In 1957 Virginia Williams and six other African-Americans sat in the "White Only" side of the Royal Ice Cream Company in Durham. After refusing to leave, they were arrested on trespassing charges.

The sit-in took place nearly three years before the historic Greensboro sit-in on Feb. 1, 1960, at the F.W. Woolworth store which sparked a national civil rights movement.

On Saturday, Feb. 20, Williams and two other participants in 1960 sit-ins in Greensboro and Raleigh will share their stories at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh.

Joining Williams are Dr. Herman Thomas, who organized student sit-ins that occurred in Greensboro after Feb. 1, and Barbara Woodhouse, who was arrested during a student protest at Raleigh's Cameron Village on Feb. 12, 1960.

They will take part in a panel discussion and a question-and-answer session following a screening of the award-winning documentary "February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four."

Rebecca Cerese, filmmaker and producer of "February One," will join the discussion. The program is from 3 to 4:30 p.m., and "February One" chronicles the events of Feb. 1, 1960, when four black freshmen from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina (now North Carolina A&T State University) sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in downtown Greensboro. Their actions served as a blueprint for other nonviolent civil rights protests across the South and the nation.

For more details, call (919) 807-7900 or access ncmuseumofhistory.org or Facebook. The museum is located at 5 E. Edenton St., Raleigh, across from the State Capitol.