Qualla: Greensboro, North Carolina

Greensboro, North Carolina: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mx._Granger, CC0. Just after four-thirty on the afternoon of February 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College walked into a Woolworth's at 132 South Elm Street, bought toothpaste and a few other items, then sat down at the lunch counter and asked for coffee. They were told the counter did not serve Black people. They did not leave. They sat until closing. They came back the next day with more students. Within a week the protest had spread across the South. Within months, lunch counters at Woolworth's and other chains were desegregating. The original counter still sits in the building, now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. A section of it is on display at the Smithsonian in Washington.

Image: Mx._Granger | CC0

Greensboro, North Carolina: A Town Planned Around a Courthouse

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Greensboro was laid out in 1808 around a central courthouse square to succeed Guilford Court House as the seat of Guilford County. The location was chosen for being closer to the geographical center of the county, more easily reached on horseback or on foot. Before the colonists ...

Image: Public domain

Greensboro, North Carolina: The Confederacy's Last Capital

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Warren LeMay from Cullowhee, NC, United States, CC0. Greensboro played an outsized and unexpected role in the final days of the Civil War. As Union forces threatened Danville, Virginia, in April 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet escaped by train and reassembled in Greensboro on April 11. While there, they ...

Image: Warren LeMay from Cullowhee, NC, United States | CC0

Greensboro, North Carolina: The Sit-Ins

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit dbking from Washington, DC, CC BY 2.0. On February 1, 1960, the four men known to history as the Greensboro Four - Ezell Blair Jr. (later Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond - asked for coffee at Woolworth's lunch counter and were refused. They sat anyway. They had receipts in their poc...

Image: dbking from Washington, DC | CC BY 2.0

Greensboro, North Carolina: The Greensboro Massacre

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Warren LeMay from Cullowhee, NC, United States, CC0. On November 3, 1979, members of the Communist Workers' Party held an anti-Klan rally at the corner of Carver Drive and Everitt Street in the predominantly Black Morningside Homes neighborhood. Two cars carrying Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis arrived. After a brief confrontat...

Image: Warren LeMay from Cullowhee, NC, United States | CC0

Greensboro, North Carolina: The Triad's Third City

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Willthacheerleader18, CC BY-SA 4.0. Greensboro is now the third-largest city in North Carolina, with about 307,000 people in 2024. It anchors the Piedmont Triad, which holds about 1.7 million. Three interstates - I-40, I-85, and I-73 - converge here, making the city a national logistics hub. FedEx opened its mid-At...

Image: Willthacheerleader18 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Greensboro, North Carolina: Quiet Excellence

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ptncsu12, CC BY-SA 3.0. The cultural list is long for a city this size. The Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts opened in November 2021 with 3,023 seats. The Greensboro Science Center includes a zoo, aquarium, and planetarium. Blandwood Mansion, completed in 1795 and renovated in 1846 with addi...

Image: Ptncsu12 | CC BY-SA 3.0