DEMONSTRATIONS AND SIT-INS 

"A spokesman for the Committee on Racial Equality explained the picket line around the Woolworth's store at 5th street and Washington boulevard, as another effort to get the store's manager to discuss ending its policy of refusing service to Negroes at its lunch counter. The demonstration began Saturday after repeated efforts to contact the manager met with the 'runaround.'

"The current Woolworth project fits into an overall plan to challenge and break jim crow in downtown eating places, the CORE spokesman said. Two sit-ins, a familiar tactic of CORE's non-violent approach were staged in the store during December of last year."
--St. Louis Argus, February 3, 1950

In May of 1950, the St. Louis chapter of CORE expanded its campaign by boycotting branch outlets of the national chain located in African-American neighborhoods. Under pressure from unrelenting boycotts, demonstrations, and sit-ins, store managers agreed to desegregate the downtown Woolworth's lunch counter in 1953. That same year, lunch counters at the Greyhound Bus Terminal and Sears and Roebucks were also opened to customers of all races for the first time.

CORE demonstrators shift their focus back to department stores