[background speaking] protest. S a nonviolent bus boycott in februarylabama until 1, 1960, virtually Nothing Happened in the arena of civil rights. It was dead, absently dead, even Martin Luther king said that. In 1960 things did change dramatically in greensboro. Greensboro is the origin of all the events that occur subsequent. O february 1, 1960 mcneil happened to be there. And richmond. Thehen you hear a railroad, train is coming from far away and it is coming closer and you become increasingly aware of the track the train is rolling on. Divides whitewhat from black. That is what separates the white ghetto from the black ghetto. That headsrack somewhere but you do not know exactly where. And it is not really for the good of society. Citizens, and walked across the track in the wrong direction, went to the other side. Sitinshe four walked across the track in the wrong direction, to the other side. Greensboro liked to think of itself as polite and moderate and open to different points of view. Town thatoro is a does not like a lot of controversy. Life is great on my side of town. Greensboro was somewhat typical. Greensboro was like every other city in the south. We were focused on a daytoday carefree atmosphere, where life was straightforward. In greensboro, North Carolina ezell blair, jr. Was born. Met my father, she came from a tradition of spiritual people and blues people. Jibreel wasime, small and he was always do things differently. He embraced people easily. They loved him. Anything he would do was write right. After the end of world war ii, jibreels father returned home. My mother said he changed and mother andture of my sister about a year and a half but the guy i saw when eyes for five years old back in 1945 was a different guy. He was big and huge and i was trembling, there comes a giant and he had come back to return and they had only been my mom and my sister and my great great grandmother. Ezell senior, the father was unnerved by the boy who had grown in his absence. My father wanted him to be an architect or some kind of engineer. Thisen he was a kid he had he would become a ventriloquist and nobody in the community was thinking about being a ventriloquist. Often in the family there were challenges from dad about boy, dont you want to go out and get a real job. And you are playing with this doll. My father was progressive, he had a determination that he was going to do something in his life to make life better for himself and his light family and his neighbors. And then he began to talk about the naacp, the National Association of colored people and he became one of the members in greensboro. Was a family and her time roundtable discussion and there was much dialogue. And he would come home from work there were things that happened to met school and in the workplace, things that were unfair. And he talked about how he handled those things. Thehroughout the 1950s, blair children were challenged to look beyond that comfortable veneer of their community. And someation had ills advantages. We had a community that was extremely bonded. And we had our own businesses, and our own part of town. We had our own doctors. We had our own dock our own lawyers. So in many ways it was really hard to see yourself as this little child who has nothing, because you had a world that had been created for you. But what was lacking is interaction on a regular basis with people who were outside your color. Greensboro authorities did not see themselves in the same light as a running ham or a bull connor. Able connor. Am or they thought of themselves as conducting Race Relations in a way that was more civilized. What our parents told us is true. They told us these are the rules. You do not act out verbally or physically, in the presence of other people. But if you are in the case of white people do not do anything to incite them to want to harm you or members of your family or your friends. Mouth canbecause your either bring you to glory, or it can bring you to hell. Old. Was nine years to theklux klan came community and put out a message, onare catching the knickers the street at night and we are going to kill them and burn a cross in front of their house. And i said what is ku klux klan . And they said they are people who wear white robes and sheets over their heads and they burn crosses on peoples lawns and they hang you and kill people. Oh yeah . Well what time is it . 3 00, dont worry, i have four or five hours to get myself ready. Im not going on the street tonight. And my father said, i heard him say, nobody is coming to hurt my family. He said dont you worry, son. And he spoke to my sister, my sister jean and my little sister, sheila, and he said nobody is going to harm our family. Jabreel and roles at dudley high, and all black school at the greensboro segregated school system. He became good friends with a new student, franklin mccain, who had arrived from a new out of town. Jibreel so i met him and he had a great personality, 64. Ell at dudleyet ez high school and he has not changed, a guy who walks around and his family to everyone and oblivious to a lot of stuff most of us see and internalize. Frank mccain had been raised in the more racially open city of washington, d. C. , where it jim crow laws had been repealed earlier in the 1950s. What he encountered in greensboro infuriated him. Make me it did not less angry and i was probably more angry than my parents and grandparents and all the generations combined. I did not hate anybody but i thought the system had betrayed me. In their junior chemistry frank ezell and befriended David Richmond, the most popular student at Dudley High School. He was on the track team and David Richmond in 1959 can the state high jump champion and his record stood for eight or nine years. He was like superman to me. Richmond new the true meaning of friendship. Andh times and good times the laughing times and the crying times. ToMartin Luther king came greensboro in 1958 and spoke at Bennett College. Among those in the overflowe and davidjabreel richmond. My father in the crowd he took it myself and dr. King was so profound and his message it may be feel proud to be a black american. David never took a backseat any longer. When we got on the bus, we would set behind the driver. If someone would say