Sit-Ins In The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement After four long, bloody years of fighting in the Civil War, slavery was abolished in the States with the help of President Abraham Lincoln. In the South, however, many white people were unhappy with this new decree and dejected it. As the result, the Jim Crow Laws were put into place and stated everyone was “separate but equal.” The Jim Crow Laws separated the “colored” from the whites in everything from where they lived, to where they ate and went to school, and even which drinking fountain one could use to drink out of. Racial discrimination occurred even after slavery was eradicated under the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution (Tougas 12-13). African Americans in the South felt as if it was very unfair and

A sit-in is the act of sitting at one area with others for a long period of time in order to publicize an issue. Sit-ins became very popular in the early 1960’s because they were another way for the African American people to express their feeling against racial discrimination (George 109). The very first sit-in occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina at F.W. Woolworth’s lunch counter. When four college freshmen were denied a coffee because of their skin color, Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond sat quietly at a table in the store for multiple days in a row. This new act of protesting spread rapidly across the nation, starting “the sit-in phase” (Uschan

The police became very violent, using clubs and whips and even releasing tear gas. Other policemen on horseback stomped on others who had fallen to the ground. Many marchers retreated, but others had fatal injuries. More than ninety people were rushed to the nearest hospitals (George 102). News of this incident spread across the nation as it appeared on news broadcasts and in newspapers. Many were appalled by the police’s actions. President Johnson took immediate action by pushing to pass the voting rights bill (George