“We the Negro people are now not afraid,” said Carrie Allen, a grocery store worker in Union Springs, Alabama. “We have woke up.” Protests erupted in hundreds of cities and towns. Protesters sat in at lunch counters and lined up at courthouses to register to vote, risking their lives and livelihoods every time. The white news organizations in the North not only covered the action but also reported on the conditions underlying the protests, helping many Americans to better comprehend the roots of racism, a lesson most had never received at home or in school. “The wellsprings of the river of
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