anything, we ignored it. In many cases no one would say anything. So it was just a matter of just stepping out, at a challenging the system. It was just a matter of stepping out and challenging the system. By the late 1950s other dissenting voices were finding national audience. The rapid spread of television brought images of oppression and conflict from around the world into the american living room. The first we were watchers of blackandwhite television. I like to the news and history. They had on a documentary of Mahatma Gandhi and i was glued to the tv set. I cannot believe it. A little skinny, brown skin he out of india, with a diaper around him, let a movement of independence through nonviolence , through the teachings of jesus christ. Then i began to realize since i was only about 106 pounds, maybe i can do Something Like that to. Emmett till showed us what can happen if we broke the code. He made a negative remark to a caucasian lady. If we spoke out of turn, we, too, could die like emmett till. I remember seeing a picture of him when they pulled him out of the river and they let that be seen on television at that time. And then they showed him in his casket and i will never forget that. That was chilling, bone chilling, man. That sent me some messages. I do not know if you have ever felt suicidal of 14 years of age, but i did. Because i concluded quickly, if that is all that this life has to offer, then it is not worth living. In the fall of 1959, ezell, enrolled indavid the allblack college of carolina a entity. A t. My father said you have to attend a t college. Explore to get away and where ezell was. Ezell was a scholarship recipient who spent his adolescence in new york city. By virtue of them living together we did not have occasion to meet. First you determine joe is not your typical freshman male student. By and large his conversation was not about people or things. Ideals. Verysensed my family was proud. And we used to say, we may be poor, but we are proud. Which would say that the pants might be torn but they are clean. Joe mcneil was cute when he was a freshman and there was some new york background. At any time you are a girl from the south and a guy comes to town and he is from new york city, even if you just work there in the summer and would come here, this was really great. Joseph mcneil walked the campus with his head high. His major was engineering and physics. This guy had a mind like einstein, a photographic memory. He was quoting shakespeare, plato, aristotle. With the addition of joe mcneil the tightknit group numbered four and they quickly became inseparable. Fourese are extraordinarily different people who come together with a chemistry that bonds them into a solid unit. I think we nurtured each other and this was not available to a lot of people and i do not take it happens too often where four people think a lot alike about the same subjects. We got to the point where we could tell almost what each other was thinking. We began to share our classes together, and dinner together. And we would meet in the dormitories at i to have our discussions. The dormitories at night, to have discussions. It was during the dorm bull sessions the forefront first began to consider a public attack on the institution of segregation. First, we do not trust anyone over 18. We said they have had a lifetime and two lifetimes to do something and what they have done is greeted up. What they have done is screwed at up. These are guys who are very much aware of what is going on in terms of racism and they know they need social change and what things are not changing and they have grown up in the time of emmett till. They said we need to do something about this. We are tired of going to woolworths where we cannot get served. The inclination to get involve intensified and you get to a point where you have to get up and do things. Was common for us was David Richmond, who would sometimes in the heat of battle, one of his greatest strengths was to ask the question. We talked about it from september, from freshman orientation week, until after the Christmas Holidays when we came back. After returning from a christmas break to visit his parents in new york, joe mcneil was denied service at the Greyhound Bus station. For joe this was the breaking point. It was a degrading experience, three hours ago, i with allan being access, at all capabilities to go to any restaurant and to drink from any water fountain, to do that. And now, three hours later, i am treated as if i am at some type of pariah. Distraught andck he says, all right, we have to do something. We have been talking. Enough is enough. Frank and david came in on the scene. He began to talk with them. It went back and forth, the conversation from the next couple of weeks. It was very difficult. It was an ordeal but finally we said, lets do it. [indiscernible] i think it was exhaustion more than anything else. It was a way of saying look, lets stop talking and finally do something about it. That was a dare. Job put the dare to frank, and said are you chicken . He said, mccain, are you chicken . And then frank, in the moment of truth responded, he laid the gauntlet down and said no man, i and chicken. He looked at dane and richmond and said, yeah he said you, grasshopper, are you chicken . And david said no, man, i and chicken. I aint and they looked at me and said, e, are you chicken . And i set i have things to do. And he said we will vote on it in the democratic way, everybody in favor raise her hand. And you raise your hand. But there was another vote to parentalor jabreel, approval was essential. 