The First Sit-In

On February 1, 1960, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College stage a sit-in at an all-white Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. They are members of the youth chapter of the NAACP, but the decision to protest is their own.

By the end of February, students in Nashville, Tennessee, have joined the cause; 400 of them protest against segregated stores there, and 81 are charged with disorderly conduct. The black community raises almost $50,000 in bail money to support their cause, but the students choose a "jail, no bail" strategy. On July 25, the Greensboro lunch counters are desegregated. On October 17, four national chains report that lunch counters in 112 southern towns have been integrated. By August 1961, sit-ins have spread across the South. Over 70,000 people have taken part, and there have been 3,000 arrests.

This wave of protest begins a student movement that attracts national attention and results, at last, in federal intervention. The sit-ins show students they can play a role in the political process. White students begin to work together with blacks for change.

Demonstrators Protesting in front of F.W. Woolworth Co., Harlem Photographer Unknown, c.1950's Courtesy of the Shomburg Center, NYPL