Lonnie C. King organized thousands of students to sit-in at lunch counters in Atlanta in the 1960s.

At the time King, (no relations to Dr. King) was a 23-year-old student at Morehouse College, he was also a Navy Veteran, boxer, and fullback on the football team.

King had heard talk about a group of Black students who had the sit-in at Woolworth’s department store lunch counter, only asking to be served.

King along with his friends organized sit-ins and boycotts to demand integration of the stores, lunch counters, movie theaters and courthouses of Atlanta.

The group embraced the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of non-violence.