Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In Case Study

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.

The civil rights movement changed the way people saw each other in the U.S. At first, most people saw African Americans as defenseless and helpless people, until they collaborated and impacted the Montgomery Bus System, the school system, and the judicial system. This movement also had an impact on the U.S. population, and helped confront the issue that most American Caucasians were treating people unlike themselves unequally.

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

There were an additional three major events that helped end segregation. The first being the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which had started because of the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1st, 1955. It started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white person, and because of this she was arrested, tried and convicted of disorderly conduct. The outrage sparked by her arrested led to a 13-month mass boycott of Montgomery buses. This boycott led to the Supreme Court’s decision to ban segregation on buses in 1956. The second event was on September 24th, 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Federal Troops and the National Guard intervened and escorted a group of nine African American children, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, to Little Rock Central High School and ensure that they were safe, which aided in ending the segregation in schools in Arkansas. The third event was the Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-on which occurred on February 1st, 1960. This event while prompting similar non-violent protests all over the South, also ended segregation at the Woolworth department store chain in the Southern United States.

On an early morning in November 1959, the group of students and John would test sit-ins in lunch counters to test if they would actually serve them their food or not. Like the usual, they had to leave the place because due to store policy they could not serve colored people there. After this, they will continue to go to the same restaurant and sit there and here the same words they heard daily. Nothing was going to stop them. Not only were they kicked out but they were called niggers and were told to leave back to Africa. It was these sit-ins that started the march for

Jim Crow laws made a devastating impact on the lives of the black community in the southern U.S. These horrible acts of segregation and cruel treatment sparked a flame at TSU when a law student was racially profiled by the police. This event combined with a thirst for justice lead to many of the students banning together to make a difference in Houston. The effects of the actions made by Texas Southern University to stop Jim Crow laws entailed the desegregation of public facilities in Houston such as the Astrodome, downtown department stores, and local lunch counters. These events were all made possible by peaceful demonstration, civil disobedience, and boycotts.

Together citizens came together to create non-violence workshop where members united to try everything they could to break each other both physically and verbally. They started their first test sit-in at the department store lunch counters. When they were told, “We don’t serve colored people here” (87), then they simply thanked them and left. This workshop slowly started to gain members as they repeatedly did the same process. After the four students in Greensboro, Carolina took seats, the Nashville Student Movement started to march. People were starting to notice the march as about 200 students participated. Violent activity took place. Nashville’s chief of police stated that if the marches continued in the protest, then participants will be arrested and they won’t try to stop any of the planned attacks. The participants continued to March and after name calling and violent attacks were made on the marchers, they were arrested. John Lewis stated it was his first of many arrests as he wouldn’t stop fighting for his rights. While in court, attorney Z. Alexander Looby stated, “They were peaceful customers, fully compliant with the law, who were harassed and beaten” (107). After the arrest of many members, students still continued to march. A boycott, “Selective Buying Campaign” was started by black community members in which the streets of downtown were

When you think of a lunch counter you rarely think of a sign hanging on top saying “whites only”but yet you think of a mixture of races speaking and laughing together. In 1950’s it was all different, there was a sign...and you rarely saw blacks and whites talking… back then it was segregation. In February 1st, 1960 four black freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond(Greensboro four), took a seats at the segregated lunch counter of F. W. Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina. They were refused service and sat peacefully until the store closed. They returned the next day, along with about 25 other students, and their requests were again denied. The Greensboro Four inspired similar

One day there was an event that changed everyone's lives from today. “Greensboro Sit-Ins” would be the most important event that had the most impact on changing America’s stance on segregation because the blacks and whites were once separated by everything they did on a daily basis.

The sit-ins that started it all were the Greensboro, North Carolina. The date of this sit-in is February 1, 1960. The time was at about noon, one o’clock. There was were four boys that started the sit-in. Their names were Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr, and David Richmond. The location was Greensboro, North Carolina. The boys didn’t really plan this sit-in ahead of time, they just walked into the store and sat down waiting for their service, but they never got it. People knew about the sit-ins about twenty four hours later. Once the very first sit-in happened that day, it was just organized from then on. People knew to come in more and more every day.

During sit-ins, (black and white) protesters occupied seats at whites’ only lunch counters and remained there even after they were refused service, sometimes for hours. The sit-ins employed the tactic of civil disobedience, breaking the law in a peaceful way to call attention to an unjust law. Student training and counseling in the principles for the sit-ins included the following ’10 Rules of Conduct’ which were the required standards for all those who were supporting the protest: “Do show yourself friendly on the counter at all times. Do sit straight and always face the counter. Don’t strike back, or curse if attacked. Don’t laugh out. Don’t hold conversations. Don’t block entrances. …Remember the teachings of Jesus, Gandhi, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Love and nonviolence is the way” (Library, 2006). Sit-ins disrupted business, making it impossible for white businessmen to ignore the protester’s demands. Highly visible sit-ins in downtown Nashville department stores were also guaranteed to attract press

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 Greensboro Sit-ins were a protest that young African Americans an some whites joined in, across the southern states. This occurred at Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina on February first 1960. There were four main people who started this protest, they were Ezell Blair, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil. There were many events that led up to this protest. One being the non-violent protest techniques practiced by Mohandas Gandhi.