Joseph McNeil, one of four North Carolina college students whose occupation of a racially segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter 65 years ago helped spark nonviolent civil rights sit-in protests across the South, died Thursday, his university said. He was 83.
McNeil, who later became a two-star general, was one of four freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro who sat down at the local “whites only” counter on Feb. 1, 1960. The young Black men were refused service and declined to give up their seats even as the store manager and police urged them to move on.
Statements from North Carolina A&T and the family did not give his cause of death or where he died. McNeil had been living in New York.
The historically Black university said that McNeil had recent health challenges but still managed to attend the sit-in's 65th anniversary observance this year in Greensboro.
McNeil’s death means Jibreel Khazan — formerly Ezell Blair Jr. — is now the only surviving member of the four. Franklin McCain died in 2014 and David Richmond in 1990.
“We were quite serious, and the issue that we rallied behind was a very serious issue because it represented years of suffering and disrespect and humiliation,” McNeil said in a 2010 Associated Press story on the 50th anniversary of the sit-in and the opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum on the site of the old Woolworth's store. "Segregation was an evil kind of thing that needed attention.”
On the sit-in's first day, the four young men stayed until the store closed. More protesters joined the next day and days following, leading to at least 1,000 by the fifth day. Within weeks, sit-ins were launched in more than 50 cities in nine states. The Woolworth’s counter in Greensboro — about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Raleigh — was desegregated within six months.
McNeil and his classmates "inspired a nation with their courageous, peaceful protest, powerfully embodying the idea that young people could change the world. His leadership and the example of the A&T Four continue to inspire our students today,” school Chancellor James Martin said in a news release. A monument to the four men sits on the A&T campus.
The Greensboro sit-in also led to the formation in Raleigh of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which became a key part of the student direct-action civil rights movement. Demonstrations between 1960 and 1965 helped pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
McNeil and the sit-in participants leave a legacy of non-violent protests that “promote equity and social justice and social change in America and throughout the world,” museum co-founder Earl Jones said Thursday.
The students decided to act when McNeil returned to school on a bus from New York — and the racial atmosphere became more and more oppressive the further south he went, according to the AP's story in 2010.
The first-day effort was meticulously planned, including the purchase of school supplies and toiletries and keeping the receipts to show the lunch counter was the only portion of the store where racial segregation still prevailed.
Joseph A. McNeil grew up in coastal Wilmington and was an ROTC member at A&T. He retired as a two-star major general from the Air Force Reserves in 2001 and also worked as an investment banker. McNeil is honored in Wilmington with an historical marker on a street segment named for him. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris sat at a section of the lunch counter that remains intact within the museum in 2021. Another portion is at the Smithsonian.
McNeil's family said a tribute to honor his life will be announced separately.
McNeil's "legacy is a testament to the power of courage and conviction,” his son, Joseph McNeil Jr., said in the family's statement. “His impact on the civil rights movement and his service to the nation will never be forgotten.”