1st Feb – The four freshman students
refused to leave the store until it closed that night.
2nd Feb – More than 20 black students joined the sit-in, with contributions from Bennett College, a college for black women. Reporters began to cover the sit-in, spreading news to the community.
3rd Feb – 60 people peacefully protested at the Greensboro Woolworth store.
4th Feb – 300 people participated, causing the sit-in to expand to a counter at Greensboro’s Kress store.
In less than a week students in other North Carolina towns began their own protests, as well as several out-of-state towns. After rising tensions, students started boycotting stores with segregated lunch counters, causing profits to plummet by 1/3.
25th July – Following nearly $200,000 in losses, Clarence Harris, the store manager of Woolworth’s in Greensboro, allowed three black employees to order a meal at the lunch counter. Subsequently, most stores were soon desegregated.
The Greensboro Sit-ins inspired the formation of the SNCC, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who went on to organise voter registration across the South, thus combating black disenfranchisement.
the american civil rights movement