1960- Greensboro sit-ins
On February 1st, 1960, four college students sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. They politely requested service, to which they were refused. Instead of getting up and leaving out of frustration, Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond and Ezell Blair (pictured above) sparked a large movement towards the advancement of civil rights by refusing to stand up.
Their passive resistance towards the Jim Crow laws soon attracted other young people to the civil rights movement. Over the following weeks and months, sit-ins would spread all across North Carolina and into other states. At first, the demonstrations were categorized as yet another college fad or aimless defiance. This opinion was changed as the spread of the movement continued. The sit-ins created a window of opportunity to showcase the unfair and unequal treatment of the African American population. In many places, groups of white men gathered around the protesters to discourage them and occasionally harm them. It was reported that many suffered harassment through thrown food, itching powder, and bottles of ammonia used as makeshift tear gas. The sit-in protests were successful in integrating lunch counters, including the Greensboro Woolworth’s, which gave in to to the protesters in July 1960. Four years later, segregation of public places was made illegal. |
Second day of the original Greensboro sit-in.
Many boycotted Woolworths entirely for refusing to serve colored individuals.
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