Greenville Eight

Jesse Jackson, a Greenville native, who later became known for his civil rights activism, returned home from college over Christmas break during his freshman year at the University of Illinois.

The book Jackson needed was not available at the colored library branch, a one-room, dilapidated house on East McBee Avenue.

[3] On March 1, 1960, twenty black high school students entered the whites-only library branch and attempted to utilize the facility.

Two weeks later, seven students returned to protest the library's segregation policies, and they were arrested for disorderly conduct, though their actions were never brought to trial.

The News and Courier, a white newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, wrote in response to the incident, "Third time this year that groups of Negroes have invaded the quiet of the public library."

Reverend James S. Hall Jr., the vice president of the Greenville South Carolina NAACP, who had counseled Jackson, noted that the entire point of the protest was to be arrested.

This same group, if allowed to continue in their self-centered purpose, may conceivably bring about a closing of all schools, parks, swimming pools and other facilities.

[3][5]Charles Cecil Wyche of the district court dismissed the case, stating that any ruling was irrelevant since the libraries were closed.