Description
This oral history interview was conducted with Anne Bisher Cook on October 24, 2008 by Greensboro College senior, Justin Payne. While a student at Greensboro College, Cook was known by her maiden name, Bisher. In this interview, Cook relays her experiences participating in the Greensboro Woolworth's lunch counter sit-ins in 1960 while she was a student at Greensboro College. The interview begins with background information about Cook's immediate family. She shares personal experiences of when she saw injustices in the world as a child and as a student of Greensboro College. She describes her actions and reactions to these injustices, such as sitting in the back of a bus while she gave her seat to an older black woman, buying food from a restaurant with a black girl, and socializing with students from Bennett College and North Carolina A&:T College. She describes supporting and participating in the Woolworth sit-ins in February 1960. Although unable to pinpoint the exact dates that she was there, she stated that after the first day she went, she went back every afternoon until it was over. Cook also provides first hand experiences involving the Ku Klux Klan in her home town of Denton, North Carolina. Cook closes the interview by stating that she is proud of her actions during this time period and proud that the city of Greensboro was one of the leading cities in the civil rights movement.