On February 1, 1960, four Black freshmen from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina,
(today known as North Carolina A&T State University),
sat down at the segregated lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro and asked to be served.
When staff refused to serve them, they refused to leave.
These four students,
now known as the Greensboro Four,
included Ezell Blair Jr. (who later changed his name to Jibreel Khazan),
David Richmond,
Franklin McCain
and Joseph McNeil.
They were reportedly inspired by the nonviolent protest techniques of Mahatma Gandhi
and the murder of Emmett Till,
as well as the Freedom Rides movement.
It was a carefully planned demonstration, according to the History Channel, and the students worked with a local white businessman who contacted the local media about the protest.
The students remained in their seats until the business closed.
Similar sit-ins had been organized as early as 1958,
but the Greensboro sit-ins drew intense media coverage,
serving to propel the civil rights movement onto the national stage.
By Feb. 5, hundreds of students were joining in on the protest
and the sit-ins were spreading,
including to the Woolworth’s in neighboring Winston-Salem,
which is now being renovated into an event space to preserve the history made by Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University students.
By the end of March, the sit-ins had spread to 13 states, and, by the end of that summer, many places had begun to change their segregation policies.
The Greensboro Woolworth’s desegregated its lunch counters in July 1960.
Four Black employees were the first to be served.
https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/feb-1-marks-the-66th-anniversary-of-the-greensboro-sit-ins-sparking-a-nationwide-movement/#/questions/5294859
