Greensboro Four were a group of four African American college students who sat down in protest at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. At that time, many facilities in the United States, especially in the South, were racially segregated, and Black customers were prohibited from using them. The Greensboro protest, called a sit-in, sparked a wave of similar demonstrations throughout the South.
On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina (now North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University) sat at a lunch counter reserved for white customers at an F. W. Woolworth Company store in Greensboro. The students were Ezell Blair, Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond. Because the students were Black, they were refused service. But they stayed and studied until the store closed.
The next day, the students returned to the lunch counter. At that time, they were joined by Billy Smith, Clarence Henderson, and a number of other students. Reporters and local television news crews gathered at the store. In the following days, more African American protesters, as well as white supporters, joined the campaign. More than 1,000 people participated in the sit-ins. The protests then spread to segregated lunch counters at other stores and restaurants in Greensboro.
The Greensboro protests gained national attention. College students throughout the South began similar sit-ins. By the end of February, sit-in campaigns were taking place in more than 30 cities across nine Southern states. On July 25, Woolworth integrated its Greensboro lunch counter. Four years later, in 1964, passage of the Civil Rights Act banned the segregation of public facilities.
