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00:08The American South, 1960. Nearly a hundred years have passed since the end of the Civil War,
00:18and blacks in America still have no civil rights. Jim Crow laws mandate racial segregation.
00:27Vigilante justice claims thousands of lives, and yet some are determined to challenge the system at any cost.
00:36If there are things that you truly believe in, you'll give up your life for it.
00:44My parents had to grow up under a Jim Crow system, and in all likelihood, unless we took action,
00:52our children would have grown up with the same restrictions.
00:57My God, when is it going to stop? Who's going to stand up and say no?
01:05They wanted a change, and it didn't matter at all costs.
01:09What would happen, they were willing to probably pay that price.
01:13We walked slowly and silently into a world verse, and one by one we took our seats.
01:24These four young men made a major down payment on the freeing and liberation of all of us.
01:49Lunchtime in Greensboro, North Carolina. Locals gather at the lunch counter on Elm Street.
01:56Today, it's hard to imagine this as the scene of a social revolution.
02:01But only 50 years ago, on this same street, a simple order for a cup of coffee sparked a series
02:08of events that would help end segregation in America.
02:12A moment still vivid in the minds of those who lived through it, but one that might have been lost
02:18to history,
02:19if not for some who were determined to preserve the centerpiece of the movement.
02:24A simple lunch counter, an artifact that transports visitors to a time of turmoil.
02:31They just kept sitting there, peacefully and quietly.
02:36And the brink of a second American Revolution.
02:39And now, the crowd starts to yell at you, and call you the worst kind of names.
02:45And now, they begin to touch you, pushing and poking and spitting, and then a milkshake gets poured on your
02:52head.
02:52They might start attacking at any moment.
02:55So what will you do? Can you stay strong? Can you stay focused?
03:03Can you stay non-violent?
03:19I call myself a product of the big lie.
03:22And the big lie went something like from your parents and your grandparents.
03:28To really get on in this society and be successful and accepted,
03:33there are certain things that you have to do.
03:37Well, you know, I did all those things.
03:40I did them quite well.
03:43And I must have turned 12, 13, 14.
03:48And it wasn't difficult to determine that I'd literally gotten screwed.
03:56Because, I mean, it was business as usual.
04:00The same separation, segregation, and denial of all human rights.
04:06I learned these things in my childhood.
04:09And I could not fathom why would anyone want to mistreat me, call me names like niggers and no good.
04:17And I never did anything to anyone. I was only six years old.
04:22And I asked that question, hey, Jesus, how come your people are delivered and the colored people are Negroes or
04:32not?
04:41Well, that made me fiercely angry.
04:49And I questioned several times if this is all there is to life.
04:58I'm not so sure that it's worth living.
05:04Segregation was about to be challenged by an unlikely source.
05:08Four college freshmen in Greensboro, North Carolina.
05:11But it wouldn't be the first time Americans struggled for justice.
05:16To make our country more free and more just and more equal has been the struggle of many generations.
05:26Beginning with our founding fathers and the ideals they outlined in the Declaration of Independence.
05:32That all men are created equal.
05:37But as history would show, those words meant nothing if you were black.
05:43The nation's economy relied on slavery, especially in the South.
05:48And even after the Civil War ended, blacks in America were still not equal.
05:54In fact, in many states, racial discrimination began to be written into law.
06:00Segregation was the order of the day.
06:03You saw those signs that said, white only.
06:07There was racial segregation in the schools.
06:09There was racial segregation in the libraries.
06:12When you went to the theaters, you had to walk three stories up into the attic of the theater.
06:18They call it the Crow's Nest.
06:20Separate water fountains.
06:23Separate seating access.
06:26All based on race.
06:29An important reason for the emergence of the system of segregation was that there's a tremendous fear that African Americans
06:39are going to be uncontrollable.
06:41That they're going to riot.
06:43That they're going to take over American society.
06:47That, in fact, they may seek revenge for the evils of slavery.
06:55These fears led to even more laws being passed.
07:00They were nicknamed Jim Crow laws, based on a well-known character in the minstrel shows that were popular at
07:06that time.
07:07They featured white men in blackface and were made to mock and degrade black people.
07:15For the next 50 years, these laws denied blacks the rights and privileges of citizenship in their own country.