31st, joenight of the mcneil, frank mccain, David Richmond and my son came to the house until we are going to do something tomorrow. This was a sunday night. We are going to do something tomorrow that will shake up the nation. And i said, shake up the nation, what are you talking about . Father said yeah. You guys are going to take a serious step. Do you realize what you are doing is going to affect not only her family, your friends, your community . Are you ready for that . You guys better watch your mouths. Your body language. Because the way you act is how people perceive you. The next afternoon the fort friends gathered in front of the library on the a t campus. I put on my sunday gotomeeting close, my suit and tie. Frank did not have time to change so he wears air force blue. Joseph or his battalion coat and was dressed to kill. And david had his leather cap on and was dressed immaculately. I did not know what was going to happen. I assumed we would be clubs on the head or we would be thrown in jail. But the one thing i was certain of, is that we were not coming back. Therom the time we left library until we reached downtown, we were somber, silent. I think we were all reflecting on what we were about to do, and trying to step ahead in time and project what is going to happen. Like this is so down, we were like the four musketeers. We are going to our destiny. When we walked into the store, we wanted to prove we were customers. And makea notebook, sure to get receipts. We mulled around in the store, just trying to get some fix on where we were and what we were about to do. Trying to breathe slow and have eight soma exide he would not get too high on me. I felt my temperature increase and i could feel my color sweat coming off the side of my face. Have to always ask joe what he was thinking. We looked at each other and both of us looked at the counter at the same time. We started to walk toward the counter, without a single word. Thats how it happened. And we took our seats. Almost instantaneously after sitting down on a simple dumb stool, i felt so relieved. I felt so clean. And i felt as though i had gained a little bit of my by a bicycle act. Simple act. Each otherooked at without saying a word, absolutely not a word. Maybe 40s about seconds or a minute later, it seems like a lifetime, that the people behind the counter acknowledged that we were sitting. And the waitress approached us. What do you boys want . We said we would like to be served, plays. Please. Now, you boys know that we do not serve colored people here, why dont you get up . And he pointed her she pointed her finger to the lunch counter over there. Said you do serve people here. We have receipts to prove that and we bought all of these things here. And we just want to be served here. Im trying to keep myself composed. And i can feel my legs shaking. Out came this colored lady and she said, what do you boys want . We would like to be served, place. She said, im going to say this to you, you all need to leave now and go back to the campus because your starting trouble. It is people like you who make our race look bad. I used to wonder why, sometimes, i could not sit and eat meals and i thought what is wrong with me that i cannot sit at the counter and be served, i was good enough to work and prepare the food for others but i cannot sit there and have a meal. And that was hard to take. Left. Waitress caucasianut this tall man we found out was a manager, mr. Harris. He said, i do not know who sent you boys, but i pride myself on having a good store. He said, i do not want any trouble. We could see the manager was worried and he had a frown on his face. He does not know what to do. Meanwhile, some of the caucasian people are getting up and leaving. Shortly thereafter we noticed a policeman comes into the store and he is as red as your shirt when he sees us sitting at the counter. He took his nightstick out. Myself, i think this is it. I could almost feel his hot breath. This guy was breathing fire. One of the officers started to take his billy club and hit it in his aunt. In his hand. That was unsettling to say the least. Meanwhile tension is going full speed. Tr chattering and sweat is pouring off me like a river. I can imagine his thinking i know what i want to do but i have no justification for doing it yet, because i have not been provoked. And once he paced two or three times i did not do anything i said to myself he does not know what to do. He is frustrated. Mccain and i are sitting at the lunch counter. An elderly white lady comes and sits next to mccain. And she starts the conversation about being disappointed in us and mccain inquires, maam, why are you disappointed in us . And she relates that she is disappointed because it took us so long to do what it is that we are doing. To hear someone say that, whom you least expect, was quite rewarding. It was quite calming and reassuring. That was observed by other folk in the store, there was not much noise anywhere. People stop talking. 48 five and . 10 store it was quiet, like church service. And 10 cent store, it was quiet like a church service. Leave hereese guys and get out of my life, that is the expression he had. A short time later it was announced the store was going to close early. Nothing occurred. The police remained. [indiscernible] the close to the store. We said we would be back. Store. Closed the we said we would be back. I felt relieved. A great weight had been taken off my shoulder. We witnessed a great transformation. David said if i do not do anything in my life i think this is the peak of my life and i have done my greatest job. J ump. People take on a religion to get that feeling. That is what buddhists do all the time. Here i am at 18 years of age having that feeling of total freedom, total acceptance. Im asking myself, what do i do for an encore . It is all downhill from here. On the sidewalk outside woolworths, a reporter caught up with the four sitins. He had been contacted by ralph johns, a local civil rights activist and friend of joe mcneils. The reporter asked if we were coming back the next day and we said yes, we will come back the next day. So we went back to campus that evening and thought we need to get some help. The way to get help we concluded is to summon those people on our campus who had leadership positions. We went to the deadly building as we passed the word that is where the meeting will be the passedbuilding as we the word that is where the meeting will be. We spent 9 of the meeting trying to convince them this was not a hoax. 90 percent of the meeting. Most agreed they would help us and i can confirm it was an printable only because the second day they did not come. It was in principle only, because the second day, they did not come. [dire music] long before the students arrived, people gathered among them were you pi and ap reporters and photographers and channel to. Presence ofm the the media someone did an excellent job getting coverage for th