Events
1960
Greensboro sit-in occurs
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
forms
1961
Freedom Rides begin
Albany movement
1962
Kennedy integrates University of Mississippi
1963
Birmingham campaign turns violent
March on Washington draws more than 200,000
Key People
-
Martin Luther King Jr.
Baptist preacher from Georgia who became most famous
civil rights leader; helped organize peaceful protests and gave
keynote “I have a dream” speech at 1963 March
on Washington
-
John F. Kennedy
35th
U.S. president; gave increasing support to civil rights movement
throughout his term; had plans to push stronger civil rights bill
through Congress but was assassinated in 1963
-
Robert Kennedy
Brother
of John F. Kennedy and U.S. attorney general; assisted civil rights
cause in the South
-
“Bull” Connor
Birmingham,
Alabama, city commissioner who ordered police violence against peaceful
civil rights protesters in 1963
The Greensboro Sit-In
On Monday, February 1, 1960,
four black students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical
College in Greensboro sat down at the whites-only counter
at a local Woolworth’s and ordered lunch. The clerk refused to serve
them, but the four men remained sitting at the counter until the
store closed. The men returned the following day with more than
a dozen fellow black students and again remained quietly at the
counter until the store closed.
By the end of the week, hundreds of black students and
even several white students were waiting patiently for
service in Woolworth’s, with several hundred more at other restaurants
in Greensboro. Although the students temporarily disbanded
to negotiate a settlement, the Greensboro sit-in resumed
the following spring when local business leaders refused to cave
in to the protesters’ demands. Blacks continued to boycott segregationist
stores such as Woolworth’s until the desperate merchants finally
conceded that summer.
Nonviolent Campaigns
The success of the Greensboro sit-in prompted thousands
of blacks to launch similar campaigns in other cities throughout
the South. Although police arrested thousands of protesters, most
sit-ins succeeded. In 1960,
for example, police arrested nearly a hundred peaceful student protesters
at Atlanta University. In addition to demanding equality at city
lunch counters, the students called for better jobs, better education,
and social services for Atlanta’s black community. Despite the arrest,
other Atlanta students pledged their commitment to nonviolence,
conducted sit-ins at restaurants all over the city, and organized
a massive boycott of segregated businesses around Atlanta. Martin
Luther King Jr. joined the students and was even among those arrested.
Just as in Greensboro, hurting local businessmen eventually gave
in and desegregated their stores.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The students who participated in these sit-ins, by provoking
segregationists into angry responses, succeeded in winning sympathy from
whites—a tactic that Martin Luther King had wanted to employ
with the SCLC. Therefore, King dispatched SCLC director Ella
Baker to Raleigh, North Carolina, to help organize students
and encourage younger blacks to join the nonviolent civil rights
struggle.
With Baker’s help, the students formed the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.
The SNCC’s greatest advantage was its youthful membership—students
were always willing to pack up and move to fight the next fight.
The SNCC members organized hundreds of protests throughout the South
in the 1960s
and participated in every major campaign.
A Rift Within the Movement
Not all civil rights activists supported the SNCC, however.
Many black leaders believed the student movement was too radical
and provocative. They feared that the sit-ins would destroy the
small concessions that had taken them years to win from white segregationists.
As a result, many all-black schools in the South punished and even
expelled student protesters. The sheer success of student-led sit-ins,
though, won blacks sympathy from many whites, an accomplishment
that leaders such as King knew would be necessary in order to change
the status quo.
