“If they Can do it in Greensboro”…

Post #2 of a 3 Part Series

The four freshman NCA&T students went back to Woolworth’s on day two. McNeil, McCain, Blair and Richmond and a few students from other local colleges, including the all female Bennett College, showed up ready for what was ahead. Reporters and photographers arrived on the scene to document the growing number of students who were “sitting-in.” Protests soon spread to the nearby Kress Department Store on Elm Street, and within days, other North Carolina cities including Winston Salem, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Durham joined the movement. It was not long before Nashville, Atlanta, and Richmond were on the Sit-In map. Eventually, 70,000+ people in 20+ states participated in addition to the original Greensboro protesters.

Were the Sit-Ins peaceful? For the most part they were, because the protesters adhered to their non-violence trainings. On the other hand, the opposition to the movement throughout the South included arrests, beatings, foul language, spitting, and bomb threats. Yet I have not been able to find any reports of killings related to the 1960 student sit-ins. In fact, this period is lifted up in history as a shining example of success. Iconic Civil Rights leader John Lewis once remarked,”Greensboro became the message. If they can do it in Greensboro, we can do it here.”

One reason I am publishing these posts is my sense that some in Greensboro forget or take for granted this heroic chapter of our city’s history. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is something we walk or drive past daily, yet we don’t regularly go inside. All of this was brought home to me a few months ago when I got a huge surprise as I visited Washington, DC and spent an afternoon at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. For a quick recap of that visit and how it opened my eyes to the magnitude of Greensboro’s role in the Civil Rights Movement, please check out my next post.