Part Two: “It Came To That”: How 4 Greensboro A&T College Students Helped Forge A Movement

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

Rosa Parks was an unknown 42-year-old seamstress in 1955, when she took a stand for racial justice that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (See Part One of this series)  Parks had an “it came to that” moment when she told Montgomery, Ala.,  bus driver James Frederick Blake that she would not move to the back of the segregated bus.

Five years later, four young college students also had an “it came to that” moment which helped launch the sit-in protests of the civil rights movement. This is the point, when “It came to that” during the civil rights movement, Blacks changed history one protest at a time.

They become known as the Greensboro 4 from North Carolina A&T State University. They said they launched a protest at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in 1960 by sitting down at the segregated lunch counter. They ordered a cup of coffee, were refused service and refused to move on Feb. 1, 1960.

It came to that, in other words, to the point that the four Black male North Carolina State A&T University students stayed at the lunch counter until the store closed for the night.

The following day, the number of sit-in participants at Greensboro’s Woolworth lunch counter more than tripled, including female students from nearby Bennett College. By the fourth day, more than 300 people participated in the nonviolent protest, according to news reports.

The Greensboro Woolworth’s lost a reported $150,000 during the lunch counter sit-in that lasted nearly six months.

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“During the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, a nightclub comic observed that, had the demonstrators been served, some of them could not have paid for the meal,” the Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. wrote in, “Why We Can’t Wait.” King said, aiming to zero in on the financial concerns that pushed many Blacks to participate in protests during the civil rights era. “The struggle for rights is, at bottom, a struggle for opportunities,” King explained.

The four Black males who launched the Greensboro lunch counter sit-in were David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan) and Joseph McNeil.

Here are their bios after they made history. The first Woolworth’s lunch-counter demonstrator, Richmond received multiple death threats for his activism. He had trouble finding a job because he was labeled as a troublemaker. He relocated to Franklin. N.C. and was the twice divorced father of three before he died of lung cancer in 1990 at age 49.

The second Greensboro protestor, McCain, who  weighed more than 200 pounds and towered over his comrades stood at Woolworth’s door and asked, “Are you guys chicken or not?” Moments later, the four men walked through the door to the segregated lunch counter to accomplish their mission.

McCain graduated, worked for the Celanese Corporation, a chemical manufacturer, for 35 years and also served on the board at North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central University, Bennett College; and the UNC Board of Governors. McCain, who mentored Charlotte teens, was married, had three sons, including one who played in the National Football League for the Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles. On Jan. 9, 2014, McCain died from respiratory complications at Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina, six days after his 73rd birthday, according to his obituary.

Blair, the third Greensboro lunch-counter demonstrator, said, “They didn’t ask what’s in for me, it wasn’t on the menu, but justice was served.”  Blair, who graduated from A&T College, briefly studied law at Howard University. Blair then moved to New Bedford, Mass., where he became a member of the New England Islamic Center in 1968 and took on his present name of Jibreel Khazan., and is an oral historian and lecturer.

According to Black Past.org, Blair “works with developmentally-disabled people for the CETA program in New Bedford, Mass. He also has worked with the AFL/CIO Trade Council in Boston, the Opportunities Industrialization Center, and at the Rodman Job Corps Center. He married the former Lorraine France George of New Bedford. They have three children, one of whom graduated from A&T.”

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When he and the other three demonstrators received the 2010 Smithsonian Award, Blair said, “People have made some conclusions. But, I have to ask, ‘Did I measure up?’ “

The fourth and final Greensboro demonstrator, McNeil, is 83, and is a retired major general in the United States Air Force. After a military career of over 37 years, and over 6,600 flight hours, he received the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal upon retirement. He and his wife have five adult children.

“Congratulating the four Black males who integrated Woolworth’s segregated lunch counter five years after Rosa Parks told a White bus driver no, Aldon Morris, said in his book, “The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement,” “The civil rights movement would have moved much slower, would have accomplished far fewer victories if you had not had those student sit-ins and the entry into the movement of all this young energy.”

Next Week: Conclusion