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During the 1980's, there were a lot of things to protest. From civil rights to anti-war movements, the people of the US were trying to be heard. Although many African Americans didn't get the same rights as the Jim Crow laws, a set of laws designed to oppress black men, they were still very much in effect and wouldn't be overturned until this time period with the 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Acts. During these times, a popular way to protest was "sit-ins.”.

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A non-violent way of protesting was "sit-ins." Originally started on February 1, 1960, by four African American students of a college town in North Carolina,. Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain, and David Richmond all went to Woolworth dinner and all sat in the designated white seats. When asked to leave, they refused and stayed there for an hour until it was time to close.

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This protest was seen as a success as they were able to sit there till the restaurant closed and there was no violence on either side. Something we will see change as this way of protesting gets more popular. News of these four students spread locally throughout the town, and by the next morning, over a dozen students, including students from a neighborhood school, participated.

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By the end of the second day, the protest had caught the attention of media outlets. The next day, over 300 students came to support the protest, and “the Student Executive Committee for Justice to Coordinate Protests” was created. Martin Luther King praised these students' “electrifying movement of Negro students [that] shattered the placid surface of campuses and communities across the South.” Sit-in protests started popping up all over the country.

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The hardest part of a peaceful protest is being peaceful, even when the other party is not. Starting with the arrest on January 31, 1961, at Rockyhill, in South Carolina, when 10 students were asked to leave and refused, all ten were arrested. And then later in Greensboro, a crowd of white men came into a dinner with protesters and proceeded to spit on their faces, throw food at them, and verbally and physically abuse them.

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An important theme that made these protests so popular was the fact that they were taking the moral high ground. Because they were just sitting, it allowed a lot of people to join in, as not much was needed to participate except for time. It also allowed for sympathy for the inhumanity of segregation.

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The protest also caused businesses that were segregating to lose a to lose a lot of money. This protest caused disruption in the restaurants, making people want to leave or not go at all because of the altercations. This protest also brought to light what this business was doing, and people started to boycott them. The civil rights trail website states, “Woolworth’s in Greensboro lost a reported $200,000 due to boycotts.”

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This all began with four students and a few hours. In the end, it was one of the biggest movements that helped push civil rights in the right direction. I want to persuade my audience never to stop or give up. We are the future, and that's why they try to oppress us. We are showing the world what we want and that we are going to obtain it no matter what. We are all going to be in charge one day, and I think that scares them. That we are not going to continue their ideology.

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Sit-ins. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. (n.d.). https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/sit-ins

The sit-in movement takes a stand. US Civil Rights Trail. (2023, March 10). https://civilrightstrail.com/experience/student-led-sit-ins-across-the-south-lead-to-desegregated-businesses/