Greensboro+Sit-ins

=Greensboro Sit-Ins=

1st February, 1960
Instrumental actions in the African- American Civil Rights Movement

When four black students arrived in Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina, they were expected to sit at the back of the restaurant, use sepereate drinking fountains and bathrooms and wait to be served. However, these four students walked up to the front counter, a strictly white custom, and sat down and demanded food. (History Learning Site)

The students, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr. and David Richmond had prepared a list of rights they had according to the state and had come prepared for violence. "I was worried about getting hurt," Ezell Blair Jr was quoted as he knew that anything out of the ordinary a black person did would warrant physical abuse from white enforcers (Rob Kuznia,2010). The four boys waited for their food at the counter but were repeatedly refused until the diner closed. The next day, the four boys arrived again and sat on the counter, but accompanying them were 24 other supporters. Each day they were refused and each day their supporting numbers grew. The affect of the protests and the obvious signs that the times were beginning to change was evident on the 4th of February when the black students were joined by female students from the nearby North Carolina Womans College. By February 7th, there were 54 sit-ins throughout the South in 15 cities in 9 states (Jim Schlosser, 2008).

These sit ins were a huge start up for the fight for civil rights. One of the original four shared the view amongst his peers that other protests and movements had been too slow and too unsuccesful. They wanted something to happen now and they made it happen. Their non violent protests were noticed by Martin Luther King jr who pledged his full support to the protestors and their methods of protest (History Learning Site).

The biggest success of the sit-ins was the extended and complete media coverage that they brought with them. Hundreds of people would come to the diners to see the four students in action, braving food thrown on them and racial slurs their strength in silence was noted by other black rights protesting ogranisations. The students then formed the SNCC or the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee. This group raised awarness for the civil rights of black people in the south and even adopted a form of protest from inside the jail cell. Supporters would purposfully clog up jail cells by refusing to pay bail (Jim Schlosser, 2008).

The impact of the Greensboro Sit-ins saw the Woolworths where the boys had started their non-violent protest desegregate and allow anybody to sit anywhere inside the diner. This happened after the store lost up to $200,000 in sales (Jim Schlosser, 2008).

After Martin Luther King Jr's pledge to support the boys, his home town, Atlanta desgregated all of its stores. The immense media coverage of the event and the huge amount of supporters led to the pushing forward of civil rights for all african americans all over america, and once people had seen how easy it was to make a statment, and in this case immerge unscathed the non violent protest was embraced and used by supporters all over America.

"The sit-ins were very significant to the movement. They symbolized a change in the mood of African-American people. Up until then, we had accepted segregation — begrudgingly — but we had accepted it. We had spoken against it, we had made speeches, but no one had defied segregation. At long last after decades of acceptance, four freshman students at North Carolina A&T went into Woolworth and at the lunch counter they "sat-in." When told they would not be served, they refused to leave and this sparked a movement throughout the South. Black students in colleges throughout the South saw it on television they said "Hey man, look at what our brothers and sisters in Greensboro are doing. What's wrong with us? Why don't we go out and do the same thing?" And they went out, so it swept across the South like the proverbial wildfire, with students rejecting segregation. With their very bodies they obstructed the wheels of injustice." ([])

The Original Four (l-r) Brother Ezell Blair, Jr (Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond after the first Greensboro Woolworth sit-in, February 1, 1960

History Learning Site. //Greensboro// //1960.// Available: []. Last accessed 6 June 2010 Jim Schlosser. (2008). //The Story.// Available: []. Last accessed 6 June 2010. Rob Kuznia. (2010). //The// // Greensboro //// Sit-In: How Four Men Changed the World by Sitting on Stools. // Available: http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/2010/2/1/the_greensboro_sitin_how_four_men.htm. Last accessed 6 June 2010.
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