The Greensboro sit-ins of February 1960 launched the movement to
integrate lunch counters and other eating establishments
throughout North Carolina and the rest of the South. Sit-ins had
previously occurred in other places, but the Greensboro protests
sparked widespread activism and media attention. The sit-ins
began when four students from North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University—Ezell A. Blair (now Jibreel Khazan),
Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond—sat
at the lunch counter of the Woolworth Store on Elm Street in
Greensboro late on the afternoon of 1 Feb. 1960. At the time,
Woolworth's only served African Americans at a stand-up counter.
Instead of having the students arrested for trespassing, the
manager closed the lunch counter, intending to leave them
stranded at closing time. The Greensboro store, one of the most
profitable in the region, had a large black clientele-hence the
need for prudence. However, by not filing charges, the manager
left an opening for fur