Protesters to return to Greensb
to mark start of civil rights sit-in
The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C, Sun., January 27,1985
Original protesters Joseph McNeil, left, and Franklin McCain, in glasses, on 2nd day of prote
... Seated with them were Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson, far right
By ANN GREEN
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO — The scene is
| as ordinary as a piece of apple pie
- a slice of weekday living that
I could be cut from any Southern
[ city.
Just before noon downtown on
I South Elm Street, black customers enter the F.W. Woolworth Co.
store and take their places at the
lunch counter. They sit next to
I whites.'peel off their coats and
I order grilled cheese sandwiches
| or quarter-pound burgers.
They are served promptly by
waitresses wearing badges that
proclaim, "Customers First!"
Many of the customers, both
white and black, do not know that
25 years ago, on Feb. 1,1960, four
young blacks from North Carolina
A&T University did something
extraordinary at that counter.
They took seats at the Wool-
worth's counter and launched a
lunch-counter sit-in movement in
the South that eventually broke
barriers to blacks and whites
eating together.
On that day, Franklin D.
McCain, Joseph McNeil, David L.
Richmond and Ezell A. Blair Jr.
walked downtown after their last
class of the day at A&T, entered I
the Woolworth store, purchased I
school supplies, then moved to the |
counter, open only to whites.
They asked simply to be treated I
like the whites at that counter, to I
be served coffee and doughnuts. [
They were told that they would |
not be served and were asked b
leave. They refused. ;
At one point that afternoon a
the early darkness of winter de-1
scended and the store prepared to I
close, a policeman paced behind 1
them, slapping a billy club against I
See PROTESTERS, t
Protesters to return to Greensb
to mark start of civil rights sit-in
The News and Observer, Raleigh, N.C, Sun., January 27,1985
Original protesters Joseph McNeil, left, and Franklin McCain, in glasses, on 2nd day of prote
... Seated with them were Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson, far right
By ANN GREEN
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO — The scene is
| as ordinary as a piece of apple pie
- a slice of weekday living that
I could be cut from any Southern
[ city.
Just before noon downtown on
I South Elm Street, black customers enter the F.W. Woolworth Co.
store and take their places at the
lunch counter. They sit next to
I whites.'peel off their coats and
I order grilled cheese sandwiches
| or quarter-pound burgers.
They are served promptly by
waitresses wearing badges that
proclaim, "Customers First!"
Many of the customers, both
white and black, do not know that
25 years ago, on Feb. 1,1960, four
young blacks from North Carolina
A&T University did something
extraordinary at that counter.
They took seats at the Wool-
worth's counter and launched a
lunch-counter sit-in movement in
the South that eventually broke
barriers to blacks and whites
eating together.
On that day, Franklin D.
McCain, Joseph McNeil, David L.
Richmond and Ezell A. Blair Jr.
walked downtown after their last
class of the day at A&T, entered I
the Woolworth store, purchased I
school supplies, then moved to the |
counter, open only to whites.
They asked simply to be treated I
like the whites at that counter, to I
be served coffee and doughnuts. [
They were told that they would |
not be served and were asked b
leave. They refused. ;
At one point that afternoon a
the early darkness of winter de-1
scended and the store prepared to I
close, a policeman paced behind 1
them, slapping a billy club against I
See PROTESTERS, t
