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The article discusses the impact of two 1943 lunch counter sit-ins in Chicago, Illinois on the course of the much larger African American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and '60s. The author argues that the Civil Rights movement's origins lie within African Americans' struggles against de facto segregation in the Northern states, as opposed to the more traditional belief that the movement began in the Southern states. The important role played by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in the sit-ins is explained. The author notes that activists involved in these sit-ins, including James Farmer and James Peck, would later organize sit-ins in Southern establishments, including the 1960 Woolworth's sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina.