James F. Gay and Milton Gay

James F. Gay and Milton Gay

James F. Gay, 17, was an exceptionally talented student who put his all into whatever he was doing. During his time at the Norfolk Division of Virginia State College, he and his older brother, 19-year-old Milton F. Gay, a freshman at Norfolk State (then known as the Norfolk Division) and later president of Virginia’s NAACP Youth Group, initiated a sit-in movement in Norfolk. Having attended an NAACP National convention in New York City, where they met students from Oklahoma City and conducted a successful sit-in at lunch counters in 1958.

They were inspired and took back tactics to conduct their own movement for their community against Granby Street merchants. The Norfolk Youth Council supported their ideas and movement during that time. On February 12, 1960, the brothers, along with more than 35 other young people  including Norfolk Division students, sat down at the white lunch counter in Woolworth’s on Granby Street. After five months of protests, merchants agreed. On July 23, 1960, Norfolk stores desegregated their lunch counters. But the brothers’ protest work was not finished. In October 1963, they led a march of nearly 300 Norfolk Division students to a Norfolk city council meeting.

James went on to become one of the first Black students admitted to the University of Virginia School of Law and the first member of his race elected to the UVA Student Council after graduating from Virginia State College's Norfolk Division in 1965. James and his older brother, Milton F. Gay, had a lasting impact on NSU and its enduring legacy.