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.