Black History Month: The Sit-Ins at Woolworth’s

In celebration of Black History month, we will be doing a series of posts that highlight the people, places, and events that have been of key importance in the Raleigh African American community.

Raleigh residents march along Fayetteville Street protesting the businesses that closed rather than integrate, 1960.

Raleigh was an active city during the Civil Rights movement due to the presence of two of the most prominent African American schools in the South, Shaw University and St. Augustine’s College. In 1960, great steps were taken towards desegregation when students began a peaceful protest by participating in sit-ins at local lunch counters.  On Feb.1, some students from North Carolina A&T in Greensboro had gone to a Woolworth’s lunch counter and were refused service. The next day, they returned with more students, and sat silently at the counter to protest the denial of service.  The news quickly spread around the South, and students all over began conducting sit-ins of their own. Shaw and St. Aug students organized protests at McLellan’s, Kress, and Hudson-Belk. It moved beyond the lunch counter sit-ins, and students began to protest other segregated organizations as well, such as the Ambassador Theatre and the Sir Walter Hotel. The Ambassador was one of the many places in Raleigh that maintained separate entrances for blacks and whites. The Sir Walter refused service to African Americans altogether.

After the students got the movement going, people of all ages and races joined in. Largely due to the student organized efforts, Raleigh businesses (for the most part) were integrated by 1964.

For more on the Civil Rights movement in Raleigh, visit the exhibit As We March On at the Raleigh City Museum.

In order to thwart the lunch counter sit-ins, businesses removed the stools so the students couldn’t sit. Shown is the Raleigh Woolworth’s, 1960.

More of the march down Fayetteville, 1960.