1960

1960

The Sit-In Movement and MLK’s ‘A Creative Protest’

Three years after the Royal Seven sit-in, four black students from North Carolina A&T State University demonstrated non-violent direct action by sitting down at the lunch counter at F.W. Woolworth’s in Greensboro, NC. While it was not the first sit- in, it played a significant role in the movement. Just a few days later, in his Durham speech, Dr. King affirmed the students’ efforts and encouraged others to do likewise. Two weeks after the start of the Greensboro sit-ins in 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his speech titled, “A Creative Protest” at White Rock Baptist Church in Durham, NC. Participants estimate that close to a thousand individuals attended the speech including congregation members, community leaders and students from Duke University’s Divinity School.