Student Protests in the 1960’s.
Student Protesters in the 1960’s
On February 1st, 1960, four Black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University staged the first ‘sit in’ at a Woolworth’s lunch counter. The four went into the shop, bought stationary and supplies and then went to the lunch counter. They knew that they would not be served. They politely asked to be served and when refused, simply sat down. The next day they returned to the counter with 27 classmates. They again asked to be served, were refused and again, sat down until the store either served them, or closed. They repeated this with increasing numbers of students attending these sit ins until it got to the point where there were picket lines outside the store. The sit in’s stopped only because the store was forced to close due to a bomb threat. The idea of the non violent protest quickly spread and by mid February some 54 sit ins had been staged in 15 cities. By the summer of 1960 the protesters had convinced Woolworth’s to desegregate its lunch counters.
The success of the lunch counter sit in was then used in other places where segregation occured, such as Libraries, art galleries, parks and swimming pools.
Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee
Freedom Rides
Student groups were also highly active in other elements of the Civil Rights movement.
Links:
PRI.org – recollections of the Student Sit ins.
JFK Library – the Civil Rights Movement.
America in the 1920s and 1930s
USA at the start of the 20th Century – Causes of the Economic Boom – Impact of Economic Growth in the 1920’s – Agriculture in the 1920’s – The “Roaring” Twenties – Prohibition – Ku Klux Klan in the 20’s – Causes of the Wall Street Crash – Consequences of the Wall Street Crash – The Great Depression – The New Deal – Opposition to the New Deal – Evaluation of the New Deal
The United States c1945-1971
The Red Scare – Impact of the Second World War on Civil Rights – Civil Rights in 1950 – Brown v Topeka Board of Education – Little Rock High School – Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Protest – Martin Luther King Jnr – Nation of Islam and Malcolm X – The Black Panthers – Ku Klux Klan in the 1960’s – March on Washington – USA: Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s – Immigration Act of 1965 – Chicano movement and Civil Rights for Hispanic Americans – College Sit In’s and Student Protests – Women’s Rights – Native Americans and Civil Rights