How the Greensboro Four Sparked the Sit

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On February 1, 1960, four Black men walked into the Woolworth’s general store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and changed the world.

Ezell A. Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond bought toothpaste, notebooks, and other small items at different counters in the store, saving the receipts to prove they were paying customers. Then, they each sat down at the store’s lunch counter, which was designated for “whites only,” and tried to place their orders.

“We don’t serve Negroes,” they were told, according to the book American Places: Encounters with History . Black patrons at Woolworth’s were restricted to a separate standing snack bar. The men responded, “Well, you served us over there. Why not here?”

Blair, McCain, McNeil, and Richmond later became