In 1965 I was part of a campus group based at the University of Pennsylvania that was actually an amalgam of a campus NAACP chapter, a Committee to End the War in Vietnam, SDS, and a nascent draft resistance group. When the demonstrations in Selma attracted national attention and there was an announcement that they were going to march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights we knew something important was happening and wanted to support that. Sitting in and being removed from federal buildings was sort of old hat but it was an easy place to start.

At the same time we decided that nonviolent direct action at Independence Hall had a chance of capturing national attention and building support for voting rights legislation as well as drawing national attention to protecting and supporting the campaign to register voters and the movement in Selma. So, a couple of us took the subway down to Independence Hall and walked through to get a sense of how many people it would take and how we would get into Independence Hall and be able to sit down around the Liberty Bell before we could be stopped. We also saw that there was a constant flow of people coming in and out and that there were tours of the building by National Park Service staff. We didn’t want to disrupt that normal flow of people or the programs and guided educational efforts and so we estimated not only the minimum people we would need to make it difficult to remove us but also the maximum people we would want at any one time around the Bell so as not to disrupt other people coming and going.

We then made a very simple plan. Those willing to risk arrest would enter Independence Hall and sit around the Liberty Bell. Others would form a picket line in front of Independence Hall, and one of us would immediately start calling press because we knew that the more eyes, actual and electronic, that were on us the harder it would be to simply carry us out of Independence Hall. I’m sure that somebody wrote a leaflet although I’m not sure who and I certainly have no copies of it. We then assembled in West Philadelphia and went down to Independence Hall. Those who would set up a picket line tried not to show their signs and not to assemble until those of us going into Independence Hall were inside.

Everything worked very simply. About a dozen of us entered Independence Hall and sat down around the Liberty Bell before anyone in authority knew what had happened. Then the picket line formed outside with placards. And our phone call person (who actually ended up sometime later in the Reagan White House) started calling the press.

Then, as word spread people started coming to join us from all over Philadelphia. They included young people, including Cub Scouts, clergy, students from a number of other campuses and high schools and older people from communities around Philadelphia. The picket line was going well and we has a simple system of rotating people from outside to take a turn sitting around the Bell. The effort gave us an opportunity to build a network of activists. We also had to make sure that the overnight sit in people were in place around the Bell before the official closing time of Independence Hall.

Park Service Officers were initially worried that we would damage Independence Hall or the Liberty Bell and sent in a preservationist staff person who talked to several of us about the historical importance of the space. Once he was convinced that we were committed to respecting the history we all shared his role changed to giving us what were essentially seminars on the history of Independence Hall as well as details of the architecture, building materials, and significant events in the Hall and surrounding buildings. (Just a side note. If you really want to get great tutorials just plan for some civil disobedience that worries the authorities sufficiently to sending experts. Then the experts have nothing to do, so they spend their time teaching.)

National Park Service personnel were always around. During the day tours of Independence Hall continued to be scheduled. Those of us participating in the sit in may have heard the script of the history of the building and the Liberty Bell more time than you have. When the building was closed to the public there were Park Service people present and often the expert on the history and construction of Independence Hall would be there.

You asked about information about participants in the sit in. The truth is that the sit in was many years ago and not a few sit ins ago. To some extent they sort of all blend together. I do have some pictures that I took during the sit in, which I’m happy to share with you if you wish. I can identify a number of students who I think were from Penn, Cheyney, Bryn Mawr, and Temple. There were also several people from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Philadelphia Chapter. A number of clergy came to participate. I have a picture of Father John Scott, an Episcopal priest sitting next to the head of Penn Hillel Rabbi Berkowitz. I will circulate a few pictures to people who are still around to see if we can identify people.

The sit in was pretty quiet. We did not want to disrupt the normal functioning of Independence Hall and a number of the more diligent students brought books and were reading and studying while sitting in. In the evenings we had to evaluate what had happened during the day and what we had to plan for the next day which took more time and energy than one might think.

After three days we had had plenty of time for strategy discussions and realized that the real focus had to be in Selma. We had drawn significant national attention to them but now our task was to get as many of us as possible down to Selma. So we needed a way to end the sit in/occupation. And we needed a way to raise funds to get people to Selma. We did not have a single car between us. We didn’t have credit cards, even if rental agencies would have rented to us, given our age. Then someone mentioned that Duke Ellington was giving a concert that night at the Academy of Music. We thought that if we could collect money at the Academy we would have enough to send at least some of us to Selma.

The question then became how could we contact Mr. Ellington. At that point one of the sit in participants mentioned casually that he sometimes sang with the Ellington Orchestra and he could simply call Duke Ellington. He did. Duke Ellington readily agreed and that evening we left Independence Hall and went to the Academy of Music. We got in through the stage door and were standing around backstage when Duke Ellington came out and started talking to us. I should add that he is an idol of mine and so I would add this as another secret benefit of well-planned civil disobedience.

We were a pretty ripe group given that Independence Hall doesn’t have up to date shower facilities, but Mr. Ellington was sincerely interested in who were and what we were doing. At that point an executive from the Academy of Music appeared and said that it was totally inappropriate for us to collect money at the Academy. He started explaining and then Mr. Ellington said if we could not collect money then there would be no concert. That was settled. We collected money. And late that evening figured out that we had enough to charter a small plane. We drew lots for who would get to go. I lost. Kiyoshi Kuromiya won and ended up in a confrontation with a horse and Alabama state police officer which put Kiyoshi in the hospital. But, then he got to meet Dr. King – yet one more benefit.

Part of our group loosely held together long enough to build a community center for a group of striking sharecroppers in Mississippi in December 1965 and to be a pretty good lobbying group for the voting rights act under the tutelage of then Congressperson Nix.