Dockum sit-in resonates

BY CHRISTINA M. WOODS
The Wichita Eagle

Joan S. Williams never talked about the changes that resulted after she sat at Wichita Dockum Drugs store's segregated lunch counter in July 1958. But in those 60 minutes of her life, she helped make history.

Williams said her mother died without knowing that she and other Wichita Branch NAACP youth group members desegregated the Dockum lunch counter and all Rexall drug store lunch counters across Kansas.

To recognize the sit-in's 50th anniversary, national NAACP leaders are planning to come to Wichita on Aug. 9 to march in honor of the event, which is expected to draw national media attention. About 1,500 people are expected to march, according to the local NAACP branch.