Happy Black History Month 2021

On this day, 61 years ago, four young Black men staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC and refused to leave after being denied service. Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil were students from North Carolina A&T in 1960.

The young men were spurred to action by the brutal 1955 murder of 14 year old, Emmett Till, who was lynched in Mississippi after being falsely accused of winking at a white woman. The Greensboro Four, as they became known, stayed until the store closed and returned the next day with more students from local colleges.

Unlike their white, domestic terrorist counterparts (i.e. 2021’s Capitol Insurrection), peaceful, Black protestors have historically been brutalized and arrested for protesting inequity, disproportionate incarcerations, and unjust murders. It’s an endless cycle of brutality and injustice.

Despite this, sit-ins spread across the nation and young, Black and white people peacefully protested segregation in libraries, hotels, and other establishments. To this day, sadly, Black activists and allies across the country are still having to protest discrimination, inequality, police brutality, and injustice. However, we will not stop until we attain that justice because: No justice? No peace.