Greensboro Sit-Ins
Historical eventAbout
The Greensboro Sit-Ins were a pivotal event in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, beginning on February 1, 1960. Four African-American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University—Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond—organized a nonviolent protest at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina. They sat at the whites-only lunch counter, politely requesting service but were refused. This act of defiance sparked widespread attention and inspired similar sit-ins across the South. The Greensboro Sit-Ins led to a mass movement, with 70 southern cities staging their own protests by April 1960. The sit-ins highlighted Black resistance to segregation, capturing national media attention and galvanizing youth involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. The protests resulted in the desegregation of many lunch counters, marking an early success for the movement. The sit-ins provided a template for nonviolent resistance, influencing future civil rights activism and cementing their place as a catalyst for broader social change in the United States.
