The 1960 protest movement that began when four Black college students sat at a segregated Greensboro lunch counter was the Greensboro sit-ins.
On February 1, 1960, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil sat at the whites-only counter at the Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Staff refused to serve them, but the students stayed until the store closed.
The action inspired additional sit-ins in Greensboro and other cities. Protesters used nonviolent discipline while facing insults, threats, arrests, and occasional physical attacks. The movement brought national attention to segregation in lunch counters and other public accommodations.
Greensboro’s Woolworth counter began serving Black customers in July 1960. The Greensboro students were connected to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, illustrating the important role of historically Black colleges in organizing youth activism during the Civil Rights Movement.