Greensboro Sit-ins Begin (1960)

Mon Feb 01, 1960

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Image: Sitting from left: Joseph McNeil, Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson on second day of sit-ins, Woolworth, Greensboro, February 2nd, 1960 [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1960, the “Greensboro Four” sat down at F. W. Woolworth Company Store’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina to protest segregation.

The four men had purchased toothpaste and other products from a desegregated counter at the store with no problems, but were then refused service at the store’s lunch counter when they each asked for a cup of coffee.

The four students returned the next day, and within a few days the protest included hundreds of students. The Greensboro Sit-in sparked a movement of sit-in protests against segregation across the country, continuing into the summer and expanding to other places of discrimination, such as swimming pools, parks, and art galleries.

On July 25th, after months of harassment, including a bomb threat, and nearly $200,000 in losses ($1.7 million in 2020 dollars) the Greensboro Woolworth’s finally ended its discriminatory policies. Four years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated desegregation in public accommodations.