INTERNATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS CENTER & MUSEUM
Our Story
Mission Statement
Animating an iconic landmark recognized across the globe, the International Civil Rights Center & Museum opened in 2010 as a comprehensive museum of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and an innovative educational organization devoted to understanding and advancing civil and human rights in this country and the world. It commemorates the Feb. 1, 1960, beginning of sit-ins at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, by the N.C. A&T Four college students, reflecting careful planning carried out with colleagues at Bennett College. Their non-violent direct action challenged the American People to make good on promises of personal equality and civic inclusion enunciated in the Constitution. The fast-spreading Sit-In Movement ignited by the Greensboro protests served as a historical inflection point, renewing the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. Sit-In Movement, Inc. was founded in 1993 to acquire and restore the F.W. Woolworth's site of these transformative events and to establish the Center and Museum as a monument to the bravery and initiative of visionary young advocates of full citizenship and social justice.
THE N.C. A&T FOUR
From left to right: David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan) and Joseph McNeil.
Experience our permanent galleries with virtual or on-site visits.
Explore the story of the civil rights struggle in the United States as part of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum's permanent galleries, The Battlegrounds. This engaging encounter includes captivating audio/video narratives, pictorial depictions, artifacts, video re-enactments, and interactive components.
"And Still I Rise!"
Included in the museum's permanent galleries is And Still I Rise!, a tribute to an outstanding array of celebrated artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and civic figures who broke racially restrictive barriers during the Jim Crow era.