GREENSBORO, N.C. — Editor's Note: Video features a new exhibit added to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum last year.
The International Civil Rights Center & Museum has rescheduled its annual fundraising Gala to July due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.
The museum made the decision to move the gala to protect its honorees, participants and attendees. The International Civil Rights Center & Museum’s 2022 Gala will be held on July 25. The Gala celebrates the courage and contributions of the “A&T Four,” who first sat in at the F.W. Woolworth’s “whites-only” lunch counter on Feb. 1, 1960. It also celebrates local and national activists who made significant contributions to advancing civil and human rights.
The Gala will commemorate the 62nd Anniversary of the day when the lunch counter was racially integrated. The museum upholds the date as a national civil rights milestone comparable to Feb. 1, 1960, when four college freshmen — the N.C. A&T Four — sparked America’s most recognized lunch counter sit-in protest.
The Gala will honor civil rights activist, Rev. James Lawson with the Alston-Jones International Civil and Human Rights Award. Vice President Kamala Harris will be presented with the Trailblazer Award. Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump will be given the Unsung Hero Award. The Community Service Award will be given to Rabbi Fred Guttman. Retired judicial commissioner Marilyn Mackel will receive the Sit-In Participant Award. Bakari Sellers will be presented the Keeper of the Flame Award.
The Gala will be held, July 25, at 6 p.m. at the Koury Convention Center. Individual tickets for in-person participation are available for $150, and tickets for the virtual experience can be purchased for $50. Click here to purchase tickets to the event.