30 Years Later, They Eat at Woolworth

The four blacks who were denied service at an all-white Woolworth lunch counter 30 years ago were greeted today by a black Woolworth vice president before sitting down to a breakfast of eggs, grits, bacon and coffee.

David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Jibreel Khazan and Joseph McNeil entered the store at 7:30 a.m. and, surrounded by dozens of reporters and onlookers, ordered from two women who had worked there on Feb. 1, 1960. Three of the men wore business suits. Khazan, formerly Ezell Blair Jr., wore a white robe with a headband around his dreadlocks.

They were greeted by Woolworth Vice President Aubrey Lewis, who noted that 30 years ago he would also have been denied service.

“I’m proud you had the courage to open the doors for a movement,” Lewis said.

While the four waited for their meals, some onlookers began singing “We Shall Overcome.” Outside the store there was more singing directed by the NAACP, and some bystanders carried placards saying, “Feb. 1, 1960. It seems like only yesterday, but it could be tomorrow” and “The only thing that’s worthwhile is change--Remembering Feb. 1, 1960.”

Back in 1960, public buildings in Greensboro had separate water fountains for whites and blacks. Theaters had separate entrances for blacks, who were forced to sit in balconies, away from whites. Blacks had to step to the rear on city buses.

When the four, all freshmen at North Carolina A&T; State University, refused to leave the counter 30 years ago, their sit-in touched off protests in nine states and helped ignite the civil rights movement.

“We were scared,” McCain recalled. “I just wanted a Coke and a doughnut. That’s all I wanted.”

“We did get some encouragement on the first day, and we got it from quarters you wouldn’t ordinarily expect it to come from,” he said. “There was a little old white lady of oh, 75 years of age, who came over and placed her hands on our shoulders and said to us, ‘Boys, I’m so proud of you. The only thing I regret is that it didn’t happen 20 years earlier.’

“That was really a source of inspiration to us.”

The four had been prepared to go to jail, but police allowed them to go back to school.