The Nashville Sit-ins of 1960 were among the most important events of the Civil Rights Movement. Over a period of several months, college students from Fisk University and other schools staged a very well-organized, non-violent protest at downtown lunch counters. The protests caught the city's white establishment off-guard and culminated in the mayor agreeing to end segregation of lunch counters while facing thousands of protestors gathered on the steps of City Hall and the eyes of the nation watching. It was just the first step in ending segregation in all facets of life throughout the city and it inspired similar movements throughout the South.