How sitting at a 'whites only' counter in Greensboro, N.C., changed everything

[babylonsister]

Because he sat down, everything changed
50 years ago, Franklin McCain and 3 friends asked for coffee at a 'whites only' lunch counter in Greensboro.
By David Perlmutt



Fifty years later, the event that made Charlotte's Franklin McCain an historical figure continues to define his life. Nothing's compared since.

"Not even close," McCain said last week. "Not even the birth of my first son. I told him that, too."

On Feb. 1, 1960, a Monday like today, McCain and three other freshmen at N.C. A&T University in Greensboro, walked a mile from campus to the F.W. Woolworth five-and-dime on North Elm Street, to make a statement against segregation. They purchased a few items - McCain bought toothpaste and a composition book - and asked for receipts. Then they found the "whites-only" lunch counter and simply sat down.

First McCain and Joseph McNeil, then Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan) and the late David Richmond.

They ordered coffee.

Today, McCain will return to that five-and-dime to take part in the opening dedication of the long-awaited International Civil Rights Center & Museum, following a weekend of events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro Four's history-altering protests.

All four had arrived at the Greensboro campus of like mind, angry "at the system," said McCain, 69.

"It had betrayed me," McCain said. "My parents and grandparents told me if you believe in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution; if you adopt the Ten Commandments as a code of ethics; if you go to school and work hard and do things for other people - quite often without them knowing it - if you did all those things, you'd have a good chance at success.

"The system still betrayed us. I considered myself as part of the big lie. All four of us did."

more...

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/1217514.html

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Just last night we watched "The Secret Life Of Bees" set in South Carolina in the same era.

I was living in SC, while in the Navy, in the late 60s. I remember it far too well.

Refusal to serve those men is illegal now.

That part of the heart that wishes it were still legal to do so is too alive and too well to think we've come as far as some, who are self-congratulatory, would like to say

[Hydra]

3. "The system still betrayed us. I considered myself as part of the big lie. All four of us did."

The more things change...

[supernova]

4. I'm proud of my state and my fellow A-A Tarheels

that they didn't let that lunch counter go by the wayside.

[madrchsod]

5. he was asked if he ever went back...

he said no because the pie was`t very good......

[niyad]

6. it is a sad commentary on our society that this happened 50 years ago--a century after the civil war

I was in houston in 78--and was appalled to see a KKK headquarters boldly announcing itself with letters 6 ft high. things had obviously not progressed from the time I was in that benighted state previously.

[rurallib]

7. Ironically, Woolworth's is gone, but the movement for human rights

continues on and despite occasional reverse steps is generally still headed forward.
I can't imagine how much courage it took for those young people to sit at that counter.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

8. K&R