Few Realized Significance of Sit-in

              rew Realized Significance
lOf 1960 Sit-Inl
BY DW1GHT F. CUNNINGHAM
Daily News Staff Writer
It was an unseasonably warm day for
the first of February. But on that day 20
years ago — Feb. 1, 1960 — what was
happening at the lunch counter of Wool-
worth's five-and-dime on Greensboro's
downtown South Elm Street was even
more unnatural.
The four young men wanting service
at the counter were Negroes. Everybody
knew that 'coloreds" weren't supposed
to go to a lunch counter for whites only.
David Richmond, Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil and Franklin McCain knew
it too.
As they walked to the store from the
N.C. A&T State College campus where
they were freshmen, they had bolstered
each other's confidence using the ultimate weapon of young blacks of the era:
a dare, a challenge to the other's manhood. Still they were scared. They expected to be arrested.
Before taking seats at the lunch counter, they purchased toothpaste, school
supplies and black polish for their ROTC
shoes. McCain even wore his ROTC uniform. The others wore coats and ties,
standard dress for A&T students in 1960.
At the lunch counter, a chicken salad
club sandwich cost 55 cents, a turkey
dinner a dime more. Blair wanted a cup /C\l
of coffee, which cost a nickel. A white[£/l
waitress said she was sorry, but "we      '
don't served colored here."
"I beg to disagree with you," Blair replied. "You just finished serving me at a
counter only two feet from here."
"Negroes eat on the other end," she
. answered, pointing to the stand-up section of the counter. Blair asked why the
store would let him purchase items at
nine other counters but refuse him service at the tenth. He requested to see
the lunch counter manager, but she was
out of the store. The waitress hurriedly
y walked away; the students remained
jrseated.
The next words they heard were the
scathing remarks of a young black woman, a helper on the steam table: "You're
acting stupid, ignorant! That's why we
can't get anywhere today. You know
you're supposed to eat at the other end.
It's people like you make our race so
bad."
GREENSBORO DAILY NEWS
SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 1980
4$Ei
:E^:tm.
"That was a low blow but we knew
| she was put up to it," Blair said later.
But then encouragement came from
an unexpected quarter and it was to sus-
I tatrrthem thvi rest of the afternoon. Two
I elderly white women walked up to them
I and one said, "I think what you're doing'
1 is right. Keep it up."
Store manager C.L. Harris, when told^
I by a waitress of the sit-in, went imme-
I diately to the police station three blocks
■ away. Police chief Paul Calhoun in-
I formed him police could do nothing un-
lless Harris wanted to file a trespass
I warrant.
Mayor George Roach learned of the
I sit-in shortly afterward from city manag-
I er James Townsend who had been told
I of it by police. Roach's first reaction was
■ to suggest that Harris integrate thej
■ lunch counter. But, Roach said, "Hej
I (Harris) was just adamant, he refused."* ■
In anticipation of the problem years^* I
I earlier, Woolworth's Atlanta regional of-
I fice had instructed the store's employees
I to ignore the protesters and to avoid ar-
I resting its customers. "We were under
I strict orders not to insult them at all,"
I said Rachael Holt, the lunch counter
"They can just sit there; it's nothing
(to me." Harris said.
Chief Calhoun did send a couple of
■ white officers to make sure no trouble
I would develop. The policemen stared at
■ the group, pounding their nightsticks in
(their hands, but nothing was said.
"You could see the anger in their
■ faces," McCain said, "but to us it was
iree of strength." Whatever the po-
llice did, they intended to remain non-
I violent.
/e were convinced that only through
■ non-violence could we accomplish anything," said Richmond. It was, said
(Blair, a "passive resistance" movement.
Outside the store a crowd gather.
|The store closed 15 minutes earlyT
The four walked back to their H
Itory, Scott Hall, with a quiet jubilance,
| and with an idea of what to do next.
"We saw the need to get other people
I involved, and the logical thing was to
■ seek out people with responsible leadership," McNeil said. They spent the evening contacting students in Scott and
ICooper dorms. "I don't think I ate dur-
ling that night, I was so exuberant," said
I Blair.  —
Dean of Men William H. Gamble, who
I resided in Scott Hall, knew before the
I four returned to campus what they hacL-
I done. He had received a telephone ca|"
■ from Woolworth's Raleigh office asking
I his cooperation. "I asked them if Wool-
(worth's had a policy of arresting their
I customers and they said no. So I said
■ they should be served."
Gamble was given responsibility for
■the students' safety by Dr. Warmath T.
iGibbs, president of A&T. He made no
(effort to interfere with them.
There was another aspect of the sit-in
Ion Feb. 1. Local newspapers didn't learn
(about it until after it was over.
The next morning, a half-hour afters"
the store opened, 25 men and four wom/u
en — all black — sat down at the countAjJj
ler. All were mindful of Blair's evening-
I before instructions that this was to be a
■ movement of passive resistance. They
■would not respond violently to any provocation.
A waitress told them they couldn't be m
I served: "It's a store regulation — a cus-1
I torn." Blair answered, "We are planning \
o sit as long as necessary, until we are
I served." Counter manager Holt said she
I realized then integration "was really
■ here to stay; it was just a matter of
I time."
Reporters were there the second day.
I The story was published and broadcast.
I It was transmitted to the wire services
| and national television networks/^T^ ,£* , ■
The students left at 12:30 p.m/O/ U&J I
That night the roles of McNeil, RiclF    -
mond, McCain and Blair changed. They
now became behind-the-scene strategists
and coordinators as the Student Executive Committee for Justice. Buoyed by
a promise of legal assistance fromthe local NAACP, headed by Dr. George
Simkins Jr., they went to Shiloh Baptist
Church, where Blair was a member, to
use the church's mimeograph machine
for an instruction leaflet to other students. "Keep a cool head and we're always sure of being in the right," the j
leaflet advised.