07:23Blacks fought and died in America's wars, but did not receive the freedoms they had gone to war to defend.
07:32In many places, they couldn't buy a house on the same street as a white person, couldn't vote, and couldn't
07:38even drink from the same water fountain.
07:43And if they did, they paid a heavy price.
07:48If you were a person of color, at any moment, you could be snatched into a situation in which you
07:56could be beaten or killed.
07:59There were thousands of lynchings.
08:03Segregation was policed by personal violence, by state-supported violence, and by vigilante groups, and was tolerated by the majority
08:15of citizens.
08:17During World War II, black Americans became increasingly unwilling to quietly accept segregation and the discrimination they had been forced
08:26to endure.
08:30Momentum for change seemed to be building.
08:34In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in public schools on the basis
08:42of race was unconstitutional.
08:46The ruling marked a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States.
08:51But the response from segregationists and organizations like the Ku Klux Klan was immediate and relentless.
09:02Every incremental advance for civil rights was met by violent reminders that some Americans were not ready for change and
09:11would resist it with force.
09:16Black men knew they were always in danger.
09:19No doubt.
09:26Remember what happened to Emmett Till.
09:3114-year-old Emmett Till was visiting his family in Mississippi
09:35when he allegedly whistled at a white woman.
09:39In the middle of the night, two white men snatched Emmett from his bed
09:43and brutally beat and killed him,
09:47then weighed his body down and dropped him into a river.
09:54And then you see the body because Mrs. Till was intent on making sure
10:01that people understood what had happened to her son.
10:04And so the casket is open and people get a chance to see the rank horror
10:13of what those people did when they murdered him.
10:15The fact that it happened suggested that it could happen to any of us.
10:21Who was next?
10:24Till's murder galvanized a generation of young African Americans,
10:28and the civil rights movement took a turn in a new direction.
10:32Instead of fighting racism only in the courts,
10:36activists brought their cause to the streets.
10:39Nonviolent, direct action was taking the place of silent suffering.
10:43In 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white
10:51passenger.
10:52Black citizens responded by boycotting buses for 11 months.
10:59When the bus system reeled from the loss of income, the state Supreme Court relented,
11:04and blacks in Montgomery were no longer relegated to sit in the back.
11:11More victories seemed inevitable.
11:14And then nothing happens for three years.
11:17And young people who are growing up with an expectation of change are frustrated and angry at the fact that
11:25nothing's happening.
11:28In the fall of 1959, the freshman class arrived at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro.
11:37A&T was one of the best places in the state to go to school if you were black, but
11:42had a very proud student body,
11:43and it attracted a core of good students.
11:47Students whose parents were part of the struggle to dismantle segregation,
11:50but were not moving quickly enough in the eyes of their children.
11:54Our parents were good people and educated, and we couldn't understand for the love of ourselves.
12:02How in the world can educated people live under a system like this?
12:08I mean, to us, that was totally unacceptable.
12:11And fortunately, I met some people who felt the same way I did.
12:17Joseph McNeil, Israel Blair, and David Richmond.
12:21And that really led up to what happened on February 1, 1960, at the Woolworths store.
12:31Woolworths was the most popular and successful Five & Dime store in the world,
12:35and a fixture in cities across America.
12:39It offered its customers a large choice of merchandise for a nickel or a dime,
12:44and was nicknamed a Five & Dime.
12:47Well, Five & Dime was a wonderful kind of place for people to gather.
12:54It was a place that really was a kind of community institution.
12:59But not everyone in the community was welcome.
13:02While Woolworths was happy to sell merchandise to black customers,
13:06eating at its lunch counter was strictly off limits.
13:11According to Woolworths, the policy was simply to follow the local customs where its stores were located.
13:17And in Greensboro, North Carolina, segregation was the local custom.
13:24But four college freshmen thought it was time for the local customs to change.
13:31And David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and Joseph McNeil,
13:38had just enough tenacity, courage, and the right personalities to get it done.
13:45Very different personalities. We're all different personalities.
13:50McCain is a clear thinker. He's determined enormous strength.
13:55And his true strength was in his leadership capabilities.
14:00He was tall, handsome. A lot of girls loved him.
14:03But, you know, he was no nonsense guy.
