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( C2 Greonsboro Ns»s tte^u,^, December a,, ,989 30 years later, Woolworth sit-ins to be remembered »By JIM SCHLOSSER Staff Writer February is hardly a prime vacation month, but David Richmond already has penciled in the first week to be away from his supervisory job at Greensboro Health Care Center. Part of his vacation is going to be spent drinking orange juice at a lunch counter in downtown Greensboro. It's going to be a lot easier this time than 30 years ago. On Feb. 1, 1960, Richmond was one of four black N.C. A&T State University freshmen who climbed onto stools at Woolworth's whites- only lunch counter on South Elm Street and demanded service. The lunch counter manager said no. The store manager said no. The students also said no. No, we won't leave. A movement thus began. In the weeks ahead, lunch counter sit-ins would take place throughout the South, inspired by the actions of Richmond and his fellow students Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil. From Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, Greensboro will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Woolworth sit-in. One of the highlights will be the unveiling of a plaque outside the store and the implanting in the sidewalk — Hollywood style — bronze footprints of the four former A&T students. Some nationally known names, such as commentator and writer Hodding Carter and Barbara Reynolds of USA TODAY, will participate, along with citizens who played key roles in the Greensboro civil rights movement of the 1960s. There have been other commemorations of the Woolworth event, but the 1990 event is expected to be the biggest yet, featuring banquets, unveilings, symposiums, a play and a student march from the A&T campus to downtown. Richmond and his three sit-in colleagues once again will take seats at the lunch counter, as they News & Record The four A&T students in 1960: from left, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair (now Jibreel Khazan) and Joseph McNeil have done at previous anniversary celebrations. Woolworth, once the villain in the saga, now sometimes sends corporate executives down from New York to help with anniversary festivities. The re-enactments give Richmond a chance to chat with Ima Evans, the lunch counter manager who was working at the bakery counter the day the students came in. "We are very good friends," Richmond says. "We have appeared on a couple of programs together." Evans, who is white, says the sit-ins put the Woolworth employees in an awkward situation. The black employees were sympathetic to the students and so were some of the white workers.
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Full text | ( C2 Greonsboro Ns»s tte^u,^, December a,, ,989 30 years later, Woolworth sit-ins to be remembered »By JIM SCHLOSSER Staff Writer February is hardly a prime vacation month, but David Richmond already has penciled in the first week to be away from his supervisory job at Greensboro Health Care Center. Part of his vacation is going to be spent drinking orange juice at a lunch counter in downtown Greensboro. It's going to be a lot easier this time than 30 years ago. On Feb. 1, 1960, Richmond was one of four black N.C. A&T State University freshmen who climbed onto stools at Woolworth's whites- only lunch counter on South Elm Street and demanded service. The lunch counter manager said no. The store manager said no. The students also said no. No, we won't leave. A movement thus began. In the weeks ahead, lunch counter sit-ins would take place throughout the South, inspired by the actions of Richmond and his fellow students Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil. From Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, Greensboro will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Woolworth sit-in. One of the highlights will be the unveiling of a plaque outside the store and the implanting in the sidewalk — Hollywood style — bronze footprints of the four former A&T students. Some nationally known names, such as commentator and writer Hodding Carter and Barbara Reynolds of USA TODAY, will participate, along with citizens who played key roles in the Greensboro civil rights movement of the 1960s. There have been other commemorations of the Woolworth event, but the 1990 event is expected to be the biggest yet, featuring banquets, unveilings, symposiums, a play and a student march from the A&T campus to downtown. Richmond and his three sit-in colleagues once again will take seats at the lunch counter, as they News & Record The four A&T students in 1960: from left, David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair (now Jibreel Khazan) and Joseph McNeil have done at previous anniversary celebrations. Woolworth, once the villain in the saga, now sometimes sends corporate executives down from New York to help with anniversary festivities. The re-enactments give Richmond a chance to chat with Ima Evans, the lunch counter manager who was working at the bakery counter the day the students came in. "We are very good friends," Richmond says. "We have appeared on a couple of programs together." Evans, who is white, says the sit-ins put the Woolworth employees in an awkward situation. The black employees were sympathetic to the students and so were some of the white workers. |