Hampton History Museum - Hampton, Virginia

On February 10, 1960 three Black Hampton Institute students staged the first civil rights sit-in in Virginia, protesting racial segregation by sitting at the lunch counter of Hampton’s F.W. Woolworth department store for one hour. The next day, 39 Black students filled the lunch counter’s seats over several hours but were denied service.

July 11, 1960 - The Hampton Woolworth’s store voluntarily integrates its lunch counter after five months of sit-in and march protests by Hampton Institute students and members of the community.

The sit-in movement had begun in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1 and spread throughout the South, especially in college towns. As sit-in protests became more widespread, Virginia legislators passed new “trespass” laws that made it easier for local authorities to arrest peaceful protestors. In spite of this threat, over the next few years Hampton Institute students staged sit-ins at local eateries and theaters.

In summer and fall 1960, some other Hampton businesses followed Woolworths and voluntarily integrated their facilities. Segregation of public accommodations was finally outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Image: Hampton demonstrators at the F.W. Woolworth’s lunch counter, 11 February 1960. From the Daily Press, 12 February 1960.

Find oral histories on the Woolworth’s sit-ins, photos of the Woolworth’s store, and more in our online collections catalog: https://hampton.catalogaccess.com/search...

https://www.virginiahistory.org/.../jim-crow-civil-rights...

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/.../civil-rights-movement/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../lessons-worth.../

https://time.com/3691383/woolworths-sit-in-history/