Sit-ins and Freedom Rides: Students Take the Lead

On 1 February 1960, four Black students from North Carolina A&T sat down at the whites-only lunch counter of a Woolworth's store in Greensboro and asked to be served. Within weeks, sit-ins spread to dozens of cities, with students trained in nonviolence enduring insults and assaults without striking back. In April 1960, with guidance from organizer Ella Baker, students founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which emphasized grassroots, group-centred leadership.

In May 1961 the Congress of Racial Equality launched Freedom Rides, sending integrated groups on interstate buses to test a Supreme Court ruling against segregated bus terminals. Riders were attacked in Alabama, and a bus was firebombed near Anniston, but new volunteers kept coming. In September 1961 the Interstate Commerce Commission issued rules banning segregation in interstate travel facilities. These campaigns showed that young people, using disciplined direct action, could force national attention and federal action.