The sit-ins

The Sit-In movement was a nonviolent movement of the United Civil Rights era. The sit-in, an act of civil disobedience, was a tactic that aroused sympathy for demonstrators among moderates and uninvolved individuals.

Some of the first recorded sit-ins happened before the Civil Rights movement in 1960. One of the earliest sitins that took place was in Chicago, Illinois, in 1943.

The Chicago sit-in

The Chicago Sit-In, also known as the Jack Spratt Coffee House Sit-In, took place on May 15, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois. It was organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Around 4:30 p.m., 28 people entered Jack Spratt in groups of two, three, and four. Each group of whites was served, while the Blacks in the groups were refused service. The whites passed their food to the Blacks or refused to eat until they were all served. The manager told Jimmy Robinson, one of the white members, that if the Blacks wanted to be served, they would have to be served in the basement. The manager then told Robinson that the Blacks could be served in the back corner. When they refused, the manager called the police. When the police arrived, they refused to arrest the group. All CORE members were served that day. The Chicago Sit-In inspired similar protests in Wichita, Kansas, and Oklahoma City.

1948 sit-in in Des Moines, Iowa

Edna Griffin led a Sitin at a Katz drug store in Des Moines, Iowa. On July 7, 1948, Edna Griffin, her infant daughter, John Bibbs, and Leonard Hudson entered Katz Drug Store at the intersection of 7th and Locust streets in Des Moines. They ordered ice cream sundaes. They were denied service because of their race. They appealed to the store manager Maurice Katz. They were unsuccessful in their appeal. Griffin filed a lawsuit against the store and was successful. The story of Edna Griffin and the Katz desegregation fight enriches the picture of the national civil rights struggle that African Americans and their allies waged after World War 11.

Sit-in in Oklahoma City – 1958 On August 19, 1958, the NAACP Youth Council held a sit-in at Katz Drug Store lunch counter in Oklahoma City, OK. The Council protested the white-only seating of the drug store. This protest was led by activist Clara Luper, a high school teacher and her students. Shortly after the sit-in began, the store owner agreed to integrate the lunch counter.

The Greensboro sit-in 1960

The Greensboro sit-in was a major civil rights protest that started on February 1, 1960, when young black students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. The students refused to leave after being denied service because of the color of their skin.

The next morning, the students returned and sat at the Woolworth lunch. The protest grew the following day, and on Thursday, white students joined them. The protests continued each day. On Saturday, fourteen hundred students arrived at the Greensboro Woolworth’s store. Those who could not sit at the lunch counter formed picket lines outside the store. Sit-ins followed at other Woolworth’s stores statewide. By the end of February, many stores were serving blacks as well as whites. Though most of the stores did not immediately desegregate their lunch counters, the sit-ins were successful in forcing partial integration and in increasing national awareness of the indignities suffered by African Americans.