Encounter 30 · 30 of 42 · 1 February 1960
Four at the counter
On 1 February 1960 four students sat at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro and asked to be served. They were not. They came back.
Greensboro, North Carolina
Four freshmen at North Carolina A&T walked into Woolworth’s, bought small goods, then sat at the segregated lunch counter. They were refused. They stayed until closing. The next morning they brought more people.
What they knew
- The law of the counter was refusal.
- They could be arrested, or worse.
- They had each other that afternoon.
What they could not know
- Whether anyone else would come.
- Whether the store would move.
- Whether the first afternoon would be the last.
They were freshmen at North Carolina A&T: Ezell Blair Jr. (later Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil. They bought small goods so they would be customers, then sat at the segregated counter. They were not served. They stayed until closing. McCain later said that for the first time he felt like a man. That sentence is his, afterward. On the first afternoon they had homework in their bags and a plan that might have ended at six o’clock.
The next morning they brought more people. Within days sit-ins spread to other cities. Woolworth’s in Greensboro desegregated that July. SNCC formed. None of that was in the first cup of coffee they were not poured. If no one had come on the second day, the first day would still have been four bodies on four stools.
What was at stake
Four bodies on four stools, and then a movement they did not yet have a name for.
The next move
They sat. They returned. Others sat.
What they had
- Homework in their bags
- A plan for one afternoon
- No permit
What happened
Woolworth’s in Greensboro desegregated that July. SNCC formed. The four did not know SNCC at 4 p.m. on the first.
What if no one had come on the second day?
Private. No one else will see it.