30 years later, Woolworth sit-ins to be remembered

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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.