February is a time when Americans reflect on and recognize the central role African Americans have played in U.S. history. In honor of Black History Month, for today’s reflection, I pay homage to the “Greensboro sit-ins”, which were a critical turning point in bringing the fight for civil rights to national attention and furthering the cause of equal rights for Black Americans in the U.S. The following is shared with permission from Elena Varipatis Baker at Network for Social Justice (www.nfsj.org).
February 1, 1960 marked the start of the “Greensboro sit-ins,” which began when four Black college freshmen sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC and politely asked to be served. After they were refused service and asked to leave, the students remained in their seats until the Woolworth’s closed for the day. They returned the next day and every day thereafter for nearly six months.
Ezell Blair, Jr, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond were first year students who lived in the same dormitory at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University before being known as the “Greensboro 4” for their act of passive resistance that sparked a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality. The four, inspired by Gandhi and the Freedom Rides of the 1940s, planned their protest carefully. They engaged a white businessman named Ralph Jones in their planning. Jones contacted media outlets about the protest as it was occurring.
The media presence, combined with the lack of police involvement on account of there being no provocation, brought intense interest and awareness to the sit-ins and helped to inspire similar sit-ins across the country. By February 5th, 300 people had participated in a sit-in at segregated eating establishments. By the end of March, the sit-ins had spread to 55 communities in 13 states. While the majority of these sit-ins were peaceful and non-violent, 1600 people were arrested nationwide.
The sit-ins ended after Woolworth’s lunch counter quietly desegregated on July 25, 1960. The first four people of color served at the Greensboro Woolworth’s lunch counter were its four Black employees. However, the Greensboro sit-ins had a legacy that lasted longer than those six months. In April 1960 it led to the birth of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, NC, a group that went on to organize the March on Washington and to speak out against the Vietnam War. Martin Luther King, Jr credited the Greensboro 4 with reinvigorating the civil rights movement, which had been stalled since the Birmingham Bus Boycott in 1955 and referred to the Greensboro sit-ins as the “battle cry of second revolution.”
God of Love, help us to summon the courage to tear down systems of injustice and do the work of creating a world community with liberty and justice for all your beloved creations.
Marianne DiBlasi, CPE Intern