In the wake of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, six young Black male students in Philadelphia applied for admission, but Girard College rejected them.
In May 1965, hundreds of community members, led by lawyer and activist Cecil B. Moore, fought to desegregate the college in the longest sustained civil rights demonstration in Philadelphia history.
The protest lasted for seven months and 17 days. Philadelphia police attempted to break up the demonstrations with violence, but protesters refused to let up. Finally, in 1968, Girard admitted its first students of color.
This group got into what the late Congressman and civil rights legend would likely call “good trouble.”
