INTERNATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS CENTER & MUSEUM

The International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro opened its doors in 2010 in the very building where the events that set America on fire from February 1, 1960 took place. On that day, 4 black students (David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and Joseph McNeil) decided to break segregationist laws and sit at the counter of the Woolworth restaurant in the white area. The sit-ins that followed in Greensboro and many cities in the United States led Woolworth to change his segregationist policy, with the implication that this would have on other segregationist laws still in force. The four young people, quickly nicknamed the A&T Four (the 4 from North Carolina A&T State University) or Greensboro Four (the 4 from Greensboro), are still heroes more than 55 years later. The museum is an archive and teaching centre dedicated to the international struggle for civil and human rights. Among the various galleries that allow you to immerse yourself in the violence of those dark years, the Woolworth dining room is on the program of the visit. The counter and stools where the four students sat on February ¹, 1960 were never moved from their original location. Emotion and questioning are here to be found. Namely that the inauguration of the museum took place exactly 50 years to the day after the events.