The Greensboro Four (pic courtesy of the museum)
February is Black History Month. We’re celebrating in North Carolina with the grand opening of a new $24M museum in the original Woolworth’s building in Greensboro where four brave young college students made a decision that changed the face of our nation forever. It was in 1960 that these four students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter to protest the shameful Jim Crowe segregation laws that were in existence at that time. The peaceful protest lasted for months and the four were joined by hundreds of other students and supporters in Woolworths across the south until finally, the management of Woolworths had to cave (because the sit-in was costing them business). The International Civil Rights Center & Museum is a monument to this historic occasion —the original lunch counter is preserved with a multi-media simulation of the event screened behind the counter—and strives to educate its visitors about the struggle for Civil Rights in the USA, what it felt like to be discriminated against, who was key in the movement for change, and why we need to never forget the horrible hate-filled incidents that African Americans suffered. The museum is a gorgeous renovation of the original Woolworth’s building in downtown Greensboro on Elm Street. The narrow gallery corridors were designed to make one feel the confining restrictive nature that the Jim Crowe laws placed on African Americans. It is a successful design that suits the feng shui intention of the message of the museum. Hopefully this historic museum will reinforce the city of Greensboro’s positive feng shui as we still have a long way to go towards equal rights for all people in America.
