They Sat So That We May Stand: Celebrating The #GreensboroFour & Their Sit Ins That Helped Desegregate America

Before there were hashtags to herald a movement, there were people getting out there in the real world and doing things that went viral in their own way—and sometimes they changed history.

This took so much courage…most of us today can’t even comprehend just how much. This is the era of the online warrior. Don’t get us wrong. Our modern-day movements are no less important—#BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo—but we must look back at those who made it possible for us to express our opinions as we do.

Maybe some of your parents remember. They can tell you first hand how they felt seeing this black-and-white news photo of four young men sitting quietly at the lunch counter at the F.W. Woolworth in downtown Greensboro, NC, on Feb. 1, 1960—respectfully asking to be served. But they were refused because they were Black. And the rest is history.

There had been sit-ins before. As quiet as it's kept, civil rights activists were sitting in throughout the South refusing to give in or give up. And that's what what David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), and Joe McNeil was standing for on this historic day. Equal rights! The four students from North Carolina A&T State University, captured the attention of all of America with their peaceful protest. Most people could or would not have shown such grace under pressure and injustice. How did they hold it together? It's truly inspiring and amazing to think about it, 58 years later.

As was commonplace for that time, they could've been not only arrested, but had K-9's unleashed on them, sprayed with hoses, and beaten savagely by police. Their fate was not known. But that didn't matter to the Greensboro Four. They sat boldly. They refused to be treated like second class citizens one second longer. 

The passive protest technique was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, as well as the Freedom Rides organized by the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) in 1947, in which interracial activists rode in buses to test a Supreme Court decision banning segregation in interstate bus travel. 

Because of the boldness of the Four, the sit-ins grew more powerful over the next four days and eventually included more than 1,000 people filling the store in nonviolent protest. News spread across the country and eventually 55 cities in 13 states had their own sit-in protests. Many of the equal-rights seekers were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace…but they did not budge. Sales at the boycotted stores dropped by a third. 

The time was now. Not later. Not in the future. 

“Segregation was meant to demean, to lower and to debase,” McNeil said, remembering back on those awful times. “We made America better. By making America better, we made the world better.”

History remembers. There’s even an interactive “experience” people visiting the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta can try…but we will never truly know how it felt to be those four brave and young students. When The Rock tried it, he posted on social media saying it made his “blood boil.”

The F.W. Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro served their first Black customers on July 25, 1960. They were four of Woolworth’s own employees—Geneva Tisdale, Susie Morrison, Anetha Jones and Charles Best. The lunch counter officially became desegregated the next day.

A&T commemorated the start of the sit-ins today. The keynote speaker at the university’s annual breakfast was journalist April Ryan, the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks.

This is all proof that you never know just how much you can change the world with one bold move. We salute the #GreensboroFour! #BlackHistoryMonth