The Sit-In
"On February 1, 1960, four young men walked into the Woolworth's store in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. Salesclerks probably thought they were typical college students, shopping for school supplies. That was only partly correct. Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Joseph McNeil were indeed students at the nearby Agricultural and Technical College (A&T). But that day, they hadn't come to Woolworth's merely to shop. They had come to win equality."
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service |
February 1, 1960
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"After buying a few items, the students sat at the lunch counter and ordered coffee and doughnuts. The waitress replied that she couldn't serve them. Blair showed her his receipts. Clerks in other departments had waited on him. Why, then, weren't he and his friends welcome here? Woolworth's manager, called to the scene, explained the lunch counter was reserved for white customers. In a fatherly tone, he tried to persuade the students to return to campus. The four young men politely refused to leave until they received service. For the rest of the afternoon, they sat at the empty counter....When the store closed, they promised to return the next day and resume their protest." - Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service |
The four were surprised when two elderly white women approached and one said, "Boys, we support what you're doing. You stay and sit there." (Greensboro News and Record, Jan. 27, 1985)
"And we all respected each other. So it was like one of those once-in-a-lifetime relationships."
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"I certainly wasn't afraid. And I wasn't afraid because I was too angry to be afraid."
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"I was the last one to sit down because I was the most afraid. If someone had come up behind me and said 'boo,' I would have fallen out of the chair."
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"There comes a time when you have to stand up."
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"Police arrive, but are unable to take action against the four students due to lack of provocation."
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
"Ralph Johns, the [Greensboro] businessman who had encouraged McNeil and his friends to act, recognized the importance of publicity. On the first day of the sit-in, he had called the news office of the Greensboro newspaper, the Record, to alert reporters that there was a story brewing at Woolworth's."
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
"Ralph Johns, the [Greensboro] businessman who had encouraged McNeil and his friends to act, recognized the importance of publicity. On the first day of the sit-in, he had called the news office of the Greensboro newspaper, the Record, to alert reporters that there was a story brewing at Woolworth's."
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service
February 2, 1960
![Picture](/uploads/2/5/4/1/25413104/6241043.jpg?584)
"On Tuesday morning, February 2, 1960, soon after Woolworth's manager C. L. Harris unlocked the doors, the A&T College students arrived. They walked to the lunch counter, sat on the stools, and ordered food. When the waitress refused to serve them, they opened books and started reading. ... They simply sat there, neatly dressed, quietly studying. From time to time, another group of students came to take the seats of those who had to return to campus for classes....Harris couldn't complain about the students' conduct. He only wished they hadn't chosen to protest segregation at his lunch counter. A&T students continued the sit-in at the Greensboro Woolworth's until closing time on Tuesday."
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service
![Picture](/uploads/2/5/4/1/25413104/5351403.jpg?378)
Reporters and photographers gathered at the store. "That afternoon, the Greensboro Record came out with the first published account of the sit-ins. The lead story on the first page of the second section, the local page, read: 'A&T Students Launch Sit-Down Demand for Service at Downtown Lunch Counter.'" (Wolff)
February 3, 1960
February 4, 1960
"By Thursday there weren't enough stools for all the protesters, and a group headed to the lunch counter at the downtown S.H. Kress store. Also on that Thursday, a pack of white teenagers appeared at the Woolworth's lunch counter. While the student protesters sat at the lunch counter reading, the white youths taunted and harassed them. The protesters, committed to nonviolence, didn't fight back."
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service
February 5, 1960
On Thursday and Friday, "Female students from Bennett College and as well as three white students from Greensboro Women's College join the sit-in. ... About 300 students are now protesting at Woolworth's. The sit-in movement spreads to almost 40 other cities across the country."
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
February 6, 1960
"February 6, 1960, in Greensboro would be remembered as Black Saturday."
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service "An estimated 1,000 protesters and observers fill Woolworth's."
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS "As the outnumbered police officers wondered how long they could control the situation, a Woolworth's employee received a warning from an anonymous caller claiming a bomb was planted in the store. The employee alerted the officers, and they evacuated the building. The crowd at Woolworth's then converged on S.H. Kress, where the sit-ins had provoked a similarly explosive scene. Alarmed by the bomb scare at Woolworth's, the Kress manager decided not to take any risks. Leaping onto the lunch counter, he waved his arms, announced that the store was closed, and told everyone to go home."
- Melody Herr, Sitting for Equal Service |
February 7, 1960
"A&T students vote to suspend demonstrations to give city and store officials a chance to comply."
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
The next week
"...as the protests spread, the students followed the nonviolent pattern that had been set in Greensboro. The demonstrations continued, spreading to Concord and Salisbury, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee. But they were not limited to the border states. In Rock Hill and Orangeburg, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Tallahassee, Florida; and Montgomery, Alabama, students staged protests."
- Miles Wolff, Lunch at the Five and Ten
- Miles Wolff, Lunch at the Five and Ten
February 15, 1960
Greensboro was not the first sit-in, but it was the first to be reported across the nation. "As the news spread, so did the movement." (Herr) The news was first reported in Greensboro's city and student papers, and then other North Carolina newspapers carried articles on the sit-in. "On February 15, 1960, the New York Times brought the sit-in to national attention with a front-page headline: 'Negro Sitdowns Stir Fear of Wider Unrest in South.'" (Herr)
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April 1, 1960
"Negotiations [between students and city and store officials] fail, and students resume the sit-in."
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
"It seems clear that this 'lunch counter movement' will become a historic milestone in the American Negro's efforts to win the rights of citizenship which are guaranteed him by the Constitution.... [It] unquestionably marks a memorable stage in the development of our American culture."
- Commonweal Magazine, April 1, 1960
- Commonweal Magazine, April 1, 1960
July 26, 1960
"Woolworth's integrates its lunch counter."
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
- February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, Independent Lens, PBS
The Greensboro sit-in was a small step that made a giant impact towards equality for blacks.