Civil Rights Movement: Sit-In Case Study

What did the Greensboro sit-in do to impact the Civil Rights Movement? Young African-American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. These students refused to leave after being denied service. The sit-in movement spread to college towns throughout the south. The Greensboro Four forwarded the Civil Rights movement when they desegregated lunch counters.
In the fall of 1959, four young men, Ezell Blair jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil enrolled as freshman at North Carolina A&T University (3). The Breaking point for the group came after Christmas vacation, Joseph McNeil returning to A&T after spending holidays in New York. McNeil was denied service at the Greyhound bus station in Greensboro (3). The four young men quickly became a close-knit group and met every evening in their dorm rooms for "bull sessions". It was during these nightly discussions

For example, the sit-ins received significant media and government attention. When the Woolworth sit-in began, the Greensboro newspaper published daily articles on the growth and impact of the demonstration. The sit-ins made headlines in other cities as well, as the demonstrations spread throughout the Southern states (2). By the end of March when the Greensboro four staged the sit-in at the local Woolworth store, the sit-in Movement spread to 55 cities and 13 states (3). On July, 1960, F.W. Woolworth is desegregated (3). By August 1961, more than 70,000 people had participated in sit-ins, which resulted in more than 3,000 arrests. Sit-ins at "whites only" lunch counters inspired subsequent kneel-ins at segregated churches, sleep-ins at segregated motel or hotel lobbies, swim-ins at segregated pools, wade-ins at segregated beaches, read-ins at segregated libraries, play-ins at segregated parks and watch-ins at segregated movies