “CORE Four” for their involvement with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).
Their act of nonviolent protest came at a time when segregation remained firmly entrenched across New Orleans and much of the South. The four students were arrested and convicted of criminal mischief, but their case gained national attention when the convictions were eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, making the McCrory’s sit-in one of the city’s most important contributions to the broader Civil Rights Movement.
Their demonstration also helped spark a sustained campaign targeting discriminatory business practices along Canal Street, then the commercial center of New Orleans. Civil rights activists organized pickets and boycotts of downtown merchants, demanding an end to segregated dining and restroom facilities and calling for greater employment opportunities for Black residents.
The campaign lasted more than two years, testing the resolve of activists and the business community alike. For 735 days, demonstrators maintained pressure on merchants through organized protests and economic boycotts. Their persistence ultimately paid off as businesses gradually desegregated facilities and expanded hiring opportunities for African Americans.
The new marker will serve as a reminder that New Orleans’ civil rights victories were won not only in courtrooms and legislative chambers, but also through the courage of young people willing to challenge injustice directly.
More than six decades later, the marker ensures that the actions of Lombard, Haley, Carter and Goldfinch — and the movement they helped inspire — remain a visible part of Louisiana’s history and New Orleans’ continuing story of social change.
The Civil Rights Markers are cut from steel, stand over 6 feet tall and weigh over 200 pounds. The Louisiana Civil Rights Trail is supported in part by an African American Civil Rights grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. The Trail is an ongoing cultural tourism project that invites visitors to experience and explore Louisiana’s prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement. To learn more about the unique and important history of the movement in the State of Louisiana or to nominate a site, a person, or an activity for inclusion, visit LouisianaCivilRightsTrail.com.