When South Side-born Diane Nash was 21, she organized the first of many lunch counter sit-ins at a segregated Nashville eatery. Salt, sugar and hot coffee were thrown on the young woman as she patiently and peacefully waited to be served with her peers.
It was 1960, and Nash was making history as a young Black activist spearheading the Nashville Student Movement. She would go on to be thrown in jail, and she coordinated the Freedom Riders’ journey through Nashville. She worked with President John F. Kennedy to create the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and became a leading civil rights activist.
