First Sit-In Participant Finally Gets Cherry Pie

              First Sit-In Participant
Finally Gets Cherry Pie
BY HARVEY HARRIS
Daily News Staff Writer
Jibreel Khazan finally got a
piece of >cherry pie at Wool-
worth's here 13 years after ordering it at the lunch counter
and helping to start the first
sit-ins.
Saturday he observed the 13th
anniversary of this first sit-in
and Khazan, who was then
known as Ezell Blair but has
become a Muslim and changed
his name, joined his three companions for the sit-in in a .reunion at Woolworth's.
The occasion for the reunion
was the filming of an American
Broadcasting Company (ABC)
news telecast to be titled "What-
ev'     happened to the Greens-
OCv^?"     -
Woolworth's invited the four to
the store for the reunion and
-fifeMBg. The f,sere's
Robert A. Moye, served Kha-
zan's cherry pie to him after
Khazan was asked about his
13-year-old order and quipped,
"It looks like I still might not
get it."
JOINING *HIM at the lunch
counter were Joseph McNeil of
New York City, Franklin McCain of Charlotte and David L.
"Dara" Richmond, the only one
of the Greensboro 4 who still
lives here.
They reminisced about the
way the first sit-in started. They
dared each other to do it during
a campus bull session at North
Carolina A&T State University,
where all were students.
. "We were scared, real scared,
but we couldn't . back down,"
said McCain.
"If somebody had said, 'Boo,'
I'd probably have fallen off the
stool," said Richmond.
KHAZAN SAID he felt that if
he failed to go \h rough with the
sit-w "a little part of me would
d{      v       S
V^-,«il finds it almost impossible to comprehend that "the
whole civil rights movement
could stem from an almost accidental thing."
But the New York banker said
his experience ift Greensboro,
and memories of it across the
Staff photo By Jim Strath
Sit-In Participants Frank McCain, David Richmond, Jibreel Khazan And Joe McNeil
years, have given him confidence "that such things as life
patterns and power structures
can be changed."
The Greensboro 4 got strong
backing from parents.
McCain recalled his father tel-
e*p honing him to say, "Son,
great going. You've got all my
blessings," But he also remembered his mother being very
apprehensive because "she was
(SO worried about my safety."
McNEIL   SAID,   "We   got
thrown in jail for what we did,
but we got strong moral and
financial support." He recalled
supporters putting up bail money when it was needed.    .
McCain recalled the bull session which aroused the dare that
started them on their way to
Woolworth's lunch counter.
"We'd been kicking the idea
around, then we dared each
other to do it when somebody
said we were like our elders
who talk and do nothing."
Richmond, an official of the '
Manpower program, said the reunion and telecast — scheduled
for early Marchv— came at an
opportune time to show- how
much can be accomplished by
nonviolence and let millions of
Americans know "violence ife
self-destructive."
The Manpower official said
the sit-ins and other movements
stemming from them helped
keep society "sensitive to the
needs of people.",
*     *     * *
THE FILM crew spent most
of Friday filming a human relations w o r k s h o p led by Richmond, where he was working
with a group of 110 people,
including about 30 policemen.
His activities include service
on the' Greensboro Chamber of
Commerce's Council on Community Unity and Richmond believes all of this stems from his
first sit-in.
Khazan is a teacher in a
construction program in the
Boston area, McCain is development engineer for Celanese at
Charlotte and McNeil is in commercial lending with Bankers
Trust Co. in New York'City.
All of them are married, have
families and consider themselves "settled down." McNeil is
30, the others are 31 years old.
None regrets What he did and
they agreed Saturday that, if
they had it  to do  again,  the
Greensboro 4 would act no differently from the way they did
at the first sit-in.
McCain's seven-year-old son
knows about the sit-ins, but
McNeil said many of his friends
and co-workers in New York
City don't know anything about
his participation.