The first civil rights sit-in began at Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC in 1960.

On this day in 1960 four young black students from North Carolina's A&T State University, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond, sat down at an all-white lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC. By this simple act of civil disobedience, the young men started a movement that eventually led to the integration of Woolworth's and Kress stores, both major chains in the South. The boys' bravery and persistence also inspired similar sit-ins across the South in restaurants, parks, movie theaters and other public places, and earned them a place as heroes of the civil rights movement. 

EDSITEment 
Use primary source materials to learn more about the people and places of the civil rights movement, including the Greensboro Woolworth's, in the EDSITEment lesson Ordinary People, Ordinary Places: The Civil Rights Movement (9-12). 

Examine the political impact of the nonviolent protest practiced by the students at the Greensboro sit-in and explore the relevance of this philosophy to personal life in the EDSITEment lesson Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Power of Nonviolence (6-8). 

EconEdLink 
The EconEdLink lesson Martin Luther King Jr. Day (6-12) examines the relationship between the emergence of the Black middle class and the beginnings of the civil rights movement. 

Smithsonian's History Explorer
Stories of Freedom & Justice: Learning Resources (9-12) is a gateway to lesson plans, videos, family activities, and instructional media related to the nonviolent civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Featured resources include videos and a teacher guide of the Museum's award-winning Join the Student Sit-Ins program, literacy-based family activities on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the student sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina, and an archived webcast of an oral history of the three surviving members of the Greensboro Four.