Greensboro is a city in northern North Carolina and also seat of Guilford County, near Winston-Salem and High Point; the three cities are actually known collectively as the Piedmont Triad. It's a commercial, manufacturing, and distribution center for the surrounding agricultural area and also a headquarters for the insurance industry. The primary economic activity is the production of cotton textiles. Some other manufactures comprise of microchips, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, electrical machinery, tobacco products, and constructing materials. The city is served by Piedmont Triad International Airport.
Greensboro is home to Guilford College (1837), Greensboro College (1838), Bennett College (1873), a campus (founded around 1891) of the University of North Carolina, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (1891), and a junior college. Tourist attractions include the Greensboro Historical Museum, the Greensboro Arboretum, the Natural Science Center, and Blandwood Mansion-built in the late 1700s and also the former home of North Carolina Governor John Motley Morehead. The Weatherspoon Art Gallery, on the University of North Carolina campus, has an extensive collection of modern art. The nearby Guilford Courthouse National Military Park celebrates a battle in 1781 during the American Revolution that resulted in the British forces abandoning the Carolinas. The Eastern Music Festival is held each summer at Guilford College.
Greensboro was established and incorporated as being a town in 1808 after state legislators determined a much more centralized seat of government was needed for Guilford County. It is named honoring General Nathanael Greene, who led the United States forces at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. City incorporation took place in 1870. Dolley Madison, wife of U.S. President James Madison; O. Henry, the short-story writer; and Edward R. Murrow, journalist, were born in the area. Around 1960 four black college students sat at a whites-only lunch counter in downtown Greensboro, beginning a nationwide non-violent "sit-in" movement to protest racial discrimination (see Civil Rights Movement in the United States). In the 1990s the city began a revitalization program of its historical downtown business district.
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