Paola Velez February 7

th
, 2014
Civil Rights Movement Essay


Choices people make, weather its individually or collectively do shape a society.
For example in The Sit-In Movement, which was a movement that all type of different
people from various groups and races came together to protest and boycott on one thing,
segregation. This movement was effectively mainly in the South after segregation came
to an end up in the Northern countries of the U.S. Sit-Ins was a short way of naming the
tactic of blacks sitting down in area that were assigned for only for whites to sit in.
Students in the southern states fought for segregation to come to an end by
making a lasting impact that did indeed lead for most of the segregation polices to change
permanently. In the year 1959 was when Black college students throughout the South
started to revolutionize about something being done about segregation. Small groups of
students study and debate the strategies and tactics of Nonviolent Resistance (The Sit-
Ins of 1960). Students from different schools met and developed a dream, which was for
segregation to end.
An unplanned Sit-In was the first one that had ever occurred on February 1
st
,
1960. Four Black men in Greensboro NC sat down on only whites seats and had the
courage and audacity to ask for a cup of coffee. The servers refused, no arrests took place
and the four black men sat in the seats until the store closed. They returned the next day
with other followers, same thing happened and the local newspaper and media covered
the story as a second sit-in that happened in Greensboro. Making clear that this Sit-In was
just the beginning.

After another Sit-In was held on February 3
rd
, 1960 with more than 60 students
participating in not only just the action of sitting in but also picket lines and boycotts
that even forced lunch counters to close and reopen. When the public started hearing
about this word got around quickly in the South which then led in July for the national
drugstore chains agree to serve all properly dressed and well behaved people,
regardless of race (The Sit-Ins of 1960). This was an accomplishment of one segregation
policy changed by the students in the South, now lets if there will be more!
The Sit-Ins ran by students from Smith University began on February 9
th
, 1960 in
Charlotte NC. Over 200 students filled all lunch counters in all downtown and on the 12
th

students from Friendship Junior College also did the same in Rock Hill, SC. These two
Sit-Ins in Charlotte and Rock Hill led for most of Charlotte lunch counters and
restaurants accept integration and agree to serve Blacks (The Sit-Ins of 1960). In which
was another major segregation policy changed down South.
In Baltimore Sit-Ins and protests are being formed by the CIG also known as The
Civic Interest Group. They began to picket and sit in at department stores, ice cream
parlors, etc. In which led for both places to desegregate and serve everyone no matter
what race within no time! The more Sit-Ins that happened in the South the more arrests
were being made for people disturbing the peace but those were just short time results.
The perseverance of the students was what eventually led for most of the desegregation
policies to change in the South.



A current world event that is similar to segregation is the outlaw of same-sex
marriage. Denying a right to a human being, forbidding them to marry the person that
they want to marry if they are of the same sex isnt just. In fact denying American
citizens the right of marring the person they want to goes against the first amendment
congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise. Which clearly states that the government is not allowed to make any laws
about regarding religion nor deny a citizen the right of believing what they please to
believe. With this current law, now removed from most states in the U.S, prohibiting
same-sex marriage is a law that goes against two people believing denying the rights for
them to believe in what they believe in. The law also prohibits people from exercising the
practice that they want to in which is a law that segregates the human race.
Same-sex law is pivotal to the Sit-Ins because many humans boycotted against the
same-sex law like they did against racial segregation in the Sit-Ins of the 1960s. As the
results of the Sit-Ins led to policies to change for the good, so did the boycotting against
same-sex marriage in most of the states. Now all racial segregation finally came to a
complete end. In hopes that the law of same-sex marriage will also come to a complete
end, not only throughout the U.S but world-wide.


Work Citied:
The Sit-Ins of 1960.crmvet. Bruce Hartford, n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2014