Four who led civil-rights protest at Woolworth's are honored

Four who led civil-rights protest at Woolworth's are honored

45 years later, four men who led protest at Woolworth's lunch counter are honored as civil rights pioneers

BY MARTIN C. EVANS
STAFF WRITER

February 21, 2005

When he was 17 years old, Joseph McNeil, now of Hempstead, walked into a Woolworth's store in North Carolina with three other black college students, intent on asking for a slice of cherry pie.

Rather than serve them at a lunch counter reserved for white customers, a Woolworth's manager closed the store early that Feb. 1, 1960, day.

But McNeil and the others returned the next day and the next, angering some white customers, embarrassing some black employees, emboldening many fellow black students and eventually enlisting handfuls of white sympathizers.

"It was amazing," said McNeil, 62, who grew up in rural North Carolina and retired as a two-star general in the Air Force Reserve. "What it showed was there were thousands of young people who felt this was an evil and we had to do something about it."

On Tuesday, the North Carolina legislature passed a resolution honoring the "Greensboro Four" - including McNeil - for the bravery their actions showed. And this week, 45 years after what became known as the Greensboro Sit-ins, McNeil and other New York area residents who took part in the demonstrations paused to reflect on an event widely credited with having helped spark the student activism of the 1960s.

These Civil Rights pioneers saw injustice, and of their own accord, risked their
health, safety, and lives to stand up to it. Its good to see them honored.

before it was moved to the Smithsonian. I was still a teenager when I visited that Woolworth's in Greensboro. There was a plaque there mentioning the historical significance of that spot. I felt honored to have sat where truly courageous civil rights heroes had sat before. It took real strength and faith to do that. I'm glad that milestone in civil rights history was finally honored.

If we could only move people away from racism more nowadays. Too many people seem blind to the threat of a repel of civil rights legislation. They don't see that it could happen one bit at the time until the steps forward that these people fought so hard for are taken back. I hope there are enough people who will see how important it is in this country to take a look at the racism that still exists and do something about it. I hope I can do enough to keep the dream alive.

if you are coming this way, why not check it out.