The Greensboro sit-ins began on February 1, 1960, when four Black students challenged a segregated Woolworth lunch counter.
Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil, students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, sat at the whites-only counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. They were refused service but remained seated until the store closed.
The protest continued over the following days and attracted more students. Participants followed nonviolent discipline while facing insults, threats, and the possibility of arrest. Similar sit-ins soon spread to other cities, placing pressure on businesses that maintained segregated facilities.
The Greensboro campaign contributed to the formation of SNCC and helped make student-led direct action a major force in the movement. Woolworth’s Greensboro lunch counter integrated in July 1960. The four participants later became known as the Greensboro Four, and their protest is commemorated at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.