Final answer:
Some coffee shops at the turn of the century refused to serve African Americans due to segregation laws. Protests such as the Greensboro sit-ins were crucial in the civil rights movement against racial discrimination.
Step-by-step explanation:
At the turn of the century, some coffee shops, particularly in the United States during the era of segregation, refused to serve African American individuals. This was due to rigid race-based segregation laws and social norms that persisted, especially in the South, which were infamously known as 'Jim Crow' laws. The refusal to serve often led to peaceful protests such as sit-ins, which were part of a broader civil rights movement to challenge and overturn systemic racial discrimination.
Notably, the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960 are a prime example of these protests, where four African American college students sat at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter, leading to a pivotal moment in the fight for equal rights.