MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama State University students who were expelled for leading the state's first known sit-in protest against segregation have been honored on the 59th anniversary of the protest.
Montgomery city and county leaders Monday presented resolutions to ASU President Quinton Ross expressing sorrow for the "wrongs from the past."
The students from the historically black university staged a sit-in on Feb. 25, 1960, at the whites-only lunch counter at the Montgomery County Courthouse.
Civil rights attorney Fred Gray said some of the students were expelled from the university at the behest of the state's white governor.
Eighty-three-year-old Joseph Peterson was one of the nine students expelled and attended the Monday ceremony. Peterson said he has no regrets because "the whole South needed to change."