Woolworth Lunch Counter Video (History Channel)

Check out this video of the original Woolworth counter. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbbcjn4d1cE&feature=player_embedded  

Tuesday, July 26, 1960

F.W. Woolworth's is desegregated. 

It took 176 days of protesting. 176 days is about the time from today until your first day of 3rd grade in August.

By August 1961, more than 70,000 people had participated in sit-ins, which resulted in more than 3,000 arrests. Sit-ins at "whites only" lunch counters inspired subsequent kneel-ins at segregated churches, sleep-ins at segregated motel lobbies, swim-ins at segregated pools, wade-ins at segregated beaches, read-ins at segregated libraries, play-ins at segregated parks, and watch-ins at segregated movies.

America would never be the same.

Source: https://www-tc.pbs.org/independentlens/februaryone/images/four_pic.jpg

The Greensboro Four sitting at the Woolworth's lunch counter in 1990, drinking coffee. 

Monday, July 25, 1960

F.W. Woolworth employees Charles Bess, Mattie Long, Susie Morrison,  and Jamie Robinson are the first African-Americans to eat at the lunch counter.

The headline of The Greensboro Record read: "Lunch Counters Integrated Here".

Source: http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/ftp/Docs/library/sitins/19600725VoluntaryMoveLaunchedTodayByTwoStoresGR.pdf

June 1960

When N.C. A&T and Bennett College students left the Greensboro for the summer, Dudley High School students took up the charge. William Thomas led the students as the protests expanded to Meyers and Walgreens. 

African-American students from Saint Augustine College study while participating in a sit-in at a whites-only lunch counter in Raleigh, NC. Two waitresses pointedly ignore them from the other side of the counter.

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/01/16/145179885/cooking-up-change-how-food-helped-fuel-the-civil-rights-movement

April 1960

April 16-17, 1960, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized a meeting of sit-in students from all over the nation at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC.

Leader Ella Baker encouraged students to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick") to organize the effort.

Source: http://untdclibrary.blogspot.com/2014/02/ella-baker-was-unsung-civil-rights.html

 "Instead of looking to national leaders and organizations for inspiration and guidance, Baker worked fervently to organize local grassroots organizations especially among the youth. Her call for decentralization of the civil rights movement empowered many to become more politically active."

Source: http://untdclibrary.blogspot.com/2014/02/ella-baker-was-unsung-civil-rights.html

On Thursday, April 21, 1960, 45 students (including Ezell Blair, Jr., Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, and 13 Bennett College students) were arrested for trespassing as they sat at the Kress store lunch counter.

All were released without bail.

Friday, April 1, 1960 - Saturday, April 2, 1960

Students resumed sit-in activities at the Kress and F.W. Woolworth stores and began picketing on Elm and Sycamore streets. That evening at a mass meeting, more than 1,200 students pledged to continue the protests.

By Saturday, April 2, 1960, both Woolworth's and Kress Stores had closed their lunch counters. 

Source: http://vahistorical.org/sites/default/files/styles/slideshow_slide/adaptive-image/public/slideshow_image/70%20woolworth%2014%27wide.jpg?itok=Y2e1PhCb

 Throughout the Sit-In movement, many stores choose to shut down their counters.

People came and sat regardless.

March 1960

Of the 2,000 citizen letters the Advisory Committee received regarding the decision to integrate the lunch counters, 73 percent favored integrated lunch counters. (That's almost 1,500 letters!)

The Greensboro Record reported a letter signed by 68 white citizens urged that "service to all customers at the lunch counters in these stores be entirely on a 'first come, first served' basis, just as it is in other areas of these establishments."

Chairman Zane and the Advisory Committee held numerous meetings with representatives from F.W. Woolworth, Kress, and other downtown businesses.

All refused to integrate. 

On March 31, a disappointed Edward Zane met with student leaders to break the news.

By the end of March, the sit-in Movement had spread to 55 cities in 13 states.

Source: http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/01/16/ap600319049_custom-711722963f0a7a06b82bb2469e02c7b82f8141c0-s800-c15.jpg

Day 15 - 28: February 15 - 28, 1960

Edward R. Zane, a member of the Greensboro City Council, worked with students to reach a compromise. The Mayor agreed to appoint a committee to address the issue, and the protestors agreed to continue negotiations.

