Reflecting on the famed Greensboro sit-in: 60 years of unfinished progress

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Four men. Six days. Sixty years later.

The bravery exemplified Feb. 1, 1960, by four N.C. A&T State University freshmen at a downtown Greensboro department store lunch counter set in motion a groundswell that would cement the city’s historical legacy as a place where change began to take root.

Change from oppression. Change from segregation. Change that would erode the beliefs and the laws that held the races as separate and unequal.

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Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain and David Richmond had a mission that day as they sat down at the counter at the F.W. Woolworth’s department store, where blacks were permitted to order food and take it to go but never to sit, order, receive and enjoy a meal.

Read the full story here for reflections from Greensboro leaders on how far the city has come since then — and how far it has yet to go.