30 Years After Sit-In, They Eat at Woolworth Counter : Civil rights: Four blacks who were denied service re-enact the event that sparked similar actions across the South.

The dramatic lunch counter sit-in 30 years ago that helped ignite the 1960s civil rights movement surprised everyone, even the four black participants who re-enacted it Thursday at Woolworth.

“We were scared,” recalled Franklin McCain, one of the four college students who staged the first lunch counter sit-in on Feb. 1, 1960. “All I wanted was a Coke and a doughnut.”

“If someone had come up behind me and said ‘Boo,’ I probably would have fallen off the stool,” said another protester, David Richmond.

When McCain and his three college friends took their same seats Thursday, they were treatedlike celebrities. A black Woolworth executive greeted them before they sat down to a breakfast of eggs, grits, bacon and coffee.

McCain, Richmond, Joseph McNeil and Jibreel Khazan, formerly Ezell Blair Jr., were surrounded by dozens of reporters and spectators when they ordered food from two women who worked there on Feb. 1, 1960.

Woolworth Vice President Aubrey Lewis noted that 30 years ago he, too, would have been denied service. “I’m proud you had the courage to open the doors for a movement,” he said.

While the four waited for their meals, some spectators sang “We Shall Overcome.” Outside there was more singing, 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.”

One thing that has not changed much is the lunch counter, which looks about the same as it did in 30-year-old news photographs about the sit-in. But now, black and white customers sit side by side on the chrome and red vinyl seats, ordering food and discussing sports and events of the day.

When the four North Carolina A&T; State University freshmen refused to leave the whites-only counter 30 years ago, their sit-in touched off similar protests across the South.

During their sit-in, which began at about 4 p.m., a policeman stood near them and slapped his billy club in the palm of his hand a few times, but they were not threatened with arrest. The store was closed at 5 p.m., a half-hour early, and they left peacefully.

“People took us for granted because we were poor youth, freshmen in college,” Khazan said. “In America, people don’t really believe young people can do anything to make positive change in society.

“We’ve achieved some rights, but there’s many more rights that haven’t been achieved.”

Geneva Tisdale, who is black, was working at Woolworth on Feb. 1, 1960. She remembers the four students coming in that day.

“I thought they were joking,” she said Thursday. “I never thought they were serious.”

Another counter worker, Ima Edwards, who is white, said she didn’t “see it blossoming into this.”

After Thursday’s breakfast, the four went outside, where the street in front of the store was renamed February One Place.

The four said they had targeted Woolworth because it was a well-known national chain that allowed its lunch counters to be segregated only in the South. On July 25, 1960, Woolworth agreed to allow blacks at the lunch counter.