By dbkinghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/bootbearwdc/3072465891/sizes/m/in/photostream/
For young African Americans, the 1960s represented a time of struggle, subjugation, unfair treatment, and a second-class status. However, they refused to allow their rights to be undermined, and chose instead to fight back. Four young men from Greensboro, North Carolina, helped to found the budding civil rights movement with their nonviolent protest. Their sit-ins marked a historic time period where African Americans gained some liberty, civil disobedience was used in place of violence, and the civil rights movement evolved to become a national campaign.
Greensboro played a significant role in the advancement of the civil rights movement during the 1960s mostly because it was the location for the first sit-ins at Woolworth’s lunch counter. On February 1, 1960 four African American freshmen from North Carolina A&T University decided to demand service from the lunch counter at Woolworth’s, which only served white people up until this point. The sit-in that they staged did a lot to start the process towards creating equality between the white and the African American races. After the sit-ins at Woolworth’s eventually other stores on Elm street began to have sit-ins and the number of young and old African Americans that came to protest began to grow. Eventually all of the 65 seats at Woolworth’s were filled at some point during the day by an African American that would come to sit, read, study and many other things that demonstrated their protest. This congregation and communion of support played a huge part in the liberation of the African American race. This demonstration was one of the first steps on the road to civil equality for blacks.
Another thing that puts Greensboro on the map as a significant location for the move towards civil rights is the fact that the sit-in was a staged event with lots of planning executed by the students and the other African Americans that protested during this time. Some have analyzed the performance of the protesters and found that their demonstration can be compared to a theatrical performance. A performance where the location, costumes, speech, and action are all carefully thought out and everything is acted out perfectly. This theatrical approach to the sit-ins shows that the protesters really wanted to design their demonstrations so that they would ma
ximize their political and social goal. The fact that each of the sit-ins was so carefully planned out shows how committed these young people were to their cause and how much they wanted everything to go smoothly. These Greensboro staged sit-ins also proved to be perfect examples for other people around the world to follow when leading their own sit-ins. All of the planning shows how Greensboro played a key role in leading the civil rights movement during this time of turmoil.
Finally the main reason that Greensboro was so important for the civil rights movement was that it was the mark for when the civil rights movement went from being a local southern movement to a national call for the rights of African Americans. When the young men decided to sit-in at Woolworth’s they launched a new campaign that would be taken to the national level in order to gain equal rights for African Americans. Many people all over the world heard of what they were doing in Greensboro and they decided to follow along, transcending the civil rights movement into the national sphere. When the sit-ins at Woolworth’s took place in Greensboro the national government started to take notice and from then on the course of history would be changed and African Americans would eventually win their rights and freedom.
Greensboro is a place with great history that was the location of one of the most influential acts in history. The Woolworth sit-ins helped African Americans in society by having staged protests that helped make the civil rights movement a national event. If had not have been for the four young men who decided to change the rules in Greensboro, then who knows what would have happened to the civil rights movement. Without them it might be possible that African Americans would never have gotten their liberation.
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