Sit-in movement
The sit-in movement, sit-in campaign or student sit-in movement, were a wave of sit-ins that followed the Greensboro sit-ins on February 1, 1960 in North Carolina. The sit-in movement employed the tactic of nonviolent direct action and was a pivotal event during the Civil Rights Movement.[1]
This article is about the wave of sit-ins during the 1960s in the United States. For the nonprofit organization, see International Civil Rights Center and Museum.Sit-in movement
February 1, 1960 – 1964
- Racial segregation in public accommodations
- Reaction to the Greensboro sit-ins
African-American college students attending historically Black colleges and universities in the United States powered the sit-in movement across the country. Many students across the country followed by example, as sit-ins provided a powerful tool for students to use to attract attention.[2] The students of Baltimore made use of this in 1960 where many used the efforts to desegregate department store restaurants, which proved to be successful lasting about three weeks. This was one small role Baltimore played in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The city facilitated social movements across the country as it saw bus and taxi companies hiring African-Americans in 1951–1952.[3] Sit-ins also frequented segregated facilities in Oklahoma City between 1958 and 1964.[4]
Students at Baltimore, Maryland's, Morgan State College had successfully deployed sit-ins and other direct action protest tactics against lunch counters in that city since at least 1953. One notable successful student sit-in which occurred in Baltimore was in 1955 at Read's Drug Store.[5] Despite also being led by students and successfully resulting in the end of segregation at a store lunch counter, the Read's Drug Store sit-in would not receive the same level of attention that was later given to the Greensboro sit-ins.[6] Two store lunch counter sit-ins which occurred in Wichita, Kansas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1958 also proved successful, and would employ tactics which were in fact similar to the future Greensboro sit-ins.[7][8] The local chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality had had similar success. Witnessing the unprecedented visibility afforded in the white-oriented mainstream media to the 1960 sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina, Morgan students (and others, including those from the Johns Hopkins University) continued sit-in campaigns already underway at department store restaurants near their campus. There were massive amounts of support from the community for the students’ efforts, but more importantly, white involvement and support grew in favor of desegregation of department store restaurants.[9]