-CRM+Notes

Greensboro Sit-In

Sit-in definition: A sit-in is a peaceful protest where demonstrators sit down in a public place and refuse to leave. Many times police would carry the protestors away and arrest them.

The Greensboro sit-ins were college students in North Carolina sitting in Woolworth's lunch counter on February 1, 1960.

Even when assaulted the protestors would not retaliate, only protect themselves and each other. They refused to pay the fines and filled up the jails. The movement was popular, and spread to 69 cities across america.

Sit-ins were among the most popular and successful forms of non-violent protests, and in some places quickly led to the desegregation of lunch counters and other public facilities.

Opposition to the sit-ins segregationists threw ammonia and itching powder at the protestor, jeered at them, physically assaulted them, and burned them with cigarettes.

Impact. As a result of the sit-ins, many public facilities were desegregated, and the SNCC or Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, along with the SCLC and other groups were formed.

Many people were involved in the sit-in like students, faculty, activists, and even other people from the community.

There were the Greensboro four: Jibreel Khazan, Franklin Eugene McCain, Joseph Alfred McNeil, and David Leinoll Richmond.

-Jibreel was a student at A&T and also president of the junior class and president of the Greensboro Congress of Racial Equality. He got a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology. -Franklin also studied at A&T and got a Bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology. -Joseph studied at A&T and got a degree in engineering and physics. -David studied at A&T and majored in business administration and accounting.

Warmoth T. Gibbs Sr, A&T president during the sit-ins, was at a sit-in when city leaders asked him to keep the students on campus. He replied, "We teach our students how to think, not what to think."