Sit-In Archives

Counter Histories

Digital Collection. Produced by John T. Edge and the Southern Foodways Alliance; directed by Kate Medley.
Five short films that document the civil disobedience staged at segregated lunch counters in the 1950s and 60s.

Flint Sit-Down Strike, 1936-1937

Poster. By Dylan Miner.
Informational poster about Roscoe Van Zandt and the Flint Sit-Down Strike.

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins

Picture book. By Carole Boston Weatherford. 2007. 32 pages.
Historical fiction in an upper elementary picture book about the Greensboro sit-ins.

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down

Picture book. By Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. 2010.
A picture book about the 1960 Woolworth sit-ins.

Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories

Book — Non-fiction. By Ellen Levine. 1993. 192 pages.
Thirty African-Americans who were children during the 1950s and 1960s tell their true stories of what it was like for them to fight segregation in the South.

Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC

Book — Non-fiction. Edited by Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty Garman Robinson, Jean Smith Young, and Dorothy M. Zellner. 2010. 616 pages.
An unprecedented women's history of the Civil Rights Movement, from sit-ins to Black Power.

Scraps of Time: Abby Takes a Stand, 1960

Book — Fiction. By Patricia McKissack. 2006. 112 pages.
Historical fiction about the lunch counter sit-ins for ages 9+.

Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1985

Film. Produced by Henry Hampton. Blackside. 1987. 360 minutes.
Comprehensive documentary history of the Civil Rights Movement.

February One

Film. Produced by Dr. Steven Channing. 2004. 61 minutes.
The story surrounding the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins.

July 15, 1964: Ozell Sutton Denied Service at Arkansas Capitol Cafeteria

WWII veteran Ozell Sutton was denied service at the Arkansas Capitol cafeteria after visiting the building to collect voter registration materials.

May 28, 1963: Woolworth Sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi

Students and faculty from Tougaloo College held a sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi.

Feb. 6, 1961: “Jail, No Bail” in Rock Hill, South Carolina Sit-Ins

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sent four volunteers to Rock Hill, South Carolina to sit-in.

March 15, 1960: Police Attack SC Students in Peaceful Protest

Police used firehoses to attack South Carolina college students engaged in a peaceful protest against segregation. The judge sends their NAACP lawyer to jail for “pursuing his case vigorously.”

CORE Members Woolowrth's Sit-in (photo) | Zinn Education Project

Feb. 20, 1960: Patricia Stephens Due Called for “Jail, No Bail”

Patricia Stephens Due refused to pay bail after being arrested for a sit-in in Florida.

Feb. 1, 1960: The Greensboro Sit-in Begins

Four African-American North Carolina A&T University students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s whites-only lunch counter.

Clara Luper (photo) | Zinn Education Project

Aug. 19, 1958: Katz Drugstore Sit-Ins

Clara Luper and the NAACP Youth Council began sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters.

July 19, 1958: Dockum Drug Store Sit-In

Ron Walters, Carol Parks-Haun, and other leaders in the NAACP Youth Council organized a sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina.

March 27, 1867: Staged Ride-ins in South Carolina Streetcars

Staged ride-ins during Reconstruction in South Carolina were among the first (recorded) organized protests of segregation on a streetcar.