On this day, February 22, in 1879

F.W. Woolworth opened his very fist five-&-dime store in Utica, New York. As the Woolworth Company spread, the stores began to incorporate lunch counters, serving food and drinks to the public. In the South, segregated Woolworth lunch counters became very significant in the Civil Rights Movement. The Greensboro Sit-In in 1960, which took place at a Woolworth lunch counter, ignited a huge movement of Sit-Ins and Boycotts all over the South.