Several Greensboro associations, including The Board of Directors of the Greensboro Council of Church Women, the YWCA, and several ministerial alliances came out in favor of integration.

The lunch counters at F.W. Woolworth and Kress stores reopened, but were still segregated. 

By the end of February, the sit-in movement had spread to more than 30 cities in eight states. 

 

Source: http://84472759.weebly.com/-the-sit-in.html

Greensboro was not the first sit-in, but it was the first to be reported across the nation. "As the news spread, so did the movement." (Herr) The news was first reported in Greensboro's city and student papers, and then other North Carolina newspapers carried articles on the sit-in. "On February 15, 1960, the New York Times brought the sit-in to national attention with a front-page headline: 'Negro Sitdowns Stir Fear of Wider Unrest in South.'"

(http://84472759.weebly.com/-the-sit-in.html)

Day 8-14: February 8-14, 1960

On Monday, February 8, 1960, students in Winston-Salem, NC, and Durham, NC, held sit-ins to demonstrate their solidarity with Greensboro students. Sit-in protests quickly followed in North Carolina cities such as Charlotte, Raleigh, Fayetteville, and High Point. The movement also gained momentum and spread to Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and even F.W. Woolworth stores in New York City.

Find the North Carolina cities on this map:

Source: https://www.visitnc.com/cities-regions

Day 6: February 6, 1960

Early that morning, more than 1,400 N.C. A&T students met in Harrison Auditorium. After voting to continue the protest, many headed to the F.W. Woolworth store. They filled every seat as the store opened. A large number of counter protesters showed up as well.

By noon, more than 1,000 people packed the store. 

At 1 p.m., a caller warned a bomb was set to explode at 1:30 p.m. The crowd moved to the Kress store, which immediately closed. Both stores closed in the name of public safety.


That evening at N.C. A&T, a mass rally of 1,600 students voted to suspend demonstrations for two weeks. The college's dean, Dean William Gamble, proclaimed this would give the stores time "to set policies regarding food service for Negro students".

This is what 1600 people would look like (in one place):

Source: https://www.quora.com/Which-are-the-best-theaters-auditoriums-in-Colombia

Day 5: February 5, 1960

Tensions mounted early in the day when 50 white males were seated at the Woolworth counter. Sit-in participants, including white students from area colleges, filled the dozen or so remaining seats. Police removed two white youth from the store for swearing and yelling. By 3 p.m., more than 300 people were present. Members of both races were escorted from the premises. Three whites were arrested and the store closed at 5:30 p.m.

This is what about 300 people looks like!

Source: DA Flickr

Day 4: February 4, 1960

More than 300 students participate in the protests. Students from N.C. A&T, Bennett College, and Dudley High School occupied every seat at the lunch counter. Three white supporters (Genie Seaman, Marilyn Lott and Ann Dearsley) from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now UNCG), joined the protest.

As tensions grew, police kept the crowd in check.

Protesters are harassed but do not fight back (Time Photo)

Waiting students then marched to the basement lunch counter at S.H. Kress & Co., the second store targeted by the Student Executive Committee, and the Greensboro sit-ins spread.

That evening, student leaders, college administrators, and representatives from F.W. Woolworth and Kress stores held talks. The stores refused to integrate as long as other downtown facilities remained segregated. Students insisted the F.W. Woolworth and Kress retail stores would remain targets, and the meeting ended without resolution.

This is what 300 people looks like:

Source: http://www.gkstill.com/Support/crowd-density/100sm/Density4.html

Day 3: February 3, 1960

More than 60 students, one-third of them female, returned to the Greensboro store and sat down at every available lunch counter seat. Students from Bennett College and Dudley High School increased the number of protesters, and many carpooled to and from the F.W. Woolworth store to sit-in shifts.

Members of the KKK were present. White patrons taunted the students as they studied. A statement issued from F.W. Woolworth's national headquarters read that company policy was "to abide by local custom". (That means, they were to follow what was the rule of that specific, local store.)

Protesters at the Woolworth Counter
Source: http://84472759.weebly.com/-the-sit-in.html