Civil Rights Movements and The Greensboro Sit-ins

The beginning of the sit-ins were hard, but they overcame many hardships to achieve their goal. Most of their sit-ins they suffered from being attacked by white customers. They got beat up and never said a word and just dealt with it. After having their sit-ins they motivated others to do the same

The Nashville Sit-ins helped to desegregate some shopping districts and food areas while also helping to further desegregation. The first time sit-ins took place as a form of protest was during the 1940’s in Chicago and they had success at a few businesses. During the Civil Rights Movement sit-ins gained more attention and became more prominent. In 1960 the youth of Nashville had decided to attempt to desegregate lunch counters through sit-ins with the encouragement and help of new comer Reverend James Lawson. Reverend James Lawson educated the youth about nonviolence and helped them organize to take action through workshops that he put on. From Lawson’s workshops emerged two new young leaders Diane Nash and John Lewis local college students.

It started when the four college students made the decision out of frustration to sit at the counter that only served white people at a Woolworth’s store. According to Engelbert (1999), “The four young men believed it was time to expedite the desegregation process;” and hence, conceived their idea to conduct a sit-in at Woolworth’s and not leave until they were served (p. 56). I believe McNeil, Blair, McCain, and Richmond were consumed with a plethora of emotions. For example, terror must have

On February 7th, 1960, a week after the Greensboro sit-ins, The Nashville Student Movement had begun their first real sit-in. The objective of these sit-ins was to desegregate lunch counters in downtown Nashville. Book 1 goes into detail about the preparation for these sit-ins. Months before this

In the first presentation, I noticed an event called the Greensboro Sit-ins. This was a single event that sparked a nationwide movement and flood of support for the civil rights movement and the issue of business owners withholding service from those who were not white. On February 1st, 1960, 4 students of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat at a whites-only lunch table, requested service, and were then denied and asked to leave. When they left, they went to tell campus leaders what had happened and as a result gained people that wanted to participate in the sit-in. It is said that “the next morning twenty-nine neatly dressed male and female [NCATSU] students sat at the Woolworth’s lunch counter,” the same counter where those first four students sat (NorthCarolinaHistory.org). After this happened, protests occurred each week and hundreds of students were showing up at Woolworth’s. Following this, more and more students from around the US were staging sit ins at segregated lunch counters as a form of non-violent protest against discrimination.

February 1st, 1960; the Greensboro Sit Ins; Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr., Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond. “Segregated conditions were as characteristic of Greensboro, however, as they were of cities with reputations for racial violence and intimidation.” The Greensboro Sit Ins made a huge impact not only in North Carolina, but along the Southeast states; thirteen states and fifty five different cities. This was where a group of four black male freshmen college students at A&T State University who

African Americans were able to gain much attention and sympathy through their various protests and they were also able to advance politically and economically with their enactment of civil rights laws. In the 1960s nonviolent protests were prevalent among African American; in 1960 students in North Carolina started the sit-in movement after being denied service at Woolworth’s lunch counter (which was segregated). Thereafter the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed to maintain this movement where students would deliberately get arrested for sitting in restricted areas. This movement facilitated the

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) used a form of protest by union workers called sit-ins. After it was successful with CORE 4 African Americans Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr, David Richmond and Franklin McCain suggested a sit in Woolworth department store. They were afraid, but they did it. They entered and bought supplied, then sat at the lunch counter and ordered coffee. The people there wouldn’t service them, but serviced them on the other counter. The four stayed until they closed and said they would do that every day until they were serviced. They left the Woolworth exited and persuaded by what they did. This convinced more and more African American to sit-in and wait until they were serviced. The NAACP and SClC were nervous about the sit-in campaign.

The Greensboro Sit-Ins were another way that people progressed the Civil Rights movement. These took place in North Carolina, in the year 1960. They had many people participate in this nonviolent protest. The interview with Franklin McCain states, “We actually got to the point where we had people going down in shifts” (My Soul is Rested: Movement Days in the Deep South Remembered). The movement was

“We want the world to know that we no longer accept the inferior position of second-class citizenship.” (“Martin Luther King Jr. And The Global Freedom Struggle”). The sit-in movement was vital to the civil rights movement because it showed that African-Americans felt that they were not being treated as true Americans. The most important conclusion that I have drawn from my research is that African-Americans were treated differently because of the color of their skin, and because of that, they weren’t served at lunch counters, restaurants, or cafes (“Martin Luther King Jr. And The Global Freedom Struggle”).

The Greensbro sit-ins first started on February 1st, 1960. Four black college freshman in Greensbro, North Carolina, visited a white-only Woolsworth's lunch counter where they demanded service. The black waitress refused to serve them, remarking that "fellows like you make our race look bad,". Regardless of this, the four men stayed seated. They returned the next day with nineteen classmates, and the day after that with eighty-five. By the end of the week there were over one-thousand black students attending the sit-in. The Sit-in movement began to spread throughout the South, though this time not just at lunch counters. The transportation industry, restaurants, and even voter registration were all recipients of this movement. The goal was

It was May 2, 1963. It was African-American kids fighting for their rights. They were doing non-violent demonstrations. This Civil Rights move was already part of some of the kids life. They made colored days for the people to be able to go to the fairgrounds. They also had some of their clothes taken off by

Sit-ins were very important in the 1960’s they were against segregated businesses and lunch counters.

Another significant transformation took place in the Civil Rights Movement in terms of its strategies. In analyzing this facet of the movement, we notice a great shift from nonviolent demonstration to forward, forceful action. Specifically, at the start of the Civil Rights Movement, lunch counter sit-ins were evident throughout the nation, as were Freedom Riders. Starting in Greensboro, North Carolina at a luncheonette called Woolworths, young black citizens would seat

The popularity of sit-ins can be reflected in the involvement of the N.A.A.C.P. (The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People). An article published by the New York Times talks about planned demonstrations that will occur in New York City which will be headed by the N.A.A.C.P (Robinson 54). This example shows how large the movement had become by summer 1961 because a nationally recognized organization was already actively involved in demonstrating. Another article, printed in late 1961, reports that the national director of the Congress of Racial Equality would begin planned sit-ins nation wide, with a focus in the South and the Midwest (“Negroes to Broaden” 18). This again proves how effective sit-ins were because a nationally recognized organization was taking the movement and organizing a nation wide effort to end discrimination.