The Lookout
Volume 7 Issue 1 | 2019
The Greensboro Sit-In: A Pivotal Civil Rights Event in the 1960s Rachel Delaney Kearney On February 1, 1960, four freshmen from
civil rights movement that facilitated positive
the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical
changes in the lives of African Americans in
College (A&T), an African American
North Carolina as well as other states.
college in Greensboro, took seats at the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter. Franklin McCain,
Word of the A&T freshmen’s acts made local news on February 3, 1960, when 27 other
Joe McNeill,
A&T students
David Richmond,
took seats at
and Ezell Blair
the Woolworth
were not the first
lunch counter
colored patrons
on Tuesday,
to attempt to
February 2.2 The
receive service
students failed to
at a segregated
receive service
lunch counter and,
once again. When
similar to those before them, were
the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-in, Greensboro, NC, 1960. Image from the Library of Congress.
Daily News asked
refused service.1 The four boys did not leave
participants about the sit-in, a student stated
the counter on the principle that, if they can
that they were “prepared to keep coming for
be served at the stand-up snack counter and
two years if we have to.”3 The students were
be rung up for their goods at the register, then
reportedly quiet and orderly while participating
they can take seats and eat as well. The four
in the sit-in, many completing schoolwork
friends remained in their seats until the store
while they waited. The demonstration by
closed, sparking a sit-in movement determined
students, unaffiliated with any civil rights
to persist until it achieved equality. The
organization, quickly received the full support
Greensboro sit-in was a pivotal moment in the
of the North Carolina chapter of the National
Frye Gaillard. The Greensboro Four: Civil Rights Pioneers. (Charlotte, North Carolina: Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2001), 7. 2. “Negros Fail to Obtain Service,” Greensboro Daily News, February 3, 1960, sec. B. 1.
3.
Ibid.
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