The International Civil Rights Center & Museum is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Its building formerly housed the Woolworth's, the site of a non-violent protest in the civil rights movement. Four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University started the Greensboro sit-ins at a "whites only" lunch counter on February 1, 1960. The four students were Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond. The next day there were twenty students. The aim of the museum's founders is to ensure that history remembers the actions of the A&T Four, those who joined them in the daily Woolworth's sit-ins, and others around the country who took part in s and in the civil rights movement. The Museum is currently supported by earned admissions and Museum Store revenues. The project also receives donations from private donors as a means of continuing its operations. The museum was founded in 1993 and officially opened its doors just fifty years to the day after the sit-in movements in Greensboro NC.Saving the buildingIn 1993, the Woolworth's downtown Greensboro store, which had been open since 1939, closed, and the company announced plans to tear down the building. Greensboro radio station 102 JAMZ (WJMH), began a petition drive to save the location. Morning radio personality Dr. Michael Lynn broadcast in front of the closed store day and night to save the historic building. Eighteen thousand signatures were gathered on a petition. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr. visited the location, endorsed the effort, and joined the live broadcast. After three days, the F.W. Woolworth company announced an agreement to maintain the location while financing could be arranged to buy the store. (The Woolworth chain went out of business in 1997, a few years later; the company owning the chain became Venator and is now named Foot Locker.)
