Greensboro sit-ins

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Lunch Counter from Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's now at Smithsonian Institution

On February 1, 1960, four African American students (Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain) from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College sat down at a segregated lunch counter in the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's store. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter, sparking off sit-ins and economic boycotts that were a landmark of the American civil rights movement. In just two months the sit-in movement spread to 54 cities in 9 states. Six months after the sit-ins began, the original four protesters were served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Sit-ins would be effective throughout the South in integrating other public facilities. In 1993, the lunch counter was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. This sit-in inspired all the others during the Civil Rights Movement.

Several documentaries have been procudes about these men who sparked the sit in movement, including PBS' "Februrary One" [1].