Woolworth’s counter (Greensboro, N.C. and Washington D.C.)

Now: The old store has been transformed into the International Civil Rights Center & Museum – and the section of lunch counter and stools where those four students sat remains in its original location.

Visitors can see exactly how the counter looked in 1960. Another portion of the counter is on display at the Smithsonian, “so anyone on the local level or the national level will understand the role of Greensboro’s imprint on the ideals of equality, social justice and freedom in America,” says Bamidele Demerson, the museum’s executive director.

On the outside walls of the 30,000-square-foot museum, “we still have the F.W. Woolworth letters,” Demerson added. Inside, original terrazzo floors remain but now share space with exhibits that recount the six-month sit-in.

Photo: A section of the Woolworth’s lunch counter from Greensboro, N.C., where the sit-ins began, is part of an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.