The Sit-In Movement

On October 19th, 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King and 51 others were arrested in Atlanta for refusing to leave their seats at downtown department store lunch counters. Eight months earlier, four black college students started the sit-in movement in Greensboro, North Carolina, inspiring protests across the country. Sentenced to six months' hard labor, Dr. King was released with help from Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. For more on the Student Sit-In Movement, see: Moments in Civil Rights History - Student Sit-In Organizers Expelled For personal accounts of the Student Sit-In Movement, see: Elaine Turner - A Civil Rights Protester Purnell Steen - Denver's Sit In Movement Frank Smith - We Changed America Rev. William Moore - The Sit-In Movement in Fayetteville, NC