International Civil Rights Center and Museum
Museum Logo
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 Location in North Carolina
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| Established | 2010 |
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| Location | 134 S. Elm Street Greensboro, North Carolina, 27401 USA 336.274.9199 |
| Coordinates | 36°04′18″N 79°47′25″W / 36.071706°N 79.790405°W |
| Type | Civil Rights |
| Visitors | 0 |
| Director | Bamidele Demerson |
| Website | www |
The International Civil Rights Center & Museum (ICRCM) is in Greensboro, North Carolina. Its building formerly housed the Woolworth's, the site of a non-violent protest in the U.S. civil rights movement. Four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T) 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. (now Jibreel Khazan); and David Richmond. The next day there were twenty. The aim of the museum's founders is to ensure that history remembers the actions of the Greensboro Four, those who joined them in the daily Woolworth's sit-ins, and others around the country who took part in sit-ins and in the American civil rights movement. The project received substantial donations from the state, city, and county as well as private donors. The museum opened fifty years to the day after the sit-ins.
In 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.)
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