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 The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is located at the old Woolworth building in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. This is the exact site where the historic lunch counter sit-ins took place from February 1 through July 26 in 1960. There are very few places where you can go and experience real history but at this old five and dime store, that is being converted into an education center and museum, you can sit at the actual stools where the four young men sat. Plans are underway to preserve as much as possible of the original counter. There are already four stools and a piece of the counter on permanent display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington D.C. as well as the Greensboro Historic Museum. A Brief History of how the museum came to be: In 1993, Guilford County Commissioner Melvin “Skip” Alston and Greensboro City Councilman Earl F. Jones founded Sit-In Movement, Inc. as a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization to raise funds to purchase the Woolworth’s building to renovate and convert the building into a museum to honor the events of February 1, 1960. An annual International Civil Rights Museum banquet helped the organization raise $2.2 million over an eight-year period. Honored guests at the banquet have included Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., the Martin Luther King Family, Maya Lou Angelou, U.S. Congressman John Lewis, Vernon Jordan, Julius Chambers, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Justice Robert L. Carter and U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters. In 2001 Sit-In Movement, Inc. formed a partnership with North Carolina A&T University to accelerate the development of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. NC A&T Chancellor James C. Renick, Ph.D and Obrie Smith, president of the NC A&T University Foundation, Inc. joined the organization’s board of directors and A&T Vice Chancellor David Hoard was named Chief Executive Officer. Proposed Blueprints: Four major planned exhibits will be included in the International Civil Rights Center & Museum that will be housed in the seventy one year old Woolworth’s building located on South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. At present, four final construction plans are being considered. The layout presented here is an early rendition and is not necessarily indicative of the final plan.  Click here or on picture to enlarge
The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is located at: Sit-In Movement , Inc. Phone: (336) 274-9199 |
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