After losing his job as the football coach at T.C. Williams High School, Coach Yoast announces to his white players and their parents that he will be taking the year off from coaching and moving to be the head coach of a new high school the following year. One of the parents of the white players says, "I say boycott T.C. Williams. Our boys aren't playing for some Coach Coon." The fact that the parents of the white football players are so upset that the head coach of their boys is now African American goes to show the racism and white superiority that was still present in the 1970s in the South. Gerry Bertier, one of the white linebackers that played for Coach Yoast and one of the main characters in the film, says to Coach Yoast "He stole your job. I'm not playing for him. I started a petition and I'm sitting this season out." This scene in the movie reminded me very much of the Sit-Ins that took place in 1960. There is a lot of similarity between the two scenarios but one key difference as well. In the Sit-Ins, African American boys were going to sit-in at a restaurant until they were served coffee (
Hist page 453). In
Remember the Titans, the white players argue that they are going to Sit-Out of the season and not play this year. Both groups are essentially doing the same thing, protesting because they do not agree with the way that things are now.
On February 1, 1960, four black college freshmen began a sit-in at a local lunch counter in Greensboro. The young, African American men said that they would not leave until they were served a cup of coffee. This was usually refused in a segregated society (
Hist page 453). The students sat patiently at the lunch-counter, not causing any problems or being rowdy in any manner, until the store closed. The next day, twenty-seven students sat-in and within a few days there were more students than there were seats available. Because there were no more seats, this prompted the students to spread the protest to other white-only restaurants in the city (
Hist page 453). On the Blog website
Teaching United States History, Kevin Schultz discusses the Greensboro Four in his Blog post titled "Frustrations from teachings civil rights...." Schultz states that it is an inspiring story about college students making a difference (Blog website
Teaching United States History). By the end of the month, students in other southern cities began similar protests. Although many students participated in the sit-ins, the students largely were confronted with problems such as having food thrown at them, cigarettes were put out on their arms, and many were even forcibly removed from their seats. However, faced with these constant humiliations, the students remained nonviolent and refused to retaliate in any matter (
Hist page 453). Because sales were dipping so low at their stores, many southern business owners agreed to desegregate. The similarity between the Sit-Ins of the 1960s and the "Sit-Out" of the white players in
Remember the Titans shows that protesting in a nonviolent way can sometimes get progress to be made.
In the middle of the year in 1960, after a few months of Sit-Ins taking place throughout the Upper South, the students now organized a group by the name of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Because SNCC was composed of young college students, SNCC had the most energetic membership of civil rights organizations. The group helped to spread sit-ins throughout the Upper South (
Hist page 453). Sticking to their nonviolent ways, the college students had the dream of living in an integrated America. This is where I see a difference between the Sit-Ins of the 1960s and the "Sit-Outs" in
Remember the Titans. SNCC had the dream of living in an integrated America while the white players in
Remember the Titans were trying to disallow the desegregation that was happening in their school. Although both stood by nonviolent ways, that was a major difference that I saw between the two.
On February 1, 1960, four black college freshmen began a sit-in at a local lunch counter in Greensboro. The young, African American men said that they would not leave until they were served a cup of coffee. This was usually refused in a segregated society (Hist page 453). The students sat patiently at the lunch-counter, not causing any problems or being rowdy in any manner, until the store closed. The next day, twenty-seven students sat-in and within a few days there were more students than there were seats available. Because there were no more seats, this prompted the students to spread the protest to other white-only restaurants in the city (Hist page 453). On the Blog website Teaching United States History, Kevin Schultz discusses the Greensboro Four in his Blog post titled "Frustrations from teachings civil rights...." Schultz states that it is an inspiring story about college students making a difference (Blog website Teaching United States History). By the end of the month, students in other southern cities began similar protests. Although many students participated in the sit-ins, the students largely were confronted with problems such as having food thrown at them, cigarettes were put out on their arms, and many were even forcibly removed from their seats. However, faced with these constant humiliations, the students remained nonviolent and refused to retaliate in any matter (Hist page 453). Because sales were dipping so low at their stores, many southern business owners agreed to desegregate. The similarity between the Sit-Ins of the 1960s and the "Sit-Out" of the white players in Remember the Titans shows that protesting in a nonviolent way can sometimes get progress to be made. 
I was studying about History of Americas and ran into this article. Thanks for sharing and I sure will watch Remember the Titans to get your exact idea. Btw, greeting from Vietnam.
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