Greensboro Sit-Ins

Martin Luther King, Jr. preached the gospel of peaceful protest, but peaceful protests are often eclipsed by the more explosive demonstrations that dominate media coverage. In Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960, the civil rights movement was getting into full swing with the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee earlier that year in Raleigh. A group of four men heeded their call.

This small group of nonviolent protesters embodied MLK's ideas in a way that seemed to attack all of the fallacies of the segregationist movement using understated tactics that were seemingly just as explosive as any bomb might have been. Who were these protestors, and what were the effects of their actions? Where do they fit within the canon of civil rights activism? Read on, and find out in this explanation.

Fig. 1 Woolworth's Sit-in in Durham, N.C.

Greensboro Sit-Ins Purpose

The Greensboro sit-ins began on February 1, 1960. The accumulating progress inspired the civil rights movement's sit-ins and accompanying setbacks and flare-ups. For example, the grotesque and hate-driven murder of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi, had occurred a scant five years earlier. In addition, activists such as John Young founded the SNCC virtually on Greensboro's doorstep in Raleigh. The Freedom Rides of 1961, undertaken to protest violations of a new federal law banning discrimination in interstate accommodations, buoyed the orchestrators of the sit-ins even higher.

The students' growing frustrations in light of the movement's gains encouraged them to take action against discrimination. Their goal boiled down to treating us equally and removing the discriminatory barriers to equal access. In short, end segregation. In the words of a popular contemporary chant of the desegregationist movement: "Integration NOW! Segregation NEVER!"

Fig. 2 Sit-in in North Carolina

Peaceful Protests

The peaceful tactics the sit-ins' progenitors deployed were like an object lesson ripped straight from the book of Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolent protests, especially sit-ins, were usually highly effective because the police's hands were tied, unable to make arrests in the absence of a crime.

The swelling of an interracial crowd, including counter-protestors, threw the ridiculousness of a segregationist policy into stark relief. Further, sit-ins usually drew media attention on a massive scale. The demonstrations usually meant significant business losses, including payroll and operating costs. There was always the risk of possible boycotts.

Greensboro Sit-Ins Facts

The architects of the Greensboro sit-ins were known as the Greensboro Four. The men were North Carolina Agricultural Technical College students who had grown weary of being denied service due to segregationist policies. They were:

• Ezell Blair, Jr.
• David Richmond
• Joseph McNeil
• Franklin McCain.

Fig. 3 Civil Rights Activist David Richmond

With the help of Ralph Johns, a white organizer and local businessman, the men selected Woolworth's lunch counter as their target location. One of the men entered and purchased items on the desegregated side of the store, buying a few daily necessities such as toothpaste.

There, the store accepted his money, and he proceeded to make his way to the lunch counter, where he was denied service and asked to leave. The other men joined him and refused to leave, enduring epithets from staff black and white. Some dubbed them "rabble-rousers," criminals, and ne'er-do-wells. A white woman came over and told the men, "I'm so proud of you. I only wish you had done this ten years ago."

On February 2, the men returned. The crowd soon grew, with students from a local Black women's college arriving to augment the others. Everyone brought their books, studied, and did their homework. Police arrived, but there was no provocation forthcoming. Ralph Johns telephoned the media, who soon came with their banks of cameras and much-desired publicity.

Fig. 4 Great River Road - Sit-In at a Lunch Counter for Civil Rights

Greensboro Sit-Ins Date

The Greensboro sit-ins happened essentially at the dawn of the civil rights movement. The next ten years would bring seismic changes, excellent resistance on both sides, and violence.

Timeline of Important Events in the Civil Rights Movement

Greensboro Sit-Ins Impact

The significant impact of the Greensboro sit-ins extended to other college towns, where there were copycat demonstrations. By the end of the summer of 1960, Woolworths had integrated its dining amenities, and restaurants across the country followed suit, no longer denying customer service based on race. On that hot July day, the first black employees served at the Greensboro Woolworths were discreetly told to take their lunch and order at the café. Let's name them:

• Geneva Tisdale
• Susie Morrison
• Anetha Jones
• Charles Best.

The Greensboro sit-ins became an iconic moment in the struggle for civil rights. The site still stands today as a monument to those men and women who took a stand gracefully, illustrating the illogic of a system that had been. The sit-ins were a harbinger of more significant gains over the next couple of years, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which provided equal access to public accommodations and desegregation, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Fig. 5 Civil Rights protesters and Woolworth's Sit-In, Durham, NC, 10 February 1960