14:08David Richmond had a tremendous heart.
14:11He responded to the plight of others who were less fortunate.
14:16Quiet, compassionate, introspective.
14:22All-state football player, basketball player, track.
14:27He broke the North Carolina High Jump Championship in 1959.
14:31I was this close to him. I saw him break it.
14:34Jabril Ezell was bright and often entertaining.
14:39He was a communicator. He loved to share his perspective with others.
14:44Gregarious, the happy person, easy-going.
14:51Joseph McNeil, the philosopher, the IQ, Mr. IQ.
14:57Damn smart. Intellectual. A thinker. No nonsense.
15:03All four men were at A&T on scholarships and quickly formed a bond.
15:08Their conversations were not like most heard in freshman dorms.
15:13Well, in our nightly pool session, we spoke about inequities based upon race, economics, politics, and religion.
15:24We all despise a system that attempted to make us feel inferior.
15:32All over the country, black students were talking about affecting change.
15:37About the inequalities they had grown up with.
15:40About doing something.
15:42But no one did.
15:45In Greensboro, the four freshmen resolved that it was time to stop talking and start acting.
15:51And that feeling became even more pressing after Christmas that year, when Joe McNeil was humiliated at the Richmond bus
15:59station on his way back to school.
16:02I went to a counter that was reserved for whites only.
16:06And they told me they weren't going to serve me.
16:09That I needed to go around to a counter in the back.
16:13Well, I refused to do that. And I didn't eat.
16:18And he came back hot. I mean, really upset about that.
16:21And saying, you know, it's time to cut the bull. Let's get down to business.
16:26The four freshmen were determined to take action.
16:29They crafted a plan that was ingeniously simple, but had the potential to challenge the local customs in a powerful
16:36and revolutionary way.
16:38They would go to the whites only lunch counter at Woolworth's and ask to be served.
16:46Despite its simplicity, their plan was also potentially very dangerous.
16:52It was so courageous for them to do this because violence could occur at any moment.
16:57They knew what happened when black men stepped over the line.
17:00The images of Emmett Till still burn in their memories.
17:04And they knew that they too could be brutalized, arrested, or even killed.
17:10But they also knew they had to act.
17:16McNeil said, how many in favor doing something?
17:19And I said, I certainly am.
17:22And one among us said, well, I don't know.
17:27I think I've got to go to the bathroom.
17:30I have to go to the bathroom first and then I'll come back.
17:33No.
17:35Come on, man. You know, I'm very nervous.
17:37You know, my kidneys are working on me.
17:39And they grabbed me and helped me down.
17:41We said, hell no, you don't. No, you don't. No, you don't.
17:44You're not going anyplace.
17:46And we said, Richmond, are you in?
17:48He said, well, you know, I'll go with the majority.
17:51And Joe and I said, well, we are the majority.
17:55And, I mean, that's how it was done.
17:58There were two certainties for the young students.
18:00They were ready to act and they were committed to nonviolent protest.
18:04All four had studied the teachings of Gandhi, Faroe, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
18:10And they believed they had a moral imperative not to obey unjust laws
18:14and that nonviolence was their best weapon.
18:23February 1st, 1960.
18:26With their plan in place, it was time to move.
18:30We met in front of Bluefoot Library and we said a prayer, the Lord's Prayer.
18:37And then we proceeded to walk downtown.
18:41We walked slowly and silently.
18:44We didn't say anything to each other when we left that campus that day.
18:49I didn't know what was going to happen.
18:53We tried to imagine all the possibilities.
18:57One was I was going to go to jail for a long time and never come back to school.
19:06Or the other, I was going to be trying to pick my brains up off the floor
19:12and maybe come back to my campus in a casket.
19:17But it meant just that much to me.
19:21We made a journey down South Ellen Street and we walked through the middle doors quietly into Woolworths.
19:35To establish themselves as customers and not troublemakers, the young men made small purchases in the store.
19:43I remember purchasing a comb, a brush, a toothbrush, and Colgate toothpaste.
19:52And I received a receipt.
19:55Joseph and Franklin went before me.
19:57I think David was behind me.
20:01And one by one, we took our seats.
20:07You know, 15 seconds after I sat on that stool, I felt so clean.
