In March 1960, Atlanta University Center students began a nonviolent direct action protest campaign designed to break down racial segregation in lunch counters and other public facilities in downtown Atlanta. The students' efforts had an effect within the Center from which their protests emanated. This thesis is an effort to study those effects, The approach in doing so is intrainstitutional as well as intraracial. The areas discussed are the students' organization, their efforts to take care of academic responsibilities while protesting, and the pressures between them and their parents, faculty, and college presidents. The method of the thesis is that of oral history and major sources used in the research were fifteen oral interviews conducted in 1978 and 1979.