International Civil Rights Center & Museum
The preserved Woolworth lunch counter anchors a rigorous account of the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins and the wider strategies, risks, and unfinished work of civil rights organizing.
Artwork inspired by Charles Alston
The preserved Woolworth counter gives physical force to the action of February 1, 1960, when four North Carolina A&T students sat in a whites-only service area and remained after being refused. The museum places that decision within a broader struggle involving planning, student participation, women’s organizing, economic pressure, legal action, and rapidly spreading protest.
Treat the counter as evidence of how segregation operated through ordinary commercial spaces, not merely as an iconic backdrop. Entrances, seats, service patterns, testimony, images, and re-creations expose the routines that enforced racial hierarchy and the discipline required to challenge it. The surrounding galleries also confront racist violence and the unfinished consequences of that system.
- Original site
- 1929 F. W. Woolworth building
- Catalyst
- February 1, 1960 sit-in
- Format
- Scheduled guided or seated tours
Quick guide
- Begin with
- The precise choices made by the four A&T students on February 1, 1960.
- Look beyond
- Trace how a local sit-in became a coordinated regional movement.
Treat the counter as evidence, not a backdrop
- Establish the action
- Learn the sequence of February 1 before entering the restored lunch-counter space.
- Name the network
- Look for Bennett College students, community supporters, organizers, and later participants beyond the Greensboro Four.
- Read the building
- Notice entrances, seating, service areas, and sightlines that once made exclusion routine.
- Prepare for content
- Some galleries contain graphic images of racist violence; adults should review the museum’s guidance before bringing younger children.
Good to know
Photography and recording are prohibited in the galleries, including at the lunch counter. The restriction protects copyrighted exhibition material, so plan to observe rather than document the central experience.