LEARNING TOGETHER: The Story of America
On February 1, 1960, after buying a few items from F.W. Woolworth department store, four African American male college students sat down in the for “whites only” lunch counter and asked to be served. The waitress refused to serve them, and the store manager demanded that they leave. Jim Crow laws (legalized discrimination) allowed the manager to refuse service to anyone who wasn’t white. With the police and the local media on the scene, the Greensboro Four (as they would be later called) remained seated. They sat at the counter until the store closed. The next day, they were back at the lunch counter; this time they were accompanied by more college students.
With the Greensboro Sit-in movement in full swing, week after week more and more students joined the movement. Unable to conduct business for over 5 months because of the daily protests, Woolworth desegregated its lunch counters nationwide. Four black employees were the first to be served.
OUR HISTORY MATTERS
#12
These young activists possessed a high moral sense of right and wrong with a willingness to fight by not fighting. And they brought national attention to how destructive segregation was to all Americans. This monumental crusade led by young adults who were just asking our nation to live up to its promise of equality, freedom, and justice for all.
Be The Change. They did it so can you.
