The February 1960 sit-in at a Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s spurred a national movement of civil disobedience by students seeking equal rights. Demonstrations spread to Raleigh where targeted protest sites included establishments within the Cameron Village shopping center. On February 12, forty-one students were arrested for refusing to disperse from the sidewalk in front of the Woolworth’s store at the shopping center and two others were arrested at a protest downtown, the largest civil rights mass arrest up to that point in the growing sit-in movement. Charged with trespassing on the center’s private sidewalks, the students were initially found guilty. On appeal, charges were dismissed based on an earlier Supreme Court ruling concerning free speech and the limits of private property rights. This activism is credited as helping spur the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on Raleigh’s Shaw University campus in April of that year.
Hanbury Preservation Consulting worked with the friends of Oberlin Village and shopping center management and prepared an application for a marker as part of the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail sponsored by the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission and the Pomeroy Foundation. The marker was dedicated in April 2023 with former students in attendance and a presentation and exhibit at the nearby Oberlin Branch of the Wake County libraries.