Lunch at Woolworths

Feb. 1, 1960, began as an ordinary day in Greensboro, N.C., except that four students at North Carolina’s Agricultural and Technical College began something extraordinary. The four original protesters were Ezell Blair, Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond.

These Black College freshmen walked into F. W. Woolworth’s, sat at the 'Whites Only' lunch counter, and ordered food. They were refused service, but stayed until closing.

Another set of students returned the next day, and another the next, as increasingly large numbers joined the protest. By day four, three white female students from a neighboring school joined in. By day five, more than 300 demonstrators showed up.

Woolworth’s responded with half-hearted offers of concession.

Dissatisfied, the students continued their sit-in.

The city of Greensboro responded with stricter segregation laws, and 45 students were arrested and charged with trespassing.

This only fueled the protests, as students launched massive boycotts of segregated lunch counters across the city. Store revenues fell sharply, and storeowners were ultimately forced to give in.

Six months after that fateful February day, something else extraordinary happened. Those same four freshmen returned to Woolworth’s and were served lunch.

Successful student lunch counter protests took place in cities North and South across the nation, leading to integration in many stores even before the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Though the Greensboro sit-ins had been temporarily discontinued, the idea had spread to other students across the state.

Sit-ins occurred in the North Carolina cities of Winston-Salem, Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte, Fayetteville, High Point, Elizabeth City and Concord.

On February 10, Hampton, Virginia became the first city outside of North Carolina to experience a sit-in, and by the end of the month, sit-ins had occurred in more than thirty communities in seven states. By the end of April, sit-ins had reached every southern state and attracted a total of perhaps as many as 50,000 students.

Most of these sit-ins were characterized by strict discipline on the part of the protesters, minimizing physical assaults. However, several outbreaks of violence occurred when the protests involved high school students. The first of such events took place February 16, 1960, when hundreds of black and white high school students fought each other after a sit-in.

These sit-ins thrust black student leaders into the spotlight, a position for which they were often unprepared.

Thus, Ella Baker, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, wanted to bring sit-in protesters together for a conference "to share experience gained in recent protest demonstrations and to help chart future goals for effective action," according to the letter she sent to black student leaders, and from this, SNCC was born.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC (pronounced "snick"), was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh two months later to coordinate these sit-ins, support their leaders, and publicize their activities.

Over the next decade, civil rights activism moved beyond lunch counter sit-ins. In this violently changing political climate, SNCC struggled to define its purpose as it fought white oppression. Out of SNCC came some of today's black leaders, such as former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis and NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Together with hundreds of other students, they left a lasting impact on American history.

In 1966, when John Lewis was replaced by Stokely Carmichael as chairman. This event marks a decided change in philosophy for SNCC, and one that warrants an equal amount of attention. However, we have focused on the first six years of the movement, in order to adequately explore such events as sit-ins, the Freedom Rides and Freedom Summer.

David Leinail Richmond: Born in Greensboro and graduated from Dudley High School. At A&T, he majored in business administration and accounting. After leaving A&T, he became a counselor-coordinator for the CETA program in Greensboro. He lived in the mountain community of Franklin for nine years, then returned to Greensboro to take care of his parents and work as a housekeeping porter for Greensboro Health Care Center. In 1980, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce awarded him the Levi Coffin Award for "leadership in human rights, human relations, and human resources development in Greensboro." He was married and divorced twice and has two children with Yvonne Bryson. His son, Chip Richmond, was a starter on the football team at Wake Forest University.

Richmond died of lung cancer on Dec. 7, 1990. He was 49 years old. A&T awarded him a posthumous honorary doctorate degree.

Jibreel Khazan (Ezell Blair Jr.): A Greensboro native, he graduated from Dudley High School and received a B.S. in sociology from North Carolina A&T State University in 1963. While a student at A&T, Khazan was president of the junior class, the student government association, the campus NAACP and the Greensboro Congress for Racial Equality. He attended law school at Howard University for almost a year. He became a member of the New England Islamic Center in 1968 and took on his present name.

Khazan works with developmentally disabled people for the CETA program in New Bedford, Mass. He also has worked with the AFL/CIO Trade Council in Boston and the Opportunities Industrialization Center and at the Rodman Job Corps Center. He is married to the former Lorraine France George of New Bedford. They have three children, one of whom graduated from A&T.

Franklin Eugene McCain: He was born in Union County, and reared in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Eastern High School in Washington. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry and biology from North Carolina A&T State University in 1964. While he was an A&T student, he roomed with David Richmond -- another of the original sit-in participants -- and around the corner from Ezell Blair Jr. and Joseph McNeil on the second floor of Scott Hall.

He joined the Celanese Corporation in Charlotte in 1965 as a chemist and now heads the company's office in Shelby, while continuing to live in Charlotte. He is married to the former Bettye Davis. They have three sons.

Joseph Alfred McNeil: A Wilmington native, he graduated from Williston Senior High School. McNeil earned a degree in engineering physics from North Carolina A&T State University in 1963. His roommate at Scott Hall on the A&T campus was another sit-in participant, Ezell Blair Jr. McNeil spent six years as a U.S. Air Force officer and attained the rank of captain. He is now a major general in the Air Force Reserves. He worked in computer sales for IBM, as a commercial banker for Bankers Trust in New York City, and as a stock broker for E.F. Hutton in Fayetteville. He now resides in Hempstead, N.Y. He is married to the former Ina Brown, and they have five children.