02/02/2025
in 1960, 4 African American students—Ezell Blair Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil—attending North Carolina A&T State University staged the first major sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. The sit-in garnered media attention and sparked international conversation while inspiring similar protests throughout the South, targeting Jim Crow segregation in public spaces ranging from theaters to swimming pools. Many of these demonstrators were spat on, pelted with eggs, harassed, and arrested. However, within a month, lunch counters across North Carolina began desegregating.
While the Greensboro Four and the larger civil rights movement stand as a key bellwether in modern American grassroots and political organizing, African Americans have been involved in rebellion, resistance, and protest from the moment they first set foot on this nation’s shores. Working both within and across racial lines, Black activists mobilized to abolish slavery, secure civil rights, fight against injustice, and expand social and economic opportunities for all. African Americans employed a range of strategies to effect change—including legal battles, mass protests, grassroots campaigns, public debates, and community development. By believing that change was possible, Black Americans changed history.
Learn more about this tradition of activism on our Searchable Museum. https://s.si.edu/3XRUAZC
📸 Courtesy of Donald Uhrbrock/Getty Images.
