The Counter That Went to the Smithsonian

When the Greensboro Woolworth closed in nineteen ninety-three, there was a question no one had thought to settle in advance: what happens to the counter?

The lunch counter that sat-in participants had occupied for five months in nineteen sixty was still in the building, intact, the original structure. After extensive negotiations between Woolworth executives and representatives of the Greensboro community, a decision was reached. An eight-foot section, with four stools still attached, would be removed.

That section now lives at the National Museum of American History in Washington as part of the permanent exhibition. Four stools are displayed there; part of the Greensboro museum's lunch counter went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in two thousand sixteen. The remaining portion of the original counter stayed in Greensboro. When the International Civil Rights Center and Museum opened in the old Woolworth building in two thousand ten, it preserved what was left in place, in the room where it happened.

So there are now two versions of the counter in two cities. The Smithsonian section is the piece that went to the nation. The Greensboro section is the piece that stayed where the history was made. Neither is the whole story. Both are necessary.