This Day in History: 1960-04-26

Black demonstrators engage in a locally-organized nonviolent protest and walk onto Biloxi Beach on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast in order to hold a “wade-in” challenging the segregated beach area. The Black activists are met by a group of angry white people who tell them to leave the beach. When the Black people refuse to leave, the white mob attacks them with sticks, clubs, pipes, and whips while local law enforcement do nothing to intervene. When white airmen from a nearby Air Force base try to protect injured protesters, they too are attacked. Learn more.