The Greensboro Lunch Counter: What an Artifact Can Tell Us About the Civil Rights Movement (Artifacts from the American Past)

On February 1, 1960, four young Black men sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and staged a nonviolent protest against segregation. At that time, most lunch counters in the South did not serve Black people. Soon, thousands of students were staging sit-ins across the South. In just six months, the Greensboro Woolworth's lunch counter was integrated. How did it become a symbol of civil rights? Find out the answer to this question and more about what an artifact can tell us about history.