# Sit-in movement

The sit-in movement, sit-in campaign, or 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 to come. 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

| Start date | Sit-in(s) | Location |
| August 21, 1939 | Alexandria Library sit-in | Alexandria, Virginia |
| 1943 | Chicago | Chicago, Illinois |
| July 1948 | Des Moines Katz Drugstore protests | Des Moines, Iowa |
| 1953 | Baltimore | Baltimore, Maryland |
| 1954 | Dresden | Dresden, Ontario, Canada |
| January 20, 1955 | Read's Drug Store | Baltimore, Maryland |
| June 23, 1957 | Royal Ice Cream sit-in | Durham, North Carolina |
| July 19, 1958 | Dockum Drug Store sit-in | Wichita, Kansas |
| August 19, 1958 | Katz Drug Store sit-in | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma |
| 1959 | Miami | Miami, Florida |

### Beginning with Greensboro sit-ins

| Start date (1960) | Sit-in(s) | University or College students | State |
| February 1 | Greensboro sit-ins | North Carolina A&T State University | North Carolina |
| February 8 | Durham | North Carolina College | North Carolina |
| February 8 | Fayetteville | Fayetteville State Teachers College | North Carolina |
| February 8 | Winston-Salem | Winston-Salem Teachers College | North Carolina |
| February 9 | Charlotte | Johnson C. Smith University | North Carolina |
| February 9 | Concord | Barber–Scotia College | North Carolina |
| February 9 | Elizabeth City | Elizabeth City State Teachers College | North Carolina |
| February 9 | Henderson | | North Carolina |
| February 9 | High Point | | North Carolina |
| February 10 | Raleigh | Saint Augustine's College | North Carolina |
| February 10 | Raleigh | Shaw University | North Carolina |
| February 11 | Hampton | Hampton University | Virginia |
| February 11 | Portsmouth | | Virginia |
| February 11 | High Point | William Penn High School | North Carolina |
| February 12 | Rock Hill | Clinton Junior College | South Carolina |
| February 12 | Norfolk | | Virginia |
| February 13 | Nashville sit-ins | Fisk University | Tennessee |
| February 13 | Tallahassee | Florida A&M University | Florida |
| February 13 | Tallahassee | Florida State University | Florida |
| February 14 | Sumter | Morris College | South Carolina |
| February 16 | Salisbury | Livingstone College | North Carolina |
| February 17 | Chapel Hill | | North Carolina |
| February 18 | Charleston | | South Carolina |
| February 18 | Shelby | | North Carolina |
| February 19 | Chattanooga | | Tennessee |
| February 20 | Richmond | Virginia Union University | Virginia |
| February 22 | Baltimore | Coppin State Teachers College | Maryland |
| February 22 | Frankfort | State Normal School for Colored Persons | Kentucky |
| February 25 | Montgomery | Alabama State College | Alabama |
| February 25 | Orangeburg | Claflin College | South Carolina |
| February 26 | Lexington | | Kentucky |
| February 26 | Petersburg | Virginia State College | Virginia |
| February 26 | Tuskegee | Tuskegee Institute | Alabama |
| February 27 | Tampa | | Florida |
| March 2 | Columbia | Allen University | South Carolina |
| March 2 | Columbia | Benedict College | South Carolina |
| March 2 | Daytona Beach | Bethune–Cookman College | Florida |
| March 2 | St. Petersburg | | Florida |
| March 4 | Houston | Texas Southern University | Texas |
| March 4 | Miami | Florida Memorial College | Florida |
| March 7 | Knoxville | Knoxville College | Tennessee |
| March 8 | New Orleans | Dillard University | Louisiana |
| March 8 | New Orleans | Southern University | Louisiana |
| March 10 | Little Rock | Arkansas Baptist College | Arkansas |
| March 11 | Austin | Huston–Tillotson College | Texas |
| March 11 | Galveston | | Texas |
| March 12 | Jacksonville | Edward Waters College | Florida |
| March 13 | San Antonio | | Texas |
| March 15 | Atlanta sit-ins | Clark College | Georgia |
| March 15 | Atlanta sit-ins | Morehouse College | Georgia |
| March 15 | Atlanta sit-ins | Morris Brown College | Georgia |
| March 15 | Atlanta sit-ins | Spelman College | Georgia |
| March 15 | Orangeburg | South Carolina State University | South Carolina |
| March 15 | Orangeburg | Claflin College | South Carolina |
| March 15 | Corpus Christi | | Texas |
| March 15 | St. Augustine | | Florida |
| March 15 | Statesville | | North Carolina |
| March 16 | Savannah | Savannah State College | Georgia |
| March 17 | New Bern | | North Carolina |
| March 19 | Memphis | Owen Junior College | Tennessee |
| March 19 | Wilmington | | North Carolina |
| March 19 | Arlington | | Virginia |
| March 26 | Lynchburg | Randolph-Macon Woman's College; Lynchburg College; and Virginia Theological Seminary and College | Virginia |
| March 28 | Baton Rouge | Southern University | Louisiana |
| March 28 | New Orleans | Xavier University | Louisiana |
| March 29 | Marshall | Wiley College | Texas |
| March 31 | Birmingham | Wenonah State Technical Institute | Alabama |
| March 31 | Birmingham | Miles College | Alabama |
| April 2 | Danville | | Virginia |
| April 4 | Darlington | | South Carolina |
| April 9 | Augusta | Paine College | Georgia |
| April 12 | Norfolk | Virginia State College (Norfolk Division) | Virginia |
| April 17 | Biloxi | | Mississippi |
| April 23 | Starkville | | Mississippi |
| April 24 | Charleston | Burke High School | South Carolina |
| April 28 | Dallas | Paul Quinn College | Texas |
| June 17 | Baltimore | | Maryland |

### Related post-1960 sit-ins

| Date | Sit-in(s) | Location |
| September 11, 1960 | El Charro Mexican Restaurant | Flagstaff, Arizona |
| January 31, 1961 | Rock Hill | South Carolina |
| 1962 | | Sewanee, Tennessee |
| May 28, 1963 | Woolworth's | Jackson, Mississippi |
| March 7, 1964 | Audubon Regional Library | Clinton, Louisiana |