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Civil Rights Greensboro provides access to archival resources documenting the modern civil rights era in Greensboro, North Carolina, from the 1940s to the early 1980s. During this formative period, Greensboro was an epicenter of activity, continuing a tradition that traces its roots back to the 19th century when members of the area's large Quaker population provided stops on the Underground Railroad.
Greensboro is widely cited as the birthplace of the sit-in movement in America, due to the actions of four North Carolina A&T College students at the Woolworth's lunch counter on February 1, 1960. The city was also the scene of several other history-making events in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, as well as lesser known activities and issues in the struggle for social justice and equal treatment in public accommodations, schools, housing, politics, and employment. Civil Rights Greensboro documents many of these through historical materials such as correspondence, reports, speeches, photographs, newspaper clippings, and oral histories held at five cultural heritage institutions in North Carolina.
In addition to new transcripts created for the project, Civil Rights Greensboro also houses approximately 125 oral history transcripts that formerly comprised the Greensboro VOICES website.
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Explore the community partners and their collections that make up Civil Rights Greensboro, as well as individual people who are represented in these collections.
Browse the collection by indivdual subject areas and read essays that provide context on these areas.
See a timeline of events related to Greensboro's part in the civil rights movement and explore a map showing where some of these events took place.
