International Civil Rights Center and Museum
In
1993, Melvin Alston and Earl F. Jones, both natives of North Carolina,
co-founded the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro. They state that, "The museum is considered a gift from the citizens of North
Carolina to the nation and the world. We
build this monument for their benefit." Alston and
Jones vision for the center is as follows:
"We seek to memorialize the courageous stand of the Greensboro Four as they launched, for posterity, the sit-in movement on February 1, 1960. We hope that the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, with its focus on the sit-in activities at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960, will inspire the vigilance and fortify the spirit of all oppressed people to step forward in the on-going struggle for human freedom."
Located in the historic 1929 F.W. Woolworth building in Greensboro, N.C., is the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. It honors the devotion the “Greensboro Four” gave towards the international struggle for civil liberties. The museum celebrates the nonviolent protests that occurred in Greensboro in the 1960's. The 30,000 square foot building complex features the original lunch counter and stools that Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin Eugene McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond sat in during the protests, fourteen educational exhibits, a gallery featuring traveling exhibits and space for community meetings, an auditorium, an archival center, an education and an activity center for K-12 students and educators.
The International Civil Rights Center and Museum hope to remind their visitors of the courage the four Greensboro college boys, as well as the thousands of other sit-in participants throughout North Carolina, the South, and around the country, showed during the 1960’s. Their courage led to the desegregation of the lunch counter at not only F.W. Woolworth but across the entire South.
"We seek to memorialize the courageous stand of the Greensboro Four as they launched, for posterity, the sit-in movement on February 1, 1960. We hope that the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, with its focus on the sit-in activities at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960, will inspire the vigilance and fortify the spirit of all oppressed people to step forward in the on-going struggle for human freedom."
Located in the historic 1929 F.W. Woolworth building in Greensboro, N.C., is the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. It honors the devotion the “Greensboro Four” gave towards the international struggle for civil liberties. The museum celebrates the nonviolent protests that occurred in Greensboro in the 1960's. The 30,000 square foot building complex features the original lunch counter and stools that Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin Eugene McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond sat in during the protests, fourteen educational exhibits, a gallery featuring traveling exhibits and space for community meetings, an auditorium, an archival center, an education and an activity center for K-12 students and educators.
The International Civil Rights Center and Museum hope to remind their visitors of the courage the four Greensboro college boys, as well as the thousands of other sit-in participants throughout North Carolina, the South, and around the country, showed during the 1960’s. Their courage led to the desegregation of the lunch counter at not only F.W. Woolworth but across the entire South.
