Greensboro Sit-Ins Launch Nationwide Student Protest Movement

On February 1, 1960, four Black freshmen from North Carolina A&T, Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond, sit at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro and ask to be served. When refused, they remain until closing. The next day 30 students join them; by the third day 60; by the fourth day 300. The sit-in spreads to 54 cities in nine states within two months. The students are spat upon, burned with cigarettes, and harassed. Their nonviolent discipline inspires a generation. By July, Woolworth's desegregates.