20:18I felt invincible.
20:24And quite honestly, I wouldn't have felt cheated if I had died at that moment.
20:31Because I had gone to my mountain top and I saw the other side.
20:38I was whole.
20:40I was redeemed.
20:45They've got shirts and ties on.
20:46They've got their books with them.
20:50They open their books on the counter.
20:51They don't know whether they're going to be arrested.
20:53They don't know whether they're going to be beaten.
20:54The waitress came over to us, a Caucasian lady.
20:58She said, what do you boys want?
21:00And we said, we'd like to be served, please.
21:03She said, you know we don't serve colored people here?
21:07And we said, oh, we beg to disagree with you.
21:10You have served us already.
21:13And here are our receipts to prove it.
21:15She said, but I just can't serve you here.
21:17It's a lunch counter.
21:19Well, why not?
21:20Well, it's just custom.
21:22And she said, you know, you ought to leave here.
21:26Don't come back here.
21:28This you call.
21:29They'll call it later.
21:31The waitress had called on Geneva Tisdale,
21:33an African-American working at the lunch counter,
21:36with the hope that she would talk some sense into the boys.
21:40And she stopped in front of us and said,
21:43what are you boys doing here?
21:45You know you aren't supposed to be here.
21:47You guys better get out of here.
21:50It's people like you to make our race look bad.
21:53Well, at that instant, I really hated that woman
21:56because here I'm thinking to myself,
21:58lady, I am trying to do something for me
22:02and hopefully something for you.
22:05And here you are scolding me.
22:09Well, you know, when you're 17 and 18,
22:12you don't understand that.
22:14I threatened her world.
22:17I threatened her livelihood.
22:20And she was right.
22:23And they went to get the manager,
22:24and Curly Harris, Mr. Harris, came over,
22:28told us that we were going to get in a lot of trouble
22:30if we didn't get up and leave the store.
22:35The students remained at the counter.
22:37If anyone acknowledged them, they asked to be served.
22:41But their requests were denied.
22:44They knew they would be.
22:48So they continued to sit quietly and wait.
22:52There was absolute silence.
22:56But it wouldn't remain that way for long.
23:04This big cop comes in,
23:06and he turns as red as a bee
23:08when he sees us sitting at the counter.
23:12And he walks maybe three feet behind us.
23:17I mean, it's like I could almost feel his hot breath
23:21and hear him panting.
23:22As he was walking back and forth,
23:24he just bumped his billy club in the palm of his hand.
23:31I could hear a pap, pap, pap, pap, pap, pap.
23:36And I said, oh, man.
23:38And I braced myself to be knocked off that stool even worse.
23:48We're not exactly certain what's going to happen next.
23:51But if he does attack us,
23:56our prayer was to remain nonviolent that first day.
24:01So we continued to sit.
24:05It was an intense moment.
24:12And he went back and said, oh, that's the way down.
24:12And he passed the aisle doing that,
24:13slapping the nightstick in the sand,
24:15maybe four or five days.
24:20And after that I said, you know, we've got him.
24:24We've got him.
24:26He's frustrated.
24:28He doesn't know what to do.
24:31He finally just stopped pacing
24:33and sort of stood over in the corner and folded his arms
24:36and looking at us as though,
24:39you know, I wish I could ring your necks.
24:44The mayor just says, what are you going to do?
24:47And the policeman just threw up his hands
24:50and walked silently out of the wood.
24:54And nothing happens for the next three hours.
24:58Basically, they've paralyzed the staff of the store
25:00and the manager of the store.
25:02There were other people there having lunch.
25:04In fact, there was one person there in particular.
25:09There was a little old white lady.
25:13And I said to myself, this ain't good.
25:18So she climbed off the stool.
25:20She had that fixed gaze on us.
25:23And strode over towards us.
25:26And she put her right hand on Joe's shoulder.
25:30And I said to myself, God, this is it.
25:33Jesus, if it's at all possible,
25:35just let her call me some nasty names
25:37and spit on me and go on about her business.
25:42Well, she didn't do that.
25:44She said to us, boys, I am so proud of you.
25:50I don't regret you didn't do this 10 years ago.
26:01The store was starting to get full of many onlookers wondering what the hell is going on.
