GREENSBORO, N.C. — The revitalization of the civil rights movement started in North Carolina. Four N.C. A&T students took a stand in social justice by starting the nonviolent sit-in movement.
What You Need To Know
David Richmond, Franklin McCain, John McNeil and Ezell Blair, now known as Jibreel Khazan, were the Greensboro Four
The Greensboro Four made history Feburary 1, 1960 by sitting at an all-white lunch counter at the Woolworth Greensboro store
The sit-in was a shared vision between all four men
When you walk into the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in downtown Greensboro, you’re greeted by the Greensboro Four.
"I see four young men who had their whole lives ahead of them and decided to take a stand on an issue they thought needed to be addressed, I mean they're teenagers,” Franklin McCain Jr. said.
Their picture from Feburary 1, 1960 stands tall and proud on the wall.
"I know this is one of the most proudest things that he said that he accomplished in life,” David Richmond Jr. said.
McCain and Richmond are the sons of two members of the Greensboro Four, both bearing their father’s names.
They’re revisiting where their fathers made a change in history by starting the nonviolent sit-in movement at the Greensboro Woolworth store by taking a seat at the all-white lunch counter.
"It’s almost like turning the pages of a family photo album except it’s documented for the whole world to see versus sitting at home on a living room table," McCain said.
The Greensboro Four were freshmen at N.C. A&T. They were David Richmond, Franklin McCain, John McNeil and Ezell Blair, now known as Jibreel Khazan.
The sons take their own seat at the same lunch counter their fathers sat at 61 years ago. They say the feeling is hard to describe.
"I think neither one of us sort of lived through an era where we couldn’t sit where we wanted to, so just to imagine that in my father's words sitting down at a dumb stool can change the course of America," McCain said.
It was a shared vision between all four men that they talked about and planned inside their dorm room of Scott Hall on the N.C. A&T campus.
And it was something their fathers knew that they had to do.
"They were not doing this to get their name in the paper or for fame. They just knew it was right, and they had to make a stand, whatever the cost,” Richmond said.
The International Civil Rights Center & Museum is built around that lunch counter that changed the nation in social justice. McNeil and Khazan are the only two living members of the Greensboro Four.
David Richmond Sr. passed away in 1990, and Franklin McCain Sr. died in 2014.