Sit-In Locations

Students of historically black universities performed mass sit-ins at downtown lunch counters in efforts to integrate the lunch counters. Below are two sites where these sit-ins happened.

Harvey’s Department Store

From 1942 until 1984, Harvey’s Department Store was the largest and most popular department store in downtown Nashville. Students ran test sit-ins on November 28, 1959 at this store. Their counters were desegregated in 1960. A parking lot stands in this building’s old place on Church Street. Read more about it by visiting Historic Nashville’s site.

Woolworth

Exactly two weeks apart, students held two sit-ins in the Woolworth building on Feb. 13, 1960 and Feb. 27, 1960. In the '60s, there were a host of Woolworth buildings on the southeast coast of the nation. All of which were hosting sit-ins. Woolworth’s location in Nashville was on Fifth Avenue, where the old Dollar General used to be. Read more about it at the NPS site.
 
To read more about the sit-ins, visit the links below:
 
http://www.tn4me.org/article.cfm/a_id/115/minor_id/31/major_id/11/era_id/8
 
http://crdl.usg.edu/events/sit_ins_nashville_tn/?Welcome