The Sit-Ins:Greensboro, Nashville, Atlanta

On February 1, 1960, four black college students at North Carolina A&T University began protesting racial segregation in restaurants by sitting at “white-only” lunch counters and waiting to be served. This was not a new form of protest, but the response to the sit-ins in North Carolina was unique. Within days sit-ins had spread throughout North Carolina, and within weeks they were taking place in cities across the South. Many restaurants were desegregated. The sit-in movement also demonstrated clearly to blacks and whites alike that young blacks were determined to reject segregation openly. The students’ bravery in the face of verbal and physical abuse led to integration in many stores even before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“With their very bodies they obstructed the wheels of injustice…”

By clicking here on The Sit-Ins, you will hear the aboutsit-ins from a different perspective most aren’t use to. This perspective gives insight into the actions that ordinary students took to fight against a system of oppression. A system built to maintain a “Separate but Equal” society. Those student tore down a system and helped the nation to realize that that system…was wrong. This system echoed superiority, inequity, inequality and injustice, all of which this democracy is suppose to oppose. The purpose of this is to help one understand that the Sit-Ins were more than just having a sand-which at a lunch counter.  It was about human dignity.
Connecting with History: The Sit-Ins and Segregation

Activity– Imagine you were of those students and were refused service at all lunch counters in the city. What measures would you take to change this injustice. If you decide to do as the Greensboro, Nashville, Atlanta students did, then what strategies would you implement to make sure your sit-ins are a success.