Greene County Democrat

Tag: Franklin McCain

  • Newswire : Joseph McNeil, one of four college students who sparked sit-in protest movement, has died

     The participants after leaving the Woolworth’s by a side exit. (L-R): David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and Joseph McNeil. (No photographers were allowed into the Woolworth’s during this first protest.) © Corbis

    Joseph McNeil, one of four college students who sparked sit-in protest movement, has died

    By Blackmansstreet Today

    Joseph McNeil, one of four North Carolina college students who sat in at the Whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter 65 years ago, sparking a nonviolent civil rights movement across the South, died Thursday. He was 83.

    McNeil was just 17 years old at the time, but he participated in a simple act of defiance that helped ignite the sit-in movement across the country at Woolworth’s lunch counter back in 1960. 

    On the sit-in’s first day, the four young men stayed until the store closed. 
    The photo above captures them leaving the store.

    More protesters joined the next day and days following, leading to at least 1,000 by the fifth day. Within weeks, sit-ins were launched in more than 50 cities in nine states. The Woolworth’s counter in Greensboro — about 75 miles west of Raleigh — was desegregated within six months.

    McNeil was one of the final two living members of the A&T Four; Jibreel Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair Jr.) is now the only survivor. David Richmond passed away in 1990, and Franklin McCain died in 2014. 

    McNeil was born in Wilmington, N.C. In 1963, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering physics from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program. He served on active duty as a KC-135 navigator at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., until 1969. 

    He retired as a major general from the U.S. Air Force in 2000.

  • Newswire : Let’s remember the heroes of the Greensboro Sit-ins on its 60th Anniversary

    By Dr. Raquel Y. Wilson

    Greensboro students sit-in at Greensboro lunch counter


    On Feb 1, 1960, four African American college students from the North Carolina A&T State University quietly sat down at the whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina and ordered coffee. It was a planned move by the four students, designed to attract media attention to the issue of segregation. Denied service, as was the custom in those dark days, the four continued to peacefully occupy their seats and refused to leave until the store closed that night.
    The peaceful protest inspired others to join in for daily protests. By Feb 5, 300 students were present at the store. On Saturday, February 6, over 1,400 North Carolina A&T students met in the Harrison Auditorium on campus. They voted to continue the protests and went to the Woolworth store, filling up the store.
    During the sit-ins, white customers heckled the black students. North Carolina’s official chaplain of the Ku Klux Klan, George Dorsett, as well as other members of the Klan, were present.
    The brave freshmen from NCA&T, who would later be adorned with the iconic label of the “Greensboro Four”, consisted of David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and Ezell Blair Jr. (Jibreel Khazan).
    The sit-ins soon spread to nearby towns and other Southern cities. Sales at the boycotted stores dropped by a third, leading Woolworth to abandon segregation policies; the dining area in most stores were desegregated after July 25, 1960.
    The Greensboro sit-in was not the first such event, but it catalyzed a much larger nonviolent sit-in movement across the country, which played a definitive role in the fight for civil rights. In its wake, segregation of public places became illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
    The Woolworth Department Store in Greensboro was subsequently converted into the International Civil Rights Center and Museum (Woolworth went out of business in 1997). The street south of the building is named February One Place.
    Today, the site of the Woolworth store where the sit-in took place is now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.