Whites Only.

In February 1960 a group of black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, refused to leave a whites-only lunch counter at which they were denied service. Their demonstration began the sit-in movement, a series of peaceful protests that brought renewed national attention to the injustices of the segregated South and eventually forced the federal government to protect the rights of African-Americans actively. Over several weeks the strategy spread to dozens of southern cities and towns; students from local colleges sat quietly for hours, studying or sometimes reading Bibles, while white employees refused to serve them. The students occupied all the seats at the counter and left only when it closed (which was often early, thanks to the protests). Frequently local townspeople shouted insults. and threats, and in Nashville, Tennessee, the protesters were physically attacked. When the Nashville police arrived, the students, not...