The Kansas Institute of African-American and Native-American Family History is holding its annual forum about the Dockum Sit-In this weekend.
A panel of speakers will talk about the 1958 sit-in at the Dockum Drugstore in downtown Wichita, one of the first anti-segregation demonstrations of its kind in the country. Some of the original participants will be on the panel.
Wichita architect and institute board member Charles McAfee will moderate the discussion. He says the event will focus on how the demonstrators’ family support gave them the courage to stage the protest.
“How they got the strength to do what they did the first day, and then after they got all the criticisms on the first day, how they got the strength to come back the next day and the next day and the next day," he says.
The free program is from 11 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, at the Kansas African American Museum.
The museum is also hosting a forum at 6 p.m. Friday to hear public input on the future Dockum Sit-In memorial.
