162 sit in
"In a sit-in the interventionists occupy certain facilities by sitting on available chairs, stools and occasionally on the floor for a limited or unlimited period, either in a single act or in a series of acts, with the objective of disrupting the normal pattern of activities. The purpose may be to establish a new pattern, such as opening particular facilities to previously excluded persons, or to make a protest which may not be directly connected with the facilities occupied. This method has often been used in the civil rights movement in the United States."...
High scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Peace activists pledge resistance against U.S. military intervention in Central America, 1984-1990
In the early 1980s, it was no secret that United States president Ronald Reagan would use any means necessary to end or prevent the influence of Communism and the Soviet Union around the globe. The two countries had been engaged in a bitter ideologic...
Yemenis oust Saleh regime (Yemen Revolution), 2011-2012
In January 2011, in the wake of the Tunisian revolution and in the midst of the Egyptian revolution, Yemeni students and youth began a yearlong revolution to oust the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh, president for the past thirty years. This revolution ...
University of Massachusetts students win fossil fuel divestment, 2012-2016
Divest UMass – a group of concerned students – started the UMass Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign to fight for climate justice through demanding divestment by the UMass Foundation from fossil fuel companies and promoting reinvestment of funds into pro...
University of Miami janitors campaign for economic justice, 2005-2006
In 2006, non-unionized janitors at the University of Miami earned as little as $6.40 an hour and received no health insurance. Demanding higher wages and better working conditions, these janitors of mostly Haitian and Cuban descent began a campaign a...
Brightlingsea residents end the exportation of live animals through their town (Battle of Brightlingsea), 1995
The exportation of live animals had been a subject of great debate in Britain during the early 1990’s. Britain’s harbors were being utilized to transport live sheep, cattle, and veal calves across Europe, but there were few laws protecting the rights...
British citizens protest apartheid South African sports tours (Stop the Seventy Tour), 1969-1970
The world voiced its opposition to the National Party’s apartheid government ruling in South Africa in a new way in 1964. International sports tours and matches had become a focal point of cultural identity for whites in South Africa. Victories, to t...
British win repeal of Poll Tax (flat tax), 1989-1990
Margaret Thatcher was reelected for her third term in 1987. One of the changes she promised to implement was to levy a flat tax that she called a “Community Charge,” although it became popularly known as the poll tax. A flat tax means that everybody,...
British students force end of Barclays Bank’s investments in South African Apartheid 1969-1987
Apartheid was a legal and political system of racial segregation in South Africa in which the National Party used violence to uphold political and economic control by the white minority. Apartheid began under colonial Dutch rule and was officially in...
University of Michigan students campaign against sweatshops, 1999
In response to other universities’ anti-sweatshop protests, students at the University of Michigan formed SOLE, Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality. Their goal was for the University of Michigan to require companies that made clothing...
Chicago parents stage occupation to acquire a library for local school, 2010
Pilson, Chicago is home to a large community of Mexican immigrants, and is one of many low-income neighborhoods in Chicago with underfunded schools. In 2011, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) faced a deficit of around $712 million in funding for education...
Low scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
African Americans sit-in against segregation at Royal Ice Cream Parlor in Durham, N.C., 1957
In the 1950’s, Durham North Carolina was like most cities in the South: hot and segregated. At the time, the civil rights movement was already polarizing the nation, with the Montgomery bus boycotts in 1955 bringing to prominence such names as Martin...
Toronto hippies campaign for street closure, Canada, 1967
In 1967 Yorkville Village, Toronto was a neighborhood inhabited by many aspiring artists, hippies, greasers, bikers, youth, and others looking to embrace the counter culture lifestyle. This lifestyle attracted many youth who travelled from all across...
Montgomery, Alabama students sit-in for U.S. Civil Rights, 1960
The Montgomery, Alabama sit-ins took place during the era of Jim Crow laws in the southern United States. The first of the Supreme Court rulings against these laws – which are symbolized by the phrase “Separate but Equal” – took place in 1954, in the...
Gazans March for the Right to Return to Their Homes, 2018-2019
From 30 March 2018 to 26 December 2019, Gazans protested at the Israeli border every Friday for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and land that they had been displaced from since 1948. This series of demonstrations is known n...
Hong Kong citizens demand democratic safeguards for upcoming election (Umbrella Movement), 2014
Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has spent the last several centuries under the control of alternating powers. In 1942, Britain began its occupation of Hong Kong, following the First Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking. Japan occu...
British prison inmates strike to oppose new system of control, Full Sutton prison, 1995
At the start of November in the year 1995, a new system was instated in the correctional institution of Full Sutton, located near York in New Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Over the few months before November changes to the system had begun to surface. T...
US Students Campaign to Stop Dow Chemical Company From Manufacturing Napalm (1967-1969)
The United States first used Napalm as an incendiary device in Japan during WWII. It melted flesh and produced horrific wounds. Napalm once again took on a functional role for the US in Vietnam, and the government requested bids from chemical manufac...
Indian villagers protest Tehri Dam construction, 2001-2002
In 1990, the Indian government and Tehri Hydro Power Corporation began planning to dam the Bhagirati River at the Himalayan foothill town of Tehri in Uttar Pradesh. Plans indicated that it would be the fourth largest dam in the world. Damming the riv...
Jamaican workers protest sale of Air Jamaica to Caribbean Airlines, 2010
In January 2010, it became clear that the Jamaican government sought to sell Air Jamaica to a foreign company. The government and the owners of Air Jamaica saw the company as losing a lot of money and, due to heavy subsidizing, the government had a g...
Notre Dame University students fight for campus workers' rights, 2005-2008
Students at University of Notre Dame started a living wage campaign at their school in September 2005 after learning about similar campaigns happening at Harvard University and Georgetown University. A living wage was defined as a family of four bein...