In this silent WSB newsfilm clip from February 1960, local residents in Greensboro, North Carolina react to the recent lunch counter sit-ins at the Woolworth's store.

The clip quality is poor at the beginning. A white man appears to talk to an African American young man. A sign, propped up near a storefront, warns of a coming race riot. Another sign, tapped to the side of a vehicle, declares, "The colored invasion harms all races" and invites viewers to join in fighting "this menace." The clip ends with several white and African American men talking to one another.

On February 1, 1960, four African American students at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat at the lunch counter at the Woolworth's store and refused to leave when they were denied service. This sit-in sparked other lunch counter sit-ins around the state and eventually around the country. Many younger civil rights activists responded enthusiastically to the nonviolent, direct action tactics embodied in the sit-ins. In response to the surge of student activism, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) hosted a student conference in April at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina; during this meeting, the participants formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC played a central roll in the Civil Rights movement for the next several years. By the fall of 1961, every Southern and border state had experienced sit-ins, with over one hundred communities effected and over seventy thousand individuals arrested throughout the country.

Title supplied by cataloger.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for digital conversion and description of the WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection.

1 clip (about 1 min.): black-and-white, silent ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WSB-TV newsfilm collection.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of response to the African American civil rights demonstrations in Greensboro, North Carolina, 1960 February, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 0747, 45:09/46:25, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

Forms part of: Civil Rights Digital Library.