26:09Look at these kids.
26:10They keep saying they're not going to get up, you know?
26:15Nervous about the crowds
26:16and worried that violence could erupt,
26:18manager Curly Harris
26:20decided to close the store early that day.
26:23For the students, day one of the sit-in was a success.
26:27And mind you, the only thing we'd done was sit on a dumb stool.
26:38But we weren't, uh, jailed.
26:41We weren't killed.
26:44As they were exiting the store,
26:46a lone photographer who had been tipped off about the protest
26:49was waiting outside
26:51and snapped what would become the iconic image of the Greensboro Four.
27:02And they go back to the campus
27:03and the word spreads about what they've done.
27:07How daring and bold, how innovative.
27:11The students were determined to risk their lives again
27:14by returning to Woolworths the next day.
27:17They had caught the store's staff and police by surprise on the first day
27:20and now the word was out.
27:23Day two could potentially be far more dangerous.
27:26So the Greensboro Four decided they needed reinforcements.
27:31They asked several of A&T's campus leaders to join them the next day.
27:37Oh yeah, we'll come.
27:39Well, the next day at lunchtime,
27:42those 23 Son of a Guns,
27:45not a single one of them showed up.
27:47Not one.
27:49But two of their friends did show.
27:51And as the day went on, another 16 or 17 arrived to sit in.
27:58The numbers of sit-in participants grew,
28:00and by the end of the third day,
28:02hundreds of protesters came to the lunch counter.
28:08By day four, tension was mounting.
28:12A gang of young white men had decided
28:14to stage a response to the sit-in.
28:16Their first tactic, get to Woolworths early and fill all the seats.
28:22When that didn't work, the threats began.
28:25First verbal, then physical.
28:29Scalding coffee poured on a student's head.
28:32A lit cigarette shoved into a pocket.
28:37Still, the students held true to nonviolence.
28:42By now, word of the sit-ins had spread quickly
28:45through local churches and campuses
28:46and was covered daily in the media.
28:51The white community in Greensboro was divided.
28:55There were those who opposed integration at all costs.
28:58Business owners who just wanted the protesters to go away.
29:02And those who sympathized with the cause.
29:06Students at Greensboro Women's College,
29:09Ann Dearsley, Marilyn Lott, and Jeannie Seaman,
29:13were forbidden to leave their campus without permission.
29:16We said, well, this is the most stupid thing we've ever heard.
29:19Somebody can't get a cup of coffee at the Woolworth counter
29:25because they're black.
29:27And we think we should go down and support them.
29:32So with no idea what was in store for them,
29:35the three white students defied school rules
29:38and headed into town,
29:40walking a mile and a half toward Woolworths.
29:44When we went in, this whole front part of the Woolworth
29:48was full of primarily men, white, angry.
29:56The air was thick.
29:57You could feel it.
29:58And when we went back to the back of the counter,
30:01a lot of the stools were still occupied by white men.
30:06But when they looked back and saw three whites waiting to be seated,
30:11they gave them the seats.
30:13They naturally thought that we had come to support them.
30:17Then when the waitress came up to us and said,
30:20would you like something to eat or drink?
30:23We said, oh, but I think there's somebody here before us
30:26who needs to be served.
30:29Suddenly, everybody realized the position that we had taken
30:33by coming down and joining the sit-ins.
30:36But the young women were committed to stay,
30:38even though they found themselves
30:40in the most threatening situation they'd ever faced.
30:44Anne Dearsley began to sketch images of the other protesters
30:47as she and her classmates were being verbally abused.
30:51Oh, they were angry.
30:53I mean, there were swear words.
30:54There was glaring.
30:55There was pushing up against us.
30:57As closing time neared,
30:59the ladies began to worry about whether they would safely
31:02make it back to school that night.
31:04All of a sudden, the three of us were, at 5.30,
31:09put into a circle of big black guys
31:13who linked arms to make a solid circle,
31:18put us in the middle,
31:21walked up through the aisles and onto the street,
31:26still in the circle.
31:28They said the Lord's Prayer.
31:31A taxi came up.
31:33A door was opened.
31:34We were put into the back of the taxi
31:36and driven back to campus.
31:41By the end of the first week,
31:43it began to be clear to the politicians
31:45and business owners in Greensboro
31:46that these students were not just going to go away.
