Legacy
"[The Greensboro Sit-In] kick-started the civil rights movement into action by revealing the extent of grass-roots dissatisfaction with segregation and providing the existing protest with a mass of constituency in the South."
- Robert Cook, Historian
The Greensboro Sit-In helped change the way Americans live and function today. By inspiring events and protests, it prompted the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through law.
"The Greensboro Sit-In and concurrent sit-ins in fifty-four cities and nine states led Woolworth's and other 'five-and-dime' stores to desegregate their lunch counters. The protests drew national attention and put college students and young people into the forefront of the ongoing movement to challenge racial inequality across the nation. Years of struggle led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws segregation in public accommodations and employment."
- "Greensboro Lunch Counter" Exhibit, Smithsonian Museum