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On February 1, 1960, four young students told the world that they had enough. They walked into the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter for “whites only” and sat down. The 50th anniversary of that the sit-in movement will be the grand opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The centerpiece of the Museum will be the historic lunch counter and the original stools where four students (Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, David Richmond and Joseph McNeil) sat down in nonviolent protest.
The Museum is housed in the original 1929 F.W. Woolworth retail store in downtown Greensboro, N.C., which was saved from destruction by the Museum’s co-founders, Melvin “Skip” Alston and Earl Jones.
The Museum’s exhibit space will span two floors and cover 30,000 square feet. A blend of educational exhibits, period artifacts and state-of-the-art technology will be featured. The Museum will also highlight key contributors in the civil rights movement and celebrate the impact of the sit-in movement on civil and human rights issues throughout the world.
The original portion of the lunch counter and stools where the four students sat has never been moved from its original footprint, while the remaining section has been restored and returned to its 1960 location.
The authentic backsplash, massive cash register, food service equipment, place settings, service utensils, signage and other elements remain to create a realistic 1960 lunch counter experience for Museum visitors, says Amelia Parker, executive director of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.
The building has been meticulously restored and reflects many of the architectural details from the original F.W. Woolworth retail store including the terrazzo floors, intricate moldings and even the signature “Woolworth” gold lettering that graces the exterior of the building.
In addition to the exhibits, the facility is a “collecting museum” featuring period artifacts that reflect some of the most notable names, places, events and achievements of the civil rights movement.
On display will be such items as:
• A bus seat, circa 1950, signed by Rosa Parks
• An authentic wooden slave auction sign
• Green Book, a circa 1950 travel directive to identify “safe houses” and establishments that would service African Americans
• A medical bag used by Dr. George Evans, the first African-American physician allowed to practice medicine in what had been an all-white Greensboro hospital
• The official uniform once worn by Capt. Harvey Alexander, member of the first graduating class fromthe Tuskegee Air Corps
• A travel typewriter used by anti-segregationalist Ralph McGill, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Comments
The circumstances of those days are so outrageous there must be people alive today who have trouble believing them. Prejudice and mindless hatred were taken for granted. The good news is there has been improvement -- not enough, but certainly in the right direction.
Museums keep our history fresh so that we can remember all of it - even the not so pleasant parts. We were able to visit the Brown vs. Board of Education museum in Topeka Kansas. The images at any museum last but especially these museums.
It is really important that this place has been saved to tell the history. I remember visiting Southern states in the days of "Colored" and "White" signs and other such awful things which people seemed to think were normal. We need to remember.
HOW CAN GREENSBORO JUSTIFY ALL OF THE STREET AND SIDEWALK CLEANING FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM TO OPENING AND PEOPLE CANT GET TO WORK BECAUSE THEIR STREETS ARE STILL SNOW COVERED.IT SOUNDS A LITTLE PREDJUDICE TO US.
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