31:50The authority figures grossly underestimated
31:55our staying ability
31:57and our ability to take on something difficult.
32:01Downtown Greensboro was paralyzed by the protests
32:04and businesses were losing money.
32:08Long, simmering racial tension
32:11had become explosive in Greensboro
32:13and especially at Woolworths.
32:15Although the student protesters remained non-violent,
32:19those who opposed immigration did not.
32:22And the most serious threat was about to come.
32:26On February 6th,
32:28a caller warned that a bomb
32:30had been set inside the Woolworths store.
32:34The store was emptied and immediately closed.
32:39Oddly, according to witnesses,
32:41manager Curly Harris never left the building.
32:45Later the same day,
32:47the A&T students announced
32:48they would halt their protests for two weeks
32:50to try to negotiate a solution.
32:53But the success of the sit-ins in Greensboro
32:56unleashed strong emotions
32:58and empowered students throughout the South
33:00to conduct their own protests.
33:03The sit-ins spread across the South like wildfire.
33:06And people said,
33:08I'm tired.
33:09I'm really tired.
33:11And we cannot take it anymore.
33:13In Nashville,
33:14they had been preparing for sit-ins for months.
33:17Get back, get back, get back.
33:19Holding meetings and workshops,
33:21practicing non-violent resistance.
33:24Go on.
33:25Go on, nigga!
33:28But they hadn't actually had a sit-in yet.
33:31We were ready.
33:33We hadn't planned to start that early.
33:36But because of Greensboro,
33:39it speeded up the moment
33:41and the day that we were started sitting in.
33:45John Lewis and his fellow protesters
33:47targeted several Nashville stores,
33:50including Woolworths.
33:52The police were always close by,
33:54and these officers were less tolerant
33:56than those in Greensboro.
33:59One day, the police didn't show.
34:03Instead, they were met by a gang of white men.
34:11The students were pulled from their seats,
34:14thrown to the floor,
34:16and beaten.
34:24When the police finally arrived,
34:26the white attackers ran,
34:27and none of them were arrested.
34:31The police told the protesters to leave.
34:34We refused to move.
34:37And one by one,
34:39they would touch each one of us on their shoulder.
34:44They said,
34:45you're under arrest.
34:47And they let us out,
34:48started loading us up.
34:5381 students were arrested and charged
34:55with disorderly conduct.
34:57This wouldn't be the last time
34:59the police showed up
35:00after the violence had already taken place.
35:03I said to myself,
35:04what can they do to us now?
35:06They pulled us,
35:08pushed us,
35:10they allowed people to beat us,
35:12and now you arrest us
35:13in charges with disorderly conduct.
35:16But we went to jail
35:17with a sense of pride
35:18and a sense of dignity,
35:21knowing somehow and some way
35:25that we would overcome.
35:27For the first time,
35:30students were leading
35:30the civil rights movement.
35:32In many ways,
35:33they were fearless,
35:35too angry to be afraid.
35:38From Richmond to Atlanta,
35:40they mobilized
35:41and attacked the system of segregation
35:42that their parents
35:43had seemed to accept.
35:46In Greensboro,
35:47the two-week truce
35:48had ended with no resolution,
35:50and the students
35:51stepped up their protests.
35:53Greensboro remained
35:54relatively non-violent.
35:56But with pressure
35:57from the business community
35:58and local politicians,
36:00police did bear down.
36:03Forty-five students
36:04were arrested for trespassing
36:05when they refused
36:06to leave the lunch counter
36:07at S.H. Cress.
36:09Among them,
36:10Ezell Blair Jr.,
36:11one of the original
36:12Greensboro Four.
36:15But getting arrested,
36:16or even beaten,
36:17did not stop them.
36:19And what's really incredible
36:21is the way in which
36:22it kind of lights a fire.
36:24So that within eight weeks,
36:27similar citizens take place
36:28in 54 different cities
36:30in eight different states.
36:32The protests
36:33were not only disrupting business,
36:35but were forcing change
36:36in the culture
36:37of every lunch counter
36:38in the South.
36:39Still,
36:41segregationists
36:41were not giving in.
