Sitting Down for
о
Cun of Coffee and CivD
by Nancie McDermott
hot dog got it all started — the hot
dog that Joe McNeil did not get to
eat one day in January 1960.
Nineteen years old and a graduate
of Williston High School in
Wilmington, McNeil was a student
at Tv hat is now North Carolina A&T State
University, a historically black college in
Greensboro.
The young man had spent Christmas vaca¬
tion visiting family in New York, and he had
returned to Greensboro via a Greyhound bus.
Feeling hungry after the long ride, McNeil
stopped by the bus station cafe to order a hot
dog. Refused service because he was black, he
arrived at his dormitory still hungry and angry
over the injustice that African American citi¬
zens faced daily. Black people could work in
restaurants preparing food but could not sit
down and be served at most of them. They
could spend money in stores but couldn't
drink from water fountains or use restrooms
set aside for white customers. Racial segrega¬
tion had been legal and enforced throughout
the American South for more than fifty years.
Segregation meant that businesses, govern¬
ment offices, schools, and other public places
could turn away people simply based on race.
The system of segregation denied non white
Americans basic rights to eat, travel, work, and
live freely.
McNeil went to his dormitory room on the
second floor of Scott Hall and told his room¬
mate Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jabreel Khazan) what
had happened. They talked things over with
David Richmond and Frank McCain, two
friends who lived down the hall. The four
young men had often discussed segregation
and what they might do to change the system.
That night, they decided to take action on
behalf of civil rights.
The next afternoon, February 1, 1960, the
four met in front of Bluford Library on the col¬
lege campus. They walked two miles to the
F. W. Woolworth store on Elm Street in down¬
town Greensboro. As planned, the students
A scene from a lunch counter sit-in in
Raleigh in 1960. Image courtesy of the
North Carolina Museum of History.
bought tubes of tooth¬
paste and kept the
receipts, to show that
they were customers of
the store. They then
walked to the
Woolworth 's lunch
counter and took seats.
All four requested cups
of coffee. The waitress
refused to serve them,
and the store manager
asked them to leave.
They politely and qui¬
etly stayed put.
The store closed
early that day, and the four young men hurried
back to campus to tell friends what they had
done and to ask for help. The next day they
returned to the lunch counter, with several fel¬
low students. The peaceful campaign for the
right to eat in a public restaurant became front¬
page news. Community leaders, including
ministers from African American churches,
members of the local chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), and college administrators
and professors, met with the students. They
encouraged them to keep up their quiet protest.
By Wednesday, February 3, more than sixty
young people had joined the sit-ins, including
students from two more historically black edu¬
cational institutions in Greensboro: Dudley
High School and Bennett College for Women.
On Thursday three white students from
Woman's College (now the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro) joined the group.
Students began taking turns sitting at the lunch
counter. Meanwhile, sit-ins had begun down the
street at the S. H. Kress store's lunch counter.
Television coverage carried the news
around the country. Within a few days, lunch
counter sit-ins took place in towns across
North Carolina, including High Point,
Salisbury, Shelby, New Bern, Elizabeth City,
Concord, Monroe, Rutherford ton, Henderson,
TIIJII, Spring 2007
