Spotlight to shine on sit-in participants

              Greensboro, N.C, Monday, Jan. 29, 1990
Spotlight to shine on sit-in participants
By JIM SCHLOSSER
Staff Writer
Heads turn as the thin, bearded man enters the
Woolworth Store on South Elm Street in
Greensboro. Ima Edwards, the lunch counter
manager who first saw the man 30 years ago, greets
him with a hug.
A few customers leave their coffee mugs to come
shake his hand. A young woman seated at the
counter is baffled about the man's identity. Someone
whispers to her.
"Oh, really," she exclaims, impressed.
David Richmond is sitting down again at the
Woolworth lunch counter. He asks for coffee. This
time the service is quick and gracious.
Exactly 30 years ago this Thursday, Richmond
and three fellow freshmen at N.C. A&T State
University climbed onto stools there and were
denied service. A white waitress asked if they
would please go to the colored stand-up counter
across the way.
No, we won't, the four replied politely. They sat.
And made history. Soon, lunch counter sit-ins to rid
restaurants of discrimination were taking place
throughout the South.
Now, Richmond gets VIP treatment when he
■ Sit-in anniversary schedule — A4
occasionally stops by Woolworth for coffee.
"None whatsoever," Richmond says when asked if
any hard feelings linger.
"It was just an accepted policy at the time," he
says of segregation. "All the stores downtown were
doing it. I commend Woolworth for being first to
end it. All the other stores later followed."
The Woolworth quartet — Richmond, Franklin
McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan) and
Joseph McNeil — are national civil rights heroes.
McCain, Blair and Richmond had known each
other at Greensboro's Dudley High School, and they
wound up at A&T together, where they met
McNeil, from Wilmington.
Richmond is the only one who has remained in
Greensboro. McCain lives in Charlotte, McNeil in
New York and Blair in Massachusetts.
They stay In touch and get together for sit-in
anniversaries. This week, the biggest reunion yet —
the 30th — takes place. The four will attend
banquets and a concert, hear speeches and sit in
(See Sit-ins, A4)
Scott Hoffmann/News & Record
Sit-in participant David Richmond talks about his
experiences at the Woolworth lunch counter
Greensboro News & Record, Monday, January 29, 1990
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