Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Greensboro sit-ins
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store—now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum—in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the F. W. Woolworth Company department store chain removing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States. While not the first sit-in of the civil rights movement, the Greensboro sit-ins were an instrumental action, and also the best-known sit-ins of the civil rights movement. They are considered a catalyst to the subsequent sit-in movement, in which 70,000 people participated. This sit-in was a contributing factor in the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. Its population was 299,035 at the 2020 census and estimated at 307,381 in 2024, making it the third-most populous city in North Carolina and 69th-most populous city in the U.S. The Greensboro–High Point metropolitan area has an estimated 801,000 residents. It is the most populous city in North Carolina's Piedmont Triad region, home to about 1.7 million residents.
February 1
February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 333 days remain until the end of the year.