Quantcast

Greensboro Four

Four Black college students who staged sit-ins, challenging segregation.

Woolworth’s or Woolworth was a retail company which also featured a dine-in lunch counter. 

In 1960, the lunch counter at Woolworth’s was “whites-only.”  This injustice happened during a time called Jim Crow in America. Jim Crow laws segregated Blacks and whites in bathrooms, water fountains, in schools, businesses, and more. 

On February 1st, 1960, four brave  Black college students sat at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (Jibreel Khazan), and Joe McNeil, decided that the best way to get the media’s attention was to sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter. The students were inspired by the nonviolent actions of Martin Luther King Jr. They felt their actions would cause Woolworth to desegregate.

advertisement
Newsletter Signup
Skip to content