Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501160083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Franklin McCain, Jibreel Khazan and Joseph McNeil returned Saturday to the Woolworth's lunch counter where they were refused service in 1960 because they were black.
They weren't served this time, either, but that didn't matter.
The three men came to commemorate their sit-in at the lunch counter 35 years ago. As college freshmen in Greensboro, N.C., they sparked a civil-rights tactic that challenged racial inequality in the South and eventually earned blacks the right to be treated the same as whites.
``It was the kind of thing where you could be served at 12 counters, but Number 13 was off-limits,'' McCain said Saturday as an 8-foot section of the historic Woolworth's lunch counter and related items went on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
``It's a thrill to be able to live to see the results of our actions as young people 35 years ago,'' said Khazan, named Ezell Blair at the time. ``We were playing with social, political, economic and religious dynamite.''
On Feb. 1, 1960, in a South that segregated blacks and whites in public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels and restrooms, four North Carolina A&T State University freshmen decided to go to Woolworth's.
Blacks shopped regularly at the five-and-dime, and McCain recalled buying composition notebooks and pens on the day that later would be regarded as historic.
Although blacks were served at the carry-out section of the Woolworth's lunch counter, they were not allowed to stop there and eat with whites.
McCain, McNeil, Khazan and the fourth student, David Richmond, sat at the counter and politely asked to be served. Rebuffed, they did not leave, but sat there all day, unserved, talking among themselves.
At closing time, they left.
By the time they returned to campus, word had spread.
About 20 students showed up at Woolworth's the next day, 80 on the day after. Before week's end, hundreds of protesters had appeared, including whites from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina.
Sit-ins spread to other downtown eateries, and to hundreds of Southern cities. Feeling an economic pinch from the boycotts, Woolworth's and other stores in Greensboro desegregated their counters July 25, 1960.
Woolworth's closed the Greensboro store in January 1994 and donated the section of the counter, four stools, a pie case and other items to the Smithsonian. A local group wants to convert the original store into a civil-rights museum and open the counter for business again.
The Smithsonian exhibit, ``Birthplace of a Whirlwind: The 1960 Greensboro Sit-In,'' commemorates the 35th anniversary of the event and the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. It will remain open to the public for at least six months.
McCain, Khazan and McNeil stepped into the display to pose for photos Saturday, but didn't retake their seats for fear of disturbing the setup. Richmond died several years ago of cancer.
A large mirror on the wall faced the counter, on which the pie case rested. Signs above the mirror advertised: ``Delicious Strawberry Ice Cream Shortcake - 29 cents,'' and ``Super Jumbo Banana Split - 39 cents.''
Less than five years before the sit-in at Woolworth's, the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott was born Dec. 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. That decision boosted to prominence Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister who emerged as the leader of the civil-rights movement.
King's birthday is celebrated as a national holiday Monday.
McCain, a corporate manager in Charlotte, N.C.; Khazan, a teacher and counselor in New Bedford, Mass.; and McNeil said the exhibit and their action decades ago should inspire young people to fight for their beliefs, even if they have to wage the struggle alone.
``We were students, but we were leaders in the sense that we made things happen, and they can do that, too,'' said McNeil, an Air Force commander and employee of the Federal Aviation Administration in New York.
``There are things in life that should be principled actions and, when that principle is strong enough, you need to take a stand and persist,'' he added. ``Man is capable of change.''
by CNB