On July 26, 1960, a group of black youths sat at the lunch counter in Woolworth's, a chain department store once located at this site, to protest the store's all-white policy for lunch counter service. The demonstration took place the day after Spartanburg City Council passed a proclamation against sit-ins. The sit-in at the Spartanburg Woolworth's initiated a series of civil rights protests in Spartanburg throughout the week, including further sit-ins at Woolworth's and Kress's lunch counters.