This iconic image is of a group of African American students at the lunch counter of a Woolworth store in North Carolina. They were refused service but did not leave the counter. This type of nonviolent demonstration spread to other U.S. cities and remained peaceful on the part of the students. The students were often verbally and sometimes physically abused during these demonstrations, but they had the effect of forcing integration in many businesses.
Ronald Martin, Robert Patterson, and Mark Martin stage sit-down strike after being refused service at an F.W. Woolworth luncheon counter, Greensboro, N.C. 1960.
Copyprint.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division.
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-114749 (9-9)
Courtesy of CORBIS