The Smithsonian Institute has preserved a short section of a Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth’s lunch counter. If you are as old as I am, you know why. One of my vivid memories as a kid was watching civil rights protests on TV.
This lunch counter recalls one of the earliest episodes. On February 1, 1960, four black college students sat at that counter and ordered food. They were denied – they were sitting in the “Whites Only” section. They knew they were breaking the rules, but they refused to move.
One of them, Franklin McCain, noticed a little old white lady nearby who eyed him very suspiciously. Eventually, she finished her doughnut and coffee. And she walked behind McCain – and put her hand on his shoulder. She said in a very calm voice, “Boys, I am so proud of you. I only regret that you didn’t do this 10 years ago.”
They stayed at that counter until the store closed. The next day, 15 other students joined them. On the third day there was 300. Later, 1,000. It took six months of protest, but that Woolworth lunch counter was eventually desegregated.
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Adapted from “The Woolworth Sit-In That Launched a Movement,” by Michele Norris, National Public Radio, February 01, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18615556