Where the Civil Rights Sit-In Movement Began — the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro was the spark that ignited nationwide civil rights sit-ins in 1960, and the International Civil Rights Center & Museum preserves the original counter intact
Greensboro is the third-largest city in North Carolina — a city of 300,000 in the Piedmont Triad region that holds one of the most significant civil rights sites in American history: the Woolworth's lunch counter where four Black college students (the 'Greensboro Four') sat down on February 1, 1960 and refused to leave after being denied service — an act that sparked sit-in protests at segregated lunch counters in 55 cities within two months and became a pivotal moment of the Civil Rights Movement. The International Civil Rights Center & Museum (now occupying the entire former Woolworth's bui…
Greensboro was founded in 1808 on the site of the Revolutionary War Battle of Guilford Courthouse (1781), where Cornwallis won a Pyrrhic victory against Nathanael Greene that effectively ended British military power in the South. The city grew as a textile and tobacco manufacturing centre in the late 19th century. The pivotal date in Greensboro's history is February 1, 1960, when Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil — four freshmen at NC A&T State University — sat at the Woolworth's whites-only lunch counter and asked to be served. They returned the next day wit…