Discover History in Sit-Ins & Student Protests

The Atlanta Student Movement Project is a research project funded by a generous grant from the Rich Foundation, conducted by Kennesaw State University undergraduate and graduate students, and led by Dr. Jeanne Law Bohannon (KSU English Department) along with Dr. Lonnie King, the project's senior community partner. The oral histories in this collection represent the goal of the project: uncovering and preserving the history of Atlanta sit-ins and student protests that were pivotal in the success of the Student Movement, the Civil Rights movement, and the history of the city of Atlanta as a whole. Videos and transcripts in this collection have been archived at the KSU Archives.

Formed early in 1960, the Atlanta Student Movement was one part of the larger Civil Rights Movement. The group was comprised of students from university campuses that were part of the Atlanta University Center (AUC), a consortium of higher education centers for African-Americans that included Atlanta University, Clark College, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, Morris Brown, and Spelman College.

The students also depended on advocates such as Sarah Stevens, Senator LeRoy and Cleopatra Johnson, and many others in communities both local and nationwide.

The digital reproductions on this site are provided for research consultation and educational purposes. To request permission to publish, reproduce, publicly display, broadcast, or distribute this material in any format outside of fair use, please contact the Kennesaw State University Archives.

Have a story about the Atlanta Student Movement that you want to share? We want to include it in our project!

Contact: Jeanne Law Bohannon
Email: jbohan12@kennesaw.edu
Phone: 470-578-7380

Historical Perspectives

Student-writers on this project have all fallen in love with the project and its subject matter. We hope that this online archive will serve as a living documentary that will shed light and educate all of those in the Atlanta area and beyond about a major part of our history. This website is the product of hours of archive research, interviews, and writing, rewriting, and writing some more.

In 2017, students from the School of Communication developed a video for their senior capstone that describes the public humanities work of the #ATLStudentmovement Project. View the video: Voices of the Young: The #ATLStudentmovement Project.

Democracy will not run on cruise control. Keep your hand on the steering wheel. - Lonnie King