Exhibiting Dilemmas by Amy Henderson

Author:Amy Henderson [Henderson, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58834-551-6
Publisher: Smithsonian
Published: 2016-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

To understand why the Woolworth lunch counter, it is important to know the history, symbolic value, and significance of this object, as well as its place in the struggle for racial equality in America. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights movement challenged the country to live up to its ideals of racial equality, citizenship, and democracy. It dared America to become a nation with equal justice for all. The Civil Rights movement struggled to end discrimination and segregation and to gain equal access to voting rights, education, and public facilities. Led by African Americans, thousands sustained the movement through individual acts of moral and physical courage and collective acts of defiance. It was this atmosphere that inspired four African American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College to confront the F. W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960.

By 1960, the F. W. Woolworth Company possessed over two thousand stores and accumulated nearly $2 billion in annual sales. While most Woolworth stores treated their African American customers as equals, the company allowed their southern stores to abide by local custom. What this meant in practice was that in the South, including the Greensboro store, African Americans were not allowed to sit down at the lunch counter. Blacks could purchase food, but only from the seatless takeout area. The lunch counter in the Greensboro store was more than just a place to eat while shopping; it symbolized to both white and black southerners the segregated world that existed throughout large portions of the United States. For whites, the segregated lunch counter reinforced notions of power and racial superiority. For African Americans, the counter was a constant reminder of their second-class status and their vulnerability.

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