Greensboro Lunch Counter - Four Students Sat Down

Photo: Eric Chan from Hollywood, United States, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.

On the second floor is an eight-foot stretch of the actual lunch counter from the F. W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, with its stools still attached.

On February 1, 1960, four freshmen from North Carolina A&T State University, Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond, sat down at this counter and asked for coffee. They were refused service because they were Black, and they stayed seated until the store closed. They came back the next day with more students, and within weeks sit-ins had spread across the South. In July 1960 the store gave in and served Black customers.

When Woolworth's closed the store in 1993, museum curators asked for a piece of the counter. Two more stools are across the Mall at the African American history museum. Next, go up to the third floor for the First Ladies.

More on Wikipedia: Greensboro sit-ins · North Carolina A&T State University

Greensboro Lunch Counter - Four Students Sat Down

Stops on this tour