36:44In some cities,
36:45store owners quickly
36:46closed their lunch counters
36:47rather than let blacks
36:49sit there.
36:50In others,
36:52local authorities
36:52used brute force
36:54to physically remove
36:55the students.
36:58Americans watched
36:59on national television
37:00as young protesters
37:02were brutalized
37:03but still kept their pledge
37:05of nonviolence.
37:07Sympathy and support
37:09for the students
37:09continued to grow.
37:13It's estimated
37:14that 70,000 people
37:16around the country
37:17were taking part
37:18in sit-ins.
37:19There was a sense
37:21of solidarity
37:21and commitment
37:22and morality.
37:25This was not simply
37:26a black protest
37:27but a human rights protest.
37:32By July of 1960,
37:34Woolworths had grown weary
37:36of the bad publicity
37:37and $200,000
37:38in lost income
37:39from its stores.
37:41On July 25, 1960,
37:43America's five and dime
37:45made a historic
37:46and unprecedented
37:47announcement
37:48they would desegregate
37:50all of their lunch counters
37:52nationwide.
37:54The dream of a few young men
37:56became a reality
37:58for millions.
37:59We had the three key ingredients
38:02to make a mass movement
38:04successful.
38:06The first thing you need
38:07is vision.
38:09You need commitment
38:12and that says that
38:13I'm going to go back
38:15the second day
38:16and the third day
38:16and the fourth day.
38:18But more than anything else,
38:21you need a dose
38:22of faith and sacrifice
38:24which says that
38:25I am in this
38:27until I am successful
38:30and I will pay any price
38:33to make it happen.
38:35The first blacks
38:36to eat at the Greensboro-Woolworth
38:38lunch counter
38:38were the store employees.
38:41But not too long after,
38:43Joe McNeil dropped by
38:44to finally get a taste
38:45of what he thought
38:46he had been missing.
38:48And so I went in
38:50and ordered apple pie
38:51and coffee
38:52and made the determination
38:55real quickly
38:55that the apple pie
38:56wasn't very good
38:57and coffee was
38:58at best mediocre
38:59and I probably wouldn't
39:01be coming back.
39:02Come on, put your hands again.
39:04Although the fight
39:05was won in Greensboro,
39:07many cities and towns
39:08in the American South
39:09still had their battles
39:10ahead of them.
39:12And often,
39:14they were brutal.
39:19These stories
39:20made headlines
39:21across America
39:22and throughout the world.
39:25Finally, Congress
39:26began to act.
39:28In 1964,
39:30the Civil Rights Act,
39:31which outlawed
39:32most forms
39:33of racial segregation
39:34was made into law.
39:36A year later,
39:37President Johnson
39:38signed the Voting Rights Act
39:40into law.
39:41It ultimately allowed
39:42millions of Southern blacks
39:44to vote
39:44for the first time.
39:49It's impossible
39:50to tally
39:51the number of beatings
39:52and arrests
39:53that took place
39:54or the number of lives
39:56that were lost
39:57in the fight
39:58for basic human rights.
40:08For 30 years,
40:10the lunch counter
40:11remained open
40:12to all citizens
40:13of Greensboro.
40:15The Greensboro Four
40:16returned often
40:17to celebrate the success
40:18of the sit-in movement.
40:21But 1990
40:22would be the last time
40:24that all four men
40:25sat together
40:26at the lunch counter.
40:30Later that year,
40:31David Richmond died
40:32of cancer.
40:34He was 49 years old.
40:42After the sit-ins,
40:43Greensboro's economy
40:44declined greatly.
40:46Tobacco farming
40:47was fading
40:48from the landscape
40:49and the once powerful
40:51textile industry
40:52began to send its jobs
40:54overseas,
40:55leaving abandoned buildings
40:56and skyrocketing
40:57unemployment rates.
41:01Eventually,
41:01Woolworth's faced
41:02its own downturn,
41:03and after a 118-year run,
41:06America's Five and Dime
41:08announced it was
41:10going out of business.
41:12The Greensboro store
41:13was one of the first
41:14to be slated for closing.
41:17Determined that
41:18its historical significance
41:19should never be forgotten,
41:21local African-American leaders
41:22began an effort
41:23to preserve the building.
