It wasn't the first sit-in, they had occurred sporadically in 1959 and perhaps earlier but the Greensboro protest caught the mood and the moment. From the Library of Congress:
This began a six-month protest. Smithsonian Magazine has more on the timeline:
"By February 4, African-Americans, mainly students, occupied 63 of the 66 seats at the counter (waitresses sat in the remaining three). Protesters ready to assume their place crowded the aisles."The favorite argument against desegregating the lunch counter was that it was a private company, that it could do what it wanted to do.
Interestingly, this is the same argument heard today regarding the giant internet platforms.
And in an example of "history doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes", the political persuasion of those using the rationale today is often membership in the same party that was making the argument in 1960.
During Black History Month 2021 we'll be looking at various aspects of Black/White relations in America, including slavery, the Civil War, lynchings, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's.
Not for the squeamish.
Tomorrow, The Democrat and Republican Party Platforms of 1856 and 1860.
