GUEST: I moved to Nashville in 1988, and Woolworth's department store was closing all of, their stores locally, and they had a sale of fixtures. So I decided to try to see if they still had the lunch counter stools. So when I went downtown to check it out, they, they had 14 of the stools still left, but he had taken the tops of the stools off, so he just had the post and the floor. So I inquired about, if, if they were still available, if they had 'em. He said, "I do have them. I, I have the stools' seats off in the basement." And then he said, "If you can get 'em all out of here, you can have 'em for $50." So I paid $50 for all 14 of the stools.
APPRAISER: Wow.
GUEST: I knew that -- that this was very possibly part of the sit-in, so I, uh, inquired with the museum, Tennessee State Museum, about these stools, and they did some research, and confirmed that they were part of the sit-in, even though it wasn't the original Woolworth's, it was W.T. Grant's at the time in the city in 1960.
APPRAISER: You have how many now?
GUEST: I have four still.
APPRAISER: Okay, and the other ten?
GUEST: I, uh, sold to the museum, the Tennessee State Museum.
APPRAISER: Okay, so when did you do that?
GUEST: Early 1990. The ten stools I sold to the museum, I sold them for $300.
APPRAISER: So you six-timed your money...
GUEST (chuckles): Yes, yes. ...just on those ten.
APPRAISER: So you have an iconic piece of American history that represents the civil rights struggle, represents an ongoing struggle. Did you know that the sit-ins ended on May the tenth, 1960?
GUEST: I, I knew they, they ran several weeks, but I didn't realize it was that long.
APPRAISER: What is today?
GUEST: Oh, today is, m -- yes.
APPRAISER: 62nd anniversary of the end of the sit-ins.
GUEST: Wow. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And the student organizations and the civil rights organizations that participated in this...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: There were students there from Fisk University and other places. And one of the people that emerged as a leader in that was John Lewis.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, yes.
APPRAISER: What John Lewis and those students did was a nonviolent protest. And by May 10, they had negotiated with the mayor that six downtown places would serve Black people and it wouldn't be segregated seating.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: That nonviolent protest became the model for a lot of things that came after that.
GUEST: Wow, that's...
APPRAISER: So... How do you put a value on something like that?
GUEST: Correct, yes.
APPRAISER: What do you think they're worth?
GUEST: I mean, in, in the past, I was estimating maybe $1,000 apiece, maybe, of the four, so maybe $4,000?
APPRAISER: I talked to, uh, one of my colleagues here whose company has sales that specialize in African American history and art. He said that if they had, like, a bathroom sign or something from the '50s...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...that said "colored only," that things like that would bring $3,000 to $5,000 and up.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Small signs that say, "I'm a man." That's at least $5,000 and up.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: So it's not a scientific process, but we felt like each of the stools would be worth at least $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST: Wow. I'm glad I saved 'em.
APPRAISER: You and me both.
