sit-ins

Cultural  

1. A form of nonviolent protest, employed during the 1960s in the civil rights movement and later in the movement against the Vietnam War. In a sit-in, demonstrators occupy a place open to the public, such as a racially segregated (see segregation) lunch counter or bus station, and then refuse to leave. Sit-ins were designed to provoke arrest and thereby gain attention for the demonstrators' cause.

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The civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., defended such tactics as sit-ins in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

Example Sentences

In recent years, Mahrang Baloch, a physician in her early 30s who organized sit-ins and marches, became the most prominent female face of peaceful Baloch activism.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026

The movement behind nationwide protests sweeping Morocco, the GenZ 212 youth collective, called Monday for "peaceful sit-ins" to push its demands for reforms.

From Barron's • Oct. 13, 2025

Those organizations energized student movements nationwide through sit-ins and demonstrations and by getting arrested as they fought for civil rights.

From Salon • Apr. 18, 2025

In September 2014, tens of thousands of protesters began to stage mass sit-ins in downtown Hong Kong, demanding fully democratic elections.

From BBC • Nov. 30, 2024

Although less obviously dramatic than the lunch-counter sit-ins, this was early evidence of an equally important shift in the movement.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson