page_title: Greensboro sit-ins
section_title: The sit-ins
hierarchical_section_title: Greensboro sit-ins / The sit-ins
caption_attribution_description: Former F. W. Woolworth Co. store in Greensboro, North Carolina, the site of a now-famous "sit-in" protest by black college students in 1960.
context_page_description: The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store—now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum—in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the F. W. Woolworth Company department store chain removing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States. While not the first sit-in of the Civil Rights Movement, the Greensboro sit-ins were an instrumental action, and also the best-known sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement. They are considered a catalyst to the subsequent sit-in movement, in which 70,000 people participated. This sit-in was a contributing factor in the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
context_section_description: On February 1, 1960, at 4:30 pm ET, the four sat down at the 66-seat L-shaped stainless steel lunch counter inside the F. W. Woolworth Company store at 132 South Elm Street in Greensboro, North Carolina. The men, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil, who would become known as the A&T Four or the Greensboro Four, had purchased toothpaste and other products from a desegregated counter at the store with no problems, but were then refused service at the store's lunch counter when they each asked for a cup of coffee. According to a witness, a white waitress told the boys "We don't serve Negroes here". Blair responded that he was just served 2 feet away, to which the waitress replied "Negroes eat at the other end". An African-American girl who was cleaning behind the counter called them "stupid, ignorant, rabble-rousers, troublemakers". Another African-American told them, "You're just hurting race relations by sitting there". However, an elderly white woman told them, "I am just so proud of you. My only regret is that you didn't do this ten or fifteen years ago". Store manager Clarence Harris asked them to leave, and, when they would not budge, called his supervisor, who told him, "They'll soon give up, leave and be forgotten". Harris allowed the students to stay and did not call police to evict them. The four freshmen stayed until the store closed that night, and then went back to the North Carolina A&T University campus, where they recruited more students to join them the next morning.
  The next day, on February 2, 1960, more than twenty black students (including four women), recruited from other campus groups, joined the sit-in. This group sat with school work to stay busy from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The group was again refused service, and were harassed by the white customers at the Woolworth store. However, the sit-ins made local news on the second day, with reporters, a TV cameraman and police officers present throughout the day. Back on campus that night, the Student Executive Committee for Justice was organized, and the committee sent a letter asking the president of F.W. Woolworth to "take a firm stand to eliminate discrimination." Upon hearing of the sit-ins, the president of the college, Warmoth T. Gibbs, remarked that Woolworth's "did not have the reputation for fine food". The students wrote the following letter to the president of Woolworth's:
  Dear Mr. President:
  We the undersigned are students at the Negro college in the city of Greensboro. Time and time again we have gone into Woolworth stores in Greensboro. We have bought thousands of items at the hundreds of counters in your stores. Our money was accepted without rancor or discrimination, and with politeness towards us, when at a long counter just three feet away our money is not acceptable because of the colour of our skins......
  We are asking your company to take a firm stand to eliminate discrimination. We firmly believe that God will give you courage and guidance in solving the problem.
  Sincerely Yours, Student Executive Committee
  On February 3, 1960, the number grew to over 60, including students from Dudley High School. An estimated one third of the protesters were women, many of them students from Bennett College, a historically black women's college in Greensboro. White customers heckled the black students, who read books and studied, while the lunch counter staff continued to refuse service. North Carolina's official chaplain of the Ku Klux Klan (Kludd), George Dorsett, as well as other members of the Klan, were present. The F.W. Woolworth national headquarters said that the company would "abide by local custom" and maintain its segregation policy.
  On February 4, 1960, more than 300 people took part. The group now included students from North Carolina A&T University, Bennett College, and Dudley High School, and they filled the entire seating area at the lunch counter. Three white female students from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now University of North Carolina at Greensboro), Genie Seaman, Marilyn 
caption: The event took place at this Woolworth five-and-dime store.
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