Impact On Changing America's Greensboro Sit-Ins

Greensboro’s civil reputation was put to challenge once school boards attempted to block integration, and when majority of blacks would not be given high-ranking jobs. Sit-ins were used to protest segregation in public facilities, but eventually riots struck as a necessity for black demands to be heard The points effectively prove Chafe’s thesis by presenting the barriers imposed by Greensboro’s leaders to avoid integration for educational, working, political, and social benefits for African Americans.

The sit-in movement acted as a major protest and turning point for the Civil Rights Movement. The sit-ins highlighted the main moral issue that was being fought: racial discrimination and segregation. Blacks utilized the strategies of nonviolence and student involvement in order to combat the moral issue of racial segregation (“Ain’t Scared of Your Jails”).

To understand the present and the future one must understand the past.  The book Civilities and Civil Rights by William Chafe provided a detailed look at North Carolina, specifically Greensboro between the years of the 1930s through the 1960’s. The state of events that occur can be linked to many of the events that one sees today due to the fact that the foundation and structure of the south was built on racism. No one came straight out and said they were racist, instead the problem was covered up with civilities. Few leaders wanted to rock the boat or change things that would allow African Americans rights. This report will show how the civilities during this time hindered the success of civil rights in Greensboro, and also how it was harder for activists in Greensboro to win support and accomplish their goals.

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 Civil Rights Movement was a pivotal time in American history, leading us toward the acceptance and advancement of African Americans in society, and eventually the same for other minority groups. The movement as a whole spanned from around the beginning of the 1950’s to around the beginning of the 1970’s. All across the nation, African American people fought for their rights through numerous protests and boycotts. Some notable events are the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins. Many forms of legislation and many judiciary decisions were made during this era, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1968, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Brown v. Board of Education (“A Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement FOOTSTEPS OF COURAGE”).

The specific examination of the Greensboro, N.C. lunch counter sit-ins that ignited a wave of similarly executed sit-downs throughout the 1960 was accredited to the strong personal ties amongst the initial Greensboro students. Two were roommates and all had gone to the same high school and shared a wealth of common experiences ranging from smuggling beer into the dormitory to the remembering the injustices of Little Rock. The idea of a month long Woolworth sit-in was initially discussed in the dormitory in a most informal manner. This evidence inexplicably presented by Mr. Gladwell is in complete contradiction to his statement requiring a hierarchy in which national or local leaders and organizations operating in a hierarchical arraignment were essential to the development of significant social change.

The March on Washington - August 28, 1963 One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was written, African Americans were still fighting for equal rights in every day life. The first real success of this movement did not come until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 which was followed by many boycotts and protests. The largest of these protests, the March on Washington, was held on August 28, 1963 “for jobs and freedom” (March on Washington 11). An incredible amount of preparation went into the event to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people attending from around the nation and to deal with any potential incidents.

Despite nearly one hundred years passing since the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern States were still faced with the most distinct forms of racism. The so-called “Jim Crow” laws that were present in United States at the time, served to segregate blacks and whites from all aspects of public

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.

What were the sit-ins? How did they become about? What was its main significance? How did this lead up to the civil rights movement? Sit-ins were a form of racial protest that originated when four brave black college students from Greensboro, North Carolina decided to sit at a lunch counter at a department store that was strictly prohibited for black people like them. Their risky encounter at the lunch counter was their brave and smartest move that has gotten influenced throughout the age of the 1960s. The move was known as the sitting-in or “sit-in” for short, which eventually became the center milestone throughout the civil rights movement as well as for the rights of black people. So how did it all started? What became about it? This essay will explain the historical context of the 1960s as well as its conflict’s and resolution’s.

The Start of it All On Monday, February 1st, 1960, the Woolworth Store would no longer just be a store anymore. That day the Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina would be known as the very first sit-in. The Greensboro sit-ins played a major role in the Civil Rights Movements. The three huge sit-ins were Greensboro North Carolina, Nashville sit-ins, and the Oklahoma sit-ins.

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

Almost no event had such a singularly negative effect on the American Civil Rights movement as the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898, a white-supremacist coup d'état that occurred here in North Carolina shortly after the end of Reconstruction. On November 10, 1898, racial tension that had been clouding in the

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