eNewsHound

The history of the area surrounding fine hotels located in Greensboro, North Carolina is long and plentiful. There are many stories that can be heard from the Civil War times and into the more modern African-American Civil Rights Movement. Some freedoms were won in the early 1860 but the battle continues on for some areas of America. In the 1940s,50s and 60s African-Americans continued to fight for their place in America. They had a vision of everyone who lived in this country should be able to live, eat and be where ever they wanted. There were plenty of people who didn’t want that to happen.

In early 1960, when segregation of public facilities was still in full force, four black freshman from a North Caroline University decided to walk into a segregated Woolworths cafe and asked to be served. They felt that if they were going to spend money at the local Woolworth store on products, then they should also be able to sit in the stores cafe and be served lunch. The restaurant refused to serve them so they sat there until the store closed. For the next five days these same young men came in and sat at that lunch counter. Each day more and more protesters showed up until there were hundreds of angry protesters creating a scene outside. The efforts they made did lead to the desegregation of the F.W.Woolworths cafe counter. The store in Greensboro was eventually forced to close its doors but the chain is still active and has made its way online.

These young protesters were the first to start the sit-in movement, which was led by a group called CORE, in an effort to make peaceful protests to push the point that they deserved to be in the same pools, restaurants and other public places along with the white men and women of the country. Groups of African-Americans were to go to lunch in a white mans cafe, sit down and order. They were not to leave until after they were served. However, they had to follow a few rules. They had to be friendly at all times while sitting at the counter. They had to sit up straight and face the counter. They were not allowed to talk, laugh out loud or strike back at any attack that may come at them. The were also not allowed to block entrances. This movement turned into many other forms of non-violent ways of protesting to come.