On February 1, 1960, four young African-American men, freshmen at the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, entered the Greensboro Woolworth’s and sat down on stools that had, until that moment, been occupied exclusively by white customers. The four—Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., Joseph McNeil and David Richmond—asked to be served, and were refused. But they did not get up and leave. Indeed, they launched a protest that lasted six months and helped change America.
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I loved this picture. It really galvanized me. I had a whole section in my book about-- but it was cut out for reasons of space.
ReplyDeleteI remember this on television. It was an amazing moment and changed the current zeitgeist.
great work Marilyn
Thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little too young to remember anything about it at the time, but I was aware of the major changes that were happening in the later 60's and through the 70's.
It's not really all that long ago when you think about it. When I ponder intolerance elsewhere in the world, it's easy to forget we've only recently crawled from the primordial ooze.
And let's not be smug. The edges are still mighty slippery.
I am also too young to remember the incident (it feels great to be able to say that) although I've read about it and seen film clips. I agree that the overt racism of that not so long ago era still exists in a more covert way.
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