Sociology Department Travels to Greensboro

On September 30th, Concord University’s Sociology Department visited Greensboro, North Carolina. They visited two museums: the Greensboro Historical Museum and the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. Their visit to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum during this field trip is especially relevant considering the prevalence and importance of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

    Their day started on Concord’s Athens campus. Once in Greensboro, the first museum taught students the rich history of Greensboro. From early Native American history to current history, including the facts of local manufacturing, students were immersed in the facts of Greensboro. 

    According to the museum’s website, http://greensborohistory.org/about-us, “The museum celebrates Greensboro’s local culture and the city’s prominent place in American history. Collections document the many different nationalities and people who impacted the county’s history: Native Americans, Germans, African Americans, Quakers and Scots-Irish. Archives and artifacts relate to the lives of prominent Guilford County residents, such as David Caldwell, First Lady Dolley Madison, Governor John Motley Morehead, author O. Henry and educator Charles Henry Moore.”

    The website goes on to say  that the museum is, “For students, for families, for researchers, for everyone opportunities to study events in colonial Guilford County, the Civil War, the roots of the Civil Rights Movement, and the rise of textile manufacturing in the South. With more than 17,000 square feet of stories, the Greensboro Historical Museum is bigger and better, making it the place to learn about Greensboro.” 

    But the International Civil Rights Center and Museum was a completely unparalleled experience. Its powerful content moved students and faculty alike. The museum features Authentic Ku Klux Klan uniforms, Rebel flags, segregation propaganda, and more. The largest artifact of that time is the authentic unmodified Woolworth lunch counter that hosted the first peaceful protest sit in by four N.C. A&T freshmen. Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond on February 1, 1960 sat down at the “whites only” lunch counter and ignited America’s sit-in and peaceful protest movement that continues even now. 

    According to their website, https://www.sitinmovement.org/founders/index.asp, “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.”

    They go on to state their mission, “The International Civil Rights Center and Museum seeks to ensure that the world never forgets the courage displayed by four young North Carolina A&T State College students, on February 1, 1960, and the hundreds and thousands of college and community youth in Greensboro, in the South and around the country who joined them in the days and weeks that followed which led to the desegregation of the Woolworth lunch counter and ultimately to the smashing of the despicable segregation system in the southern United States.”

    They continue saying, “The International Civil Rights Center and Museum seeks to preserve the legacy and the significance of that event by demonstrating why, in the current context, such inherently evil, institutionalized oppression has no place in the human race. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum exists as a testimony to courage and the potential of unified people on the right side of history to make change. The International Civil Rights Center and Museum will be a gift from the citizens of North Carolina to the nation and the world. We build this monument for their benefit.”