The Greensboro Sit-Ins 1960

Events

A sit-in in Wichita, Kansas was successful in ending segregation at every Dockum Drug Store in Kansas.

April 1958

The four sat down at the lunch counter inside the Woolworth store at 132 South Elm Street in Greensboro.

February 1, 1960

More than twenty black students, recruited from other campus groups, joined the sit-in.

February 2, 1960

African-Americans, mainly students, occupied 63 of the 66 seats at the counter (waitresses sat in the remaining three).

February 4, 1960

Organizers agreed to expand the sit-in protests to include the lunch counter at Greensboro's Kress store.

February 4, 1960

A Charlotte newspaper published an article, describing the statewide sit-ins and the resulting closures of dozens of lunch counters.

February 9, 1960

President Eisenhower expressed his concern for those who were fighting for their human and civil rights.

March 16, 1960

After nearly $200,000 in losses ($1.7 million today), store manager Clarence Harris asked three black employees to change out of their work clothes and order a meal at the counter.

July 25, 1960

In Jackson, Mississippi, students from Tougaloo College staged a sit-in, recounted in the autobiography of Anne Moody, a participant.

May 28, 1963

Yeingst learned Woolworth's was closing the Greensboro store as part of a company-wide downsizing.

October 1993