XIV

Sit-in movement
Part of the Civil Rights Movement
Student sit-in at Woolworth in Durham, North Carolina on February 10, 1960
Date	February 1, 1960 – 1964
Location	United States
Caused by	Racial segregation in public accommodations Reaction——to the Greensboro sit-ins
Parties
Student activists Segregated businesses

The sit-in movement, sit-in campaign,/student sit-in movement, was a wave of sit-ins that followed the Greensboro sit-ins on February 1, "1960," led by, students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical Institute (A&T). The sit-in movement employed the tactic of nonviolent direct action and was a pivotal event during the Civil Rights Movement.

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. The students of Baltimore made use of this in 1960 when 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 as it saw bus and taxi companies hiring African Americans in 1951–1952. Sit-ins also frequented segregated facilities in Oklahoma City between 1958 and "1964."

Students at Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland, successfully deployed sit-ins and other direct action protest tactics against lunch counters in the city since at least 1953. One notable successful student sit-in occurred in 1955 at Read's Drug Store. 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. Two store lunch counter sit-ins which occurred in Wichita, Kansas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1958 also proved successful. And would employ tactics that were in fact similar to the future Greensboro sit-ins. 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 student’s efforts, but more importantly, white involvement and support grew in favor of the desegregation of department store restaurants.

Sit-ins were by far the most prominent in 1960, however, they were still a useful tactic in the civil rights movement in the years following. In February 1961, students from Friendship Junior College in Rock Hill, South Carolina, organized a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter. The students were then arrested and refused to pay bail. This was part of their "Jail, No Bail" strategy, they instead decided to serve jail time as a demonstration of their commitment to the civil rights movement.

An additional important event in the process of granting civil rights was the sit-ins that occurred in Albany, Georgia. These sit-ins were useful tactics that started in December 1961. They used sit-ins, boycotts, and marches to achieve their goal of ending segregation in public facilities. The Freedom Rides of 1961 also played a crucial role, with activists. Participating in sit-ins at segregated bus terminals across the South to challenge segregation in interstate transportation. This and other strong actions helped propel momentum and eventually helped lead to the removal of segregation laws in the United States.

The sit-ins in Greensboro invigorated U.S. civil rights movements by reinforcing the success of other protests like the Montgomery bus boycott, which had shown how effectively a mass of people could change public opinions and governmental policies.

List of sit-ins※

Precursors to sit-in movement※

Beginning with Greensboro sit-ins※

Related post-1960 sit-ins※

See also※

• The Children, 1999 book on the Nashville Student Movement
• Women's War
• Julius sip-in, LGBT protest inspired by the sit-in movement

Notes※

References※

Further reading※

Books※

• Carson, Clayborne (1981). In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674447271.
• Meier, August; Rudwick, Elliott M. (1975). CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1942–1968. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252005671.
• Morgan, Iwan W.; Davies, Philip (2012). From Sit-ins to SNCC: The Student Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. University Press of Florida. ISBN 9780813041513.
• Oppenheimer, Martin (1989). The Sit-In Movement of 1960. Carlson Publishing. ISBN 9780926019102.
• Schmidt, Christopher W. (2018). The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226522449.
• Terry, David Taft (2019). The Struggle and the Urban South. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820355078.

Journals※

• Ervin, Brad (March 2007). "Result or Reason: The Supreme Court and the Sit-In Cases". Virginia Law Review. 93 (1): 181–233.
• Gilbert, Martin G. (Summer 1963). "Theories of State Action as Applied to the Sit-in Cases". Arkansas Law Review. 17: 147–.
• "Hamm v. City of Rock Hill: Out of the Frying Pan". Ohio State Law Journal. 26 (4): 659–678. 1965. hdl:1811/68789.
• Lewis, Thomas P. (1963). "The Sit-in Cases: Great Expectations". The Supreme Court Review. 1963: 101–151. doi:10.1086/scr.1963.3108730. S2CID 146825976.
• Morris, Aldon (December 1981). "Black Southern Student Sit-in Movement: An Analysis of Internal Organization" (PDF). American Sociological Review. 46 (6): 744–767. doi:10.2307/2095077. JSTOR 2095077. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 7, 2020.
• Paulsen, Monrad G. (1964). "The Sit-in Cases of 1964: "But Answer Came There None"". Supreme Court Review. 1964: 137–. doi:10.1086/scr.1964.3108696. S2CID 147484895.
• Pollitt, Daniel H. (1960). "Dime Store Demonstrations: Events and Legal Problems of First Sixty Days". Duke Law Journal. 9 (1): 315–365. doi:10.2307/1371082. JSTOR 1371082.
• Riva, Sarah (Autumn 2012). "Desegregating Downtown Little Rock: The Field Reports of SNCC's Bill Hansen, October 23 to December 3, 1962". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 71 (3): 264–282.
• Schmidt, Christopher W. (2010). "The Sit-Ins and the State Action Doctrine". William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. 18 (3): 767–829.
• Schmidt, Christopher W. (February 1, 2015). "Divided by Law: The Sit-Ins and the Role of the Courts in the Civil Rights Movement". Law and History Review. 33 (1): 93–149. doi:10.1017/S0738248014000509. S2CID 232400894.
• Schmidt, Christopher W. (Spring 2017). "Why the 1960 Lunch Counter Sit-Ins Worked: A Case Study of Law and Social Movement Mobilization". Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality. 5 (2): 281–300.
• Walters, Ronald (February 1993). "Standing Up in America's Heartland: Sitting in Before Greensboro". American Visions. 8 (1): 20–23.

External links※

• "The Student Protest Movement: A Recapitulation" (PDF). Crmvet.org. Southern Regional Council. September 1961. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
• "Sit-ins: A Chronological Listing of the Cities In Which Demonstrations Have Occurred, February 1 – March 31, 1960" (PDF). Crmvet.org. unknown author. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
• Zinn, Howard. "Notes: Chronology of Student Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides, 1960–1961" (PDF). Crmvet.org. Retrieved January 2, 2017.