The Greensboro Sit Ins

After being refused service at a Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's, four
African-American men launched a protest that lasted six months and helped change America.

On February 1, 1960, four African American college students from North Carolina A&T walked into the Woolworth store in Greensboro, NC. David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and Ezell Blair Jr. took seats at the whites only counter, and were denied service. They remained seated until closing time, performing an act of defiance that would ignite one of the most significant movements in American Civil Rights history. 

Harlem demonstration in support
of North Carolina students, 1960

The sit in that happened at the Woolworth store was not the first of its kind, but it distinguishes itself from other sit ins due to the attention it received and the strategic organization. After Richmond, McCain, McNeil, and Blair Jr. performed the initial sit in, more students appeared by the day. Within the week, the movement had grown from four men to hundreds of students attending different high schools and colleges in the area, both Black and White.

The rapid expansion of the sit in movement was geographically extensive. Within two weeks, similar demonstrations had appeared in fifteen cities. By March? Fifty-four. Students coordinated these sit ins, often utilizing the resource of historically Black colleges and universities, created a unified front fighting segregation. These sit ins represented a new change in Civil Rights activism. It was calculated and set the tone for many business owners and customers. Young activists physically confronted segregation at its most visible, the segregated lunch counter, and transformed businesses into grounds for justice to be taken. This garnered even the attention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who stated that he was, "deeply sympathetic with the efforts of any group to enjoy the rights of equality that they are guaranteed by the Constitution."

David Richmond, Franklin McCain,
Joseph McNeil, and Ezell Blair Jr.

The success of the movement was largely due to the nonviolent approach students took, even while dealing with slurs and physical violence against them. They maintained their composure and peaceful resistance. Others looked at this dignified, mature response and gave it media attention and sympathy, as well as garnering support for the movement. The economic impact was substantial. Business owners faced the choice of having to decide to remove segregation in their companies or suffer the financial loss of less customers due to boycotts and operations being disrupted.

Lunch counter sit ins

On July 25, 1960, the Woolworth restaurant finally desegregated nearly six months after the initial protest. Other establishments across the South quickly followed. The sit ins fundamentally transformed the appearance of the Civil Rights movement. The movement also democratized Civil Rights leadership, pushing organizations like the NAACP into existence. The sit ins demonstrated that ordinary citizens, particularly the younger generations, could shift entire nations. 

This shift empowered a new generation of activists moving forward. The legacy of the Greensboro sit ins extends beyond the immediate act to desegregation. They established a plan, having no idea if it would even work or not, and had no way of anticipating that a national movement would start because of their actions. Their courage and conviction sent a wave of action into motion which challenged Jim Crow laws and pushed forward the larger Civil Rights movement, leading to the Freedom Rides, voting right campaigns, and larger peaceful protests.