What Were the Woolworth Lunch Counter Sit-Ins

In February 1960, four freshmen at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at the “whites-only” lunch counter of the local Woolworth’s department store and ordered a cup of coffee. The staff refused and asked them to leave, but the students remained seated until the restaurant closed. The next day the four returned to try again, only this time they were joined by several others. Each day they were denied service, but each day more came. On the sixth day there were over a thousand students, including female African American students from Bennett College and three white female students from nearby Greensboro Women’s College. Opposition also grew in numbers and intensity as crowds of white men harassed the protesters, cursing, and spitting at them.