The Greensboro Four

You don’t hear the names Ezell Blair, Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond mentioned much today. And that’s a shame.

The four men played a huge role in American history. Their names should flow off the tip of our tongues. Their accomplishments sure are worthy of it. I know I’ll be thinking about these four men tomorrow.

Sixty-five years ago on February 1, 1960, the four black college students sparked a nationwide civil rights movement by refusing to leave a “whites-only” lunch counter at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The students sat at the Woolworth counter and each asked for a cup of coffee and a donut with cream on the side. As common for the time in the South, their waitress and the restaurant manager refused to serve them. The four freshmen stayed until the store closed that night, promising they would be back the next day and repeat the process every day for as long as it would take. They went back to the North Carolina A&T University campus, where they recruited more students to join them the next morning. They continued to show up at the store for the next six months, until Woolworth finally removed its policy of racial segregation and integrated the lunch counter.

The four students became known as the Greensboro Four. While not the first sit-in of the civil rights movement, the Greensboro sit-ins generated headlines and support for the Civil Rights Movement and became the best-known of the nonviolent sit-ins.

Yes, the names of Ezell Blair, Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond might not be common place. During these crazy times, you may have to search a bit to learn more about them. But their courage and bravery left a huge mark on the world.

Here’s to making a difference and changing the world for the better.