[3][5] Seeking to find a way to protest against the practice, Walters and his cousin Carol Parks-Hahn met with attorney Frank Williams, who was the West Coast regional secretary of the NAACP.
[5] Using the sit-in by the students at the California college as a model, Walters and Parks-Hahn started to plan with Chester Lewis, a young attorney and the head of the NAACP.
[3][5][4][6] The plan they developed targeted Dockum, a downtown store that was part of the national Rexall chain, which had a lunch counter that only served white customers.
[2][4] Walters recalled they believed firmly that their actions would be successful because they were right, but their confidence was not backed by a religious basis in the Southern movement, nor by the presence of a charismatic leader.
[6] Starting on July 19, 1958, ten well-dressed and polite students entered Dockum one by one, until all seats at the lunch counter were taken, seeking to place orders.
[5][3][6] Showing up a few days later, the students sat an hour without service until a waitress made a phone call after which a white male appeared.
[5] By the second week, the students felt as though they were going to be successful as they sat at the lunch counters for long periods of times without service, which had to mean the store was losing money.
[7][2] At this point, locals heard that of the sit-in at Dockum and the store was starting to fill with curious people as well as shoppers.
Walters recalls a group of 15 to 20 tough white men gathered at the store, at which point he became worried for the students and in particular the two young women sitting at the counter.
[5] For three weeks, well dressed students, in age from fifteen to twenty-two years old, sat politely and quietly all day at the counters, enduring taunts and threats from white customers.
[6] The local chapter of the NAACP gave moral support and guidance, however, they did not participate in the student-led effort as they did not sanction sit-ins at the time.
[2] In 1998, a 20-foot-long bronze sculpture was created at a cost of $3 million to mark the site of the successful sit-in, with a lunch counter and patrons depicting the protest.