The Civil rights movement occurred from 1954-1968. The goal of this movement was to end discrimination in public places. The Civil rights movement gained a lot of momentum during this time which led to the protests. It started with four African American students who walked up to an all-whites lunch counter and asked for coffee. All they did was sit and wait quietly to be served at a restaurant. The customers and workers would get upset and threaten them. Fights would break out and they would have terrible things done to them like get spit on or have food thrown at them.

The four African American students who started the sit-in protests were the known as the “Greensboro Boys." Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond. They were all attending North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College. They came together inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and his nonviolent ideas. Even though the Civil Rights movement was becoming more and more dangerous, they wanted to make a difference. Their plan was to sit in seats at Woolworth, ask to be served, then when they got refused service, they would just sit there and not leave. The plan was simple yet effective. If it wasn’t for those boys courage, the results of silent protests would not have been as successful.

During this time the segregation between the black community and the white, was extremely bad. Because of the way they were protesting, they were being harassed and couldn’t do anything about it. Many were also arrested for trespassing/disturbing the peace in places they were protesting.

It was easy to overcome these difficulties because they had a huge support system. After the Greensboro Boys, many young black and white students joined the movement. Eventually the movement made it on television which made the message spread quickly.

Sit-ins had a huge impact on the civil rights movement. These silent protests desegregated public places. They made equal rights and services possible for white and black. Today, because of sit-ins, African Americans do not get denied service. People still use silent protesting today to express themselves. A recent event that has upset many people is our new president. There have many silent protests against him. People do it to share their opinion by not exercising violence.