On the first of February 1960, four black college students from North Carolina A & T University staged the iconic Greensboro Sit-In in Woolworth’s diner. The simple, yet incredibly brave, protest by these young men sent waves throughout the entire nation, making headline after headline and inspiring countless others to host protests of their own.
It took barely any time at all for Chapel Hill students to follow in their footsteps and challenge the racism blatantly present in their own town and campus. Just three weeks later, a group of black students from the segregated Lincoln High School conducted Chapel Hill’s first sit in at the lunch counter of Colonial Drug on West Franklin Street. The refused to leave when they were denied service and eventually were arrested and charged with trespassing. In response, townspeople relentlessly picketed outside Colonial Drug and other segregated stores and restaurants on the street. Eventually, the Varsity and Carolina Theater were integrated by January of 1961 due to these efforts.
By 1963 the integration efforts had spread through the entire town and university alike, with many student groups, faculty, townspeople, church groups, and community organizations coming together in solidarity against discrimination. Despite large amounts of participation, protesting reamined dangerous and unpleasant. Protesters were often subject to brutality at the hands of business owners, including getting kicked, hit with brooms, and even urinated on. Despite these extreme treatments, the protesters never turned to violence. Despite the fact that the protests remained peaceful at all times, many students and townspeople were still arrested for participating. Many national civil rights leaders looked to Chapel Hill in hopes that it would become the first southern town to fully desegregate its public establishments, and would thus serve as a model for the rest of the country.
In January of 1964, nearly four years after the initial Greensboro Sit-In, protesters organized a “Walk for Freedom” from Durham to Chapel Hill in support of passing a public accommodations ordinance to help integrate the area. Among those who marched were national civil rights leaders James Farmer and Floyd McKissick, and it was met by an anti-civil disobedience protest also organized by students. The Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen narrowly managed to defeat the ordinance. Other protests during this time included an attempt to block traffic after the UNC-Wake Forest basketball game and in March four students participated in a Holy Week fast on the steps of the Franklin Street post office which instigated a major Ku Klux Klan rally in the area.
Throughout the course of the civil rights protests many students and community members served active prison sentences and upon release were court ordered to leave the state. Many business in Chapel Hill remained segregated until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in June of 1964.
Written by Bailey Ingham
References: Integration Sit-Ins