Throughout history, students have played a crucial role in the progression of the Civil Rights Movement. Sit-ins, one of the most prominent forms of student protests, involved organized groups of people going to “White Only” spaces in order to call out the failed promises of equality.
Even though the students who participated in the sit-ins were young and still in school, their actions exemplify the fact that anyone can take part in protests to make a change, regardless of their age.
The most well-known of these sit-ins took place in Greensboro, North Carolina. In February 1960, four Black college freshmen entered a white-only lunch counter at Woolworth’s and endured the resulting harassment in protest. The sit-in movement inspired other Black college students across the American South to also take part, forcing over 100 lunch counters to desegregate by April.
With over 50,000 students taking part in these peaceful protests, communities and businesses were forced to confront the injustice, and contributed to the momentum in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The birth of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an organization that led fights against segregation through grassroots movements, is another testament to the role of student protests in the Civil Rights Movement.
Thousands of Black voters across Southern states were successfully registered through SNCC’s continuous organized protests, finally giving representation to citizens whose voices had long been forced shut.
Student campaigning has been invaluable to the Black Civil Rights movement, playing an important role in both current and future civil rights advocacy.