--- description: LIFE.com presents a gallery of photos from a series of protests and sit-ins in Petersburg, Virginia, in May 1960. title: Civil Rights: Photos From Sit-ins and Protest Training Sessions, 1960 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ca34e97c3cf1bb4/69876f76cd68480c07098b0c/life-and-civil-rights-anatomy-of-a-protest-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Civil Rights](/tag/civil-rights/) ## Civil Rights Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # LIFE and Civil Rights: Anatomy of a Protest, Virginia, 1960 by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 31, 2013 6:30 PM CUT  Caption from LIFE. "Smoke Test, one of the harassments sit-ins have met 'on the firing line,' as students call demonstrations, is administered to Virginius Thornton. His tormentors are David Gunter, an N.A.A.C.P.-student adviser (left), Leroy Hill, high school teacher." In other words: Thornton is having smoke blown in his face by his friends in order to practice keeping his cool and not reacting to provocation during his upcoming lunch-counter protest. Caption from LIFE. "Smoke Test, one of the harassments sit-ins have met 'on the firing line,' as students call demonstrations, is administered to Virginius Thornton. His tormentors are David Gunter, an N.A.A.C.P.-student adviser (left), Leroy Hill, high school teacher." In other words: Thornton is having smoke blown in his face by his friends in order to practice keeping his cool and not reacting to provocation during his upcoming lunch-counter protest.Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 31, 2013 6:30 PM CUT Very few non-violent civil disobedience tactics of the late 1950s and early 1960s were as brilliantly simple in conception and as effective in execution as the sit-ins that rocked cities and towns from Texas and Oklahoma to Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and beyond. Some sit-ins — at lunch counters, state houses and other public and private venues — were more confrontational than others; some lasted longer than others; some were more high-profile than others. But all of them required a certain kind of courage (Hemingway’s phrase, “grace under pressure,” comes readily to mind in this context) and a communal willingness to sacrifice that were hallmarks of the Civil Rights Movement in America from the very first. Here, LIFE.com presents a gallery of photos — many of which never ran in LIFE magazine — from a series of protests and sit-ins in Petersburg, Virgina, in May 1960, and from a broader-themed planning conference sponsored by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian leadership Council at Atlanta University earlier that month. The pictures, by LIFE’s Howard Sochurek — a Princeton grad, Neiman Fellow at Harvard and WWII Army vet — capture one small but significant exemplar of the sit-in phenomenon, as well as some of the unusual training methods that potential sitters-in endured before taking to the streets and to the seats. In notes sent to LIFE’s editors in New York from the magazine’s Washington, DC, bureau in May 1960, the sit-in movement’s activities in Virginia were dubbed the “Second Siege of Petersburg” — a tongue-in-cheek reference to the famous siege of the town and nearby Richmond between June 1864 and April 1865 during the Civil War. The “siege” metaphor, meanwhile, takes on a peculiar resonance in those notes — for example, in a quote from a newspaper publisher in Petersburg, George Lewis, who told LIFE: “I’m against integration. The mood of Petersburg definitely is for segregation. The Negroes are pushing too hard and the whole pace is too fast. Petersburg is not ready for integrated lunch counters. If they integrate them, the whites will boycott. But things are changing slowly. Ten years ago we couldn’t have printed a Negro picture in the paper. The whites wouldn’t have stood for it. Now we print them when they’re in the news. It’s a mark of the progress here. But the Negroes are pushing too hard. They’ve created an explosive situation here in Petersburg.” Describing a key element of that “explosive situation” — the sit-ins by activists at various lunch counters in town — LIFE wrote in its September 19, 1960, issue (published a full four months after the events described): --- > “” ---  Caption from LIFE. "Smoke Test, one of the harassments sit-ins have met 'on the firing line,' as students call demonstrations, is administered to Virginius Thornton. His tormentors are David Gunter, an N.A.A.C.P.-student adviser (left), Leroy Hill, high school teacher." In other words: Thornton is having smoke blown in his face by his friends in order to practice keeping his cool and not reacting to provocation during his upcoming lunch-counter protest. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Stand-Up Sit-In is conducted by Negro students behind chain and 'Reserved' sign setting off white lunch counter at Kresge's at Petersburg, Va. Store used chain to keep the Negroes from sitting down." Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Lunch counter, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Training for sit-in harassment, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Preparing for non-violent civil disobedience, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Training for sit-in harassment, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Preparing for non-violent civil disobedience, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Picket Polka given by the Petersburg Improvement Association, provides some fun for the sit-ins." Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Preparing for non-violent civil disobedience, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rev. Martin Luther King, Virginia, 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Crowd at a speech by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Virginia, 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (seated) during a gathering prior to non-violent civil disobedience, Virginia, 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Civil rights protest, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Civil rights protest, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "With stately gesture and backward stride, student leaders wave demonstrators on." Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Civil rights protest, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Civil rights protest, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Student leader Virginius Thornton speaks to a women's group, the Colored Women's Federation of Petersburg, at one of the member's homes, Petersburg, Va., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists during a civil rights strategy and planning conference at Atlanta University in mid-May, 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and future Washington, DC, mayor Marion Barry during a civil rights strategy and planning conference at Atlanta University in mid-May, 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with young activists -- including future Washington, DC, mayor Marion Barry, lower right -- during a civil rights strategy and planning conference at Atlanta University in mid-May, 1960\. (For others' names, see caption for the picture that ran in LIFE -- slide #29.) Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 1960. Howard Sochurek—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  LIFE magazine, September 19, 1960\. NOTE: Best viewed in "full screen" mode. See button at right. LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, September 19, 1960\. NOTE: Best viewed in "full screen" mode. See button at right. LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, September 19, 1960\. NOTE: Best viewed in "full screen" mode. See button at right. LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, September 19, 1960\. NOTE: Best viewed in "full screen" mode. See button at right. 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