41:27In Washington, D.C.,
41:29curators at the Smithsonian's
41:31National Museum of American History
41:33also realized
41:34what would be lost
41:36if the Woolworth store
41:37and its contents
41:38were destroyed,
41:39particularly the lunch counter.
41:42We saw this important
41:44symbolic object
41:45as central to telling
41:47the American experience.
41:50You can look at the lunch counter
41:51as one of the icons
41:53of the modern civil rights movement,
41:56a turning point
41:57when young people
41:59transformed this movement
42:01through direct action.
42:05Today, an eight-foot section
42:07of the counter
42:07is on display
42:08at the National Museum
42:09of American History,
42:10where millions of visitors
42:12can see and be reminded
42:13of the struggle
42:14for civil rights
42:15in this country.
42:16The modern civil rights movement
42:18is an American story.
42:20It's not only an African-American story.
42:23It's a story of the nation
42:25because the entire nation changed
42:27as a result of this movement.
42:31I'm going to sit
42:32at the welcome table.
42:36I'm going to eat
42:38at the Woolworth lunch counter.
42:41I'm going to eat
42:43at that lunch counter
42:44one of these days.
42:45Hallelujah.
42:47I'm going to get
42:48my civil rights
42:50one of these days.
42:54Today, many of the visitors
42:56to the lunch counter
42:56are too young to remember
42:58what happened in Greensboro.
42:59I want you to imagine.
43:00But an historical theater presentation
43:03puts the museum's visitors
43:04right in the middle of a sit-in.
43:07Protesters, as that mob
43:08is closing in around on you,
43:10how will you feel?
43:11Are you determined to be free?
43:13Can you control your fear
43:15and your emotions?
43:17The idea is to take people back
43:20to a period of history
43:22to get them thinking about,
43:23what would I have done
43:24if I was in that situation?
43:28There was a little boy
43:29who was about six years old.
43:31And he said,
43:31my question is,
43:32is this real?
43:37It's hard to explain
43:39how that made me feel.
43:44This is really what the people
43:47in the civil rights movement
43:48were fighting for,
43:50to come to the point
43:51and to the day
43:52when a child could wonder
43:57if things like that
43:58really took place.
44:02Many of the young men
44:03and women who fought
44:04for their seat
44:05at the lunch counter
44:06are still alive today.
44:08And some are being honored
44:10as heroes
44:10for their stand against racism.
44:16Like Martin Luther King Jr.
44:18and Rosa Parks,
44:1950 years after the sit-ins,
44:21the Greensboro Four
44:22had secured
44:23a permanent place
44:24as trailblazers
44:26of the movement.
44:28History is not inevitable.
44:30They didn't know
44:31they were making history
44:32at that time
44:33where they didn't know
44:33how it was going to turn out,
44:35but they knew
44:35they had to take some action
44:36to protest.
44:39In February of 2010,
44:42the surviving members
44:43of the sit-in
44:44returned to Greensboro
44:45for the grand opening
44:47of the International
44:48Civil Rights Center
44:49and Museum,
44:50which now fills
44:51the old Woolworths building.
44:53Many in the city
44:54of Greensboro
44:55waited a long time
44:57for this day to come,
44:58and even the bitter
45:00February cold
45:01wasn't going to stop them
45:02from coming to pay tribute.
45:04The Greensboro Four
45:06proved to a nation
45:07that four committed
45:10and courageous men
45:12working together
45:14could indeed
45:14change the world.
45:16The Greensboro sit-ins
45:18set in motion
45:20possibly one of the most
45:21turbulent decades
45:23in our nation's history.
45:25The actions of four
45:27college freshmen
45:28proved that it only takes
45:31a spark
45:32to start a revolution.
45:34The Greensboro Four
45:35were that spark.
45:37And while inequality
45:39and some forms
45:40of discrimination
45:40still exist in America,
45:43the events triggered
45:45at the Greensboro Woolworths
45:46lunch counter
45:47serve as a reminder
45:49of the power
45:50of individuals
45:52to effect change.
45:54A story
45:55that forever has a place
45:57in the American memory
45:59and will inspire
46:01and will inspire
46:02generations to come.
46:10opportune
46:33to shower
46:33anη¬
46:33and will inspire
46:33has number
46:33and will inspire
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