Panel explores UNCG’s participation in 1960 Woolworth sit-in

On Feb. 1, 1960 a major turning point in the Civil Rights movement occurred at the food counter of the Woolworth’s in Downtown Greensboro. Several students from NC A&T, Bennett College and UNCG, then known as Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina—Women’s College for short—participated in a peaceful, “sit-in” demonstration. The act of defiance in the face of the pro-segregation status quo garnered international attention, sharp and visceral controversy and the expulsion of three Women’s College students, easily recognizable in their class jackets on the cover picture of the News & Record.

Fast forward 50 years later to the EUC Auditorium this past Thursday where a panel of speakers lead a discussion entitled ““WC at the Lunch Counter: UNCG’s Involvement in the Sit-In Demonstration of 1960.” The panel, introduced by Dr Lisa Levenstein, an assistant history professor at UNCG, guided the audience of nearly 100 people through the mindsets of five of the Women’s College students as they dealt with the reasons for their actions, their equal and opposite reactions and the adjoining consequences.
“Learning about UNCG is learning a piece of women’s history,” said Levenstein, “and this is important because we often don’t think about women being involved in the biggest events in history. Historians, like myself, who study women’s history are trying to challenge and change that assumption.”

The impact and participation becomes more apparent the more research is done. “Interestingly enough,” said Levenstein, “in the past few days, we’ve hearing from more and more women...about their experiences and finding out that the involvement of UNCG students ran even deeper.”

The event also served to not only evoke the memory of these women’s actions and what they meant to American history as a whole, but to promote several other related events such as a march scheduled for Feb. 3 similar to the path these women took to Woolworths that fateful winter’s day. The commemoration will begin at Guilford Residence Hall at 11:30 with speeches and proceed to Downtown Greensboro noon where the procession will wind up at the brand new civil rights museum that opens this week. The panel also mentioned several times the recent launch of a new website through the UNCG library that tracks the involvement of Greensboro in the Civil Rights Movement. The address to that site is http://library.uncg.edu/dp/crg/.

The event was sponsored by the women and gender studies department, the history department and the office of multicultural affairs.