Segregationist breaks eggs on rights protester: 1963
Robert Fehsenfeld, owner of the Dizzyland Restaurant in Cambridge, Md., breaks an egg over the head of a civil rights demonstrator July 8, 1963 who was demanding that the facility serve African Americans on an equal basis with whites.
The protest occurred the same day as Maryland National Guard troops pulled out of the city following fighting between black and white residents during civil rights demonstrations in June.
About 15 demonstrators marched up to the front of Dizzyland intending to enter the restaurant and attempt to be served, but Fehsenfeld locked the front door.
The protesters then sat down in front of the door. Fehsenfeld first broke an egg over the head of a Eddie Dickerson, a white protester from Cambridge who sided with the rights protests.
Fehsenfeld then came back and broke a second egg on Dickerson—this time smearing it on Dickerson’s face. Fehsenfeld then came back a third time and poured water on Dickerson.
Dickerson, considerably larger than Fehsenfeld, kept singing civil rights songs with the other protesters.
The sequence was recorded in photographs and TV news footage, but no arrests were made by police.
Fehsenfeld became an overnight hero to white supremacists and days later explained his actions with language that will sound familiar in modern times:
“The other day, these people sitting out front blocking the door so people can’t get out. I asked them to move and they wouldn’t. And I asked police to arrest them, and they wouldn’t. And people aren’t too happy about being in the restaurant and they have to go out the back way.
“You can only take so much. I took it up to here and then my German got the best of me. I just went off. It was terrible. I’m disgusted with myself. But they drove me to it.
“I don’t know why they picked on me in the first place. When I opened, I never had any idea about not serving anyone. Colored used to come here. But I think it was because I’m a corner location and it’s a busy, noticeable intersection.
The Washington Post reported that Fehsenfeld is “convinced that Negroes in Cambridge were moving along very well in achieving goals but that they got stirred into extreme action by outsiders. He resents any suggestion that he might hate Negroes.”
“Mine is not racial hatred. Lord knows I never had it.” Fehsenfeld said.
At a subsequent demonstration days later at the restaurant, demonstrators were beaten while holding a sit-in inside the restaurant after the doors were locked—allegedly by Fehsenfeld.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk3Pe6xA
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press wire photo obtained via an Internet sale.
Segregationist breaks eggs on rights protester: 1963
Robert Fehsenfeld, owner of the Dizzyland Restaurant in Cambridge, Md., breaks an egg over the head of a civil rights demonstrator July 8, 1963 who was demanding that the facility serve African Americans on an equal basis with whites.
The protest occurred the same day as Maryland National Guard troops pulled out of the city following fighting between black and white residents during civil rights demonstrations in June.
About 15 demonstrators marched up to the front of Dizzyland intending to enter the restaurant and attempt to be served, but Fehsenfeld locked the front door.
The protesters then sat down in front of the door. Fehsenfeld first broke an egg over the head of a Eddie Dickerson, a white protester from Cambridge who sided with the rights protests.
Fehsenfeld then came back and broke a second egg on Dickerson—this time smearing it on Dickerson’s face. Fehsenfeld then came back a third time and poured water on Dickerson.
Dickerson, considerably larger than Fehsenfeld, kept singing civil rights songs with the other protesters.
The sequence was recorded in photographs and TV news footage, but no arrests were made by police.
Fehsenfeld became an overnight hero to white supremacists and days later explained his actions with language that will sound familiar in modern times:
“The other day, these people sitting out front blocking the door so people can’t get out. I asked them to move and they wouldn’t. And I asked police to arrest them, and they wouldn’t. And people aren’t too happy about being in the restaurant and they have to go out the back way.
“You can only take so much. I took it up to here and then my German got the best of me. I just went off. It was terrible. I’m disgusted with myself. But they drove me to it.
“I don’t know why they picked on me in the first place. When I opened, I never had any idea about not serving anyone. Colored used to come here. But I think it was because I’m a corner location and it’s a busy, noticeable intersection.
The Washington Post reported that Fehsenfeld is “convinced that Negroes in Cambridge were moving along very well in achieving goals but that they got stirred into extreme action by outsiders. He resents any suggestion that he might hate Negroes.”
“Mine is not racial hatred. Lord knows I never had it.” Fehsenfeld said.
At a subsequent demonstration days later at the restaurant, demonstrators were beaten while holding a sit-in inside the restaurant after the doors were locked—allegedly by Fehsenfeld.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsk3Pe6xA
The photographer is unknown. The image is an Associated Press wire photo obtained via an Internet sale.