DSU’s Dr. Finger Wright Honored for Role in Greensboro Protests

Dr. Dolores Finger Wright, a DSU associate professor of social work, has recently been honored for the role she played in the historic public accommodations demonstrations in Greensboro, N.C. during the early 1960s.

 

Dr. Finger Wright received the International Civil Rights Center & Museum Sit-In Hero’s Award on Feb. 5 during the 51^st Anniversary Gala Commemorating the Greensboro Sit-ins.

 

During the tumultuous 1960s in Greensboro, the DSU associate professor was an undergraduate student in Bennett College for Women. Her extracurricular activity from her bachelor’s degree pursuit was working behind the scene during the Greensboro demonstrations and taking part in the picket lines.

 

Presenting the award to Dr. Finger Wright was Ret. Maj. Gen. Joseph McNeil, one of the “Greensboro Four” that gained worldwide notoriety for their sit-ins protests at segregated lunch counters in Greensboro in 1960.

 

“Delores would picket during the days to integrate the stores,” said Ret. Maj. Gen. McNeil. “She would work the picket lines at night to integrate the movie theatres, which was dangerous in Greensboro.”

 

Dr. Finger Wright said that she also worked behind the scenes strategizing with her Bennett College sisters, professors, as well as through her affiliations with the NAACP and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

 

The group formed a vanguard that would picket and demonstrate, and many – including Dr. Finger Wright – were arrested in the course of their protests.

 

“I saw my participation as an epiphany, moving from late adolescence to early adulthood all in the matter of days,” Dr. Finger Wright said. “That’s what my rearing was about – doing what’s right. So I had to be a part of it.”

 

After her graduation from Bennett College, Dr. Finger Wright would on to earn a Master of Social Work Degree from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Social Work from Howard University. She has been a social work faculty member at DSU for 21 years.

 

The Gala was held at the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro.