The sit-in protest at the Greensboro Woolworth's lunch counter eventually led to the desegregation of public spaces in the South. | Wikimedia Commons/Radio Fan
The sit-in protest at the Greensboro Woolworth's lunch counter eventually led to the desegregation of public spaces in the South. | Wikimedia Commons/Radio Fan
High Point community members gathered on Feb. 11 to mark the 62nd anniversary of the High Point Woolworth's store sit-in.
On Feb. 11, 1960, 26 William Penn High School students conducted the first civil rights sit-in led by high school students. According to the account kept at the High Point Museum, they were met with anger, but they stayed at the store until it closed early.
A very similar -- and very famous -- protest, led by college students, happened around the same time at the Greensboro Woolworth's.
"I went to the House floor to honor the Greensboro Four and their actions that sparked a national civil rights movement," U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) tweeted Feb. 2. "This Black History Month and every day, we recognize the countless contributions of black Americans and fight for a just future for all."
The House of Representatives created an official resolution recognizing the Greensboro Four for their contribution to the Civil Rights Movement.
The Greensboro sit-in wasn't the first, but it is known to be a turning point for civil rights. Further sit-in protests would take place across the country after the one at the Woolworth's in Greensboro.
"This is a story America must know and understand and understand it within context," U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) told News 12. "In 1960, it was illegal, unlawful for an African American to walk into a public store that had a lunch counter and sit down and order a cup of coffee."
Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson -- four black students from what is now known as North Carolina A&T State University -- visited the F.W. Woolworth department store's lunch counter in Greensboro for a planned sit-in.
"We had to learn how to not fight and that everything is not always going to be what we want, and we could help make a difference and use the education we were being taught," Mary Lou Andrews Blakeney, one of the organizers of the High Point sit-in, told WFMY News 2. "It wasn't always about being a fighter. Fight with words."
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