[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. sit-inshe 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 day-to-day 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, jibreel's 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, don't 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 1950's, 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 people's lawns and they hang you and kill people. oh yeah? well what time is it? 3:00, don't worry, i have four or five hours to get myself ready. i'm not going on the street tonight. and my father said, i heard him say, nobody is coming to hurt my family. he said don't 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, 6'4". 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 1950's. 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 1950's 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 black-and-white 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 all-black 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, let's do it. [indiscernible] >> i think it was exhaustion more than anything else. it was a way of saying look, let's 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 ain't 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. that's 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 don't 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. >> i'm 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, i'm 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, ma'am, 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. i'm 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 sit-ins. he had been contacted by ralph johns, a local civil rights activist and friend of joe mcneil's. >> 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 the second day. >> i remember cameras coming the second day. they were in shock and disbelief as well. i think they did not believe we were coming back. >> one of the most important things about what greensboro apresents, is there happens point when television news is becoming a major institution. and for significant periods, what is going on in the south with black people it becomes a staple of television news. black people recognize that this show is your show and the show is our show. we are the ones now creating news in the society. >> a protest movement. >> i saw coverage on television and it had taken over the news every channel. in the classes and in the hallways at my school everything was like mass pandemonium. >> by now everyone in and around greensboro had learned of the protest. people on both sides of the issued spent that evening preparing to join the fray. >> the next day and high point, north carolina, students were sitting in. sound] >> at our opening at 9:30 a.m., any people or settled at the front door and there was a mad scramble for seats as they were allowed to enter. the media coverage had its effect and i knew that hundreds be involved in that woolworths was in the middle lane like the lane about highway in a no-win situation. i knew then the eventual result was that woolworths would serve but it would have to be when the fury subsided. woolworth's manager. three we started to get the idea. they wanted to get them to other white people who would come in and have lunch. >> tempers, people turning red in the face saying, knickers go home, segregation now, tomorrow and forever. people had begun to stand up and show their true feelings once they get over the shock factor. here are people coming in, upsetting our world. >> it was chaotic. you have the black community on the one side and then you had all of the white youngsters from the outlying areas coming downtown, trying to intimidate them. it got tough. youhad somebody taunting and you are going to fight back so we were afraid we were going to have an all out black-white fight in front of woolworth's. >> they were astonished at the fact we could be nonviolent and do that effectively and take all of that crab headed our way. for themas important andhiant the kind of g nonresistance they had as they sat there and opened their books and studied and refused to respond to incitement or provocation. one of the major issues was that you will treat me as a human being with dignity. and i will sit here until you decide that you have to treat me in that way. america was being taught how human beings are meant to deal with each other. >> it was also on the national news at that time. >> there were cameras coming to town. buses coming into greensboro. >> on the third day, winston-salem also decides to sit in too. the next day, raleigh and maybe portsmouth, virginia. murmers] >> things were more tense. the chancellor of the women's college remained -- arranged a meeting of parties involved. it was clear that woolworth's could expect no cooperation from the college officials or students. food service was at a standstill. curly harris, the woolworth's manager. >> we had a president who did not comport and say girls, you need to go. she said do where conference -- your conscience tells you to do. so several of us went down and just served as observers. >> we had the female students from queensboro college. and ansboro college, couple of folks from bennett who showed extraordinary acts of courage, because of the abuse heaped on them for participating was extremely high. >> one made a threat. i had a lot of difficulty being quiet and doing what the students had been directed to do and that was to be peaceful and not react to threats and so forth. that was very hard for me. after a while i was told by friends too late because i was quite angry. -- to leave because i was quite angry. i was proud when the white students from that women's college saying. >> when the three of us walked in these people occupying so no students could get in turned around and sauce and thinking we would join them said do want to sit down? and the three of us took our seats at the counter and when the waitress came up and asked what we wanted we said, i think there is someone here ahead of us. so at that moment, the cat, to speak, was out of the bag. with sat there for hours, things getting more and more hostile and more and more charged. but it seems a lot of students there were football players at a &t and they were big guys. the store closed at 5:30 p.m. and by 5:00 they had been started making moves to leave and made a circle around maryland and jean and myself and they walked us up the aisles, with this mob of people yelling and jeering and carrying on. they got us out to the sidewalk in one of the most moving moments of my entire life was the fact that we stood and they said the lord's prayer in the middle of this circle. and then some but he had called a taxicab. the guys opened it up and put the three of us in the back of a cabin and that is how we got back to campus. >> one of the bennett college men on the scene out woolworth's was betty davis who had recently become friends with frank mccain. and hes probably quiet had come from washington, d.c., where women were different. i had gone to this private school, and thought i had to be a lady all the time and i was going to do that. >> i finally said to her, i like you and you are nice person, but i do not have time to do what dies my age do. -- what guys who are my age do. you are either with me or you are on the others. so she saw fit to come downtown and demonstrate. i look up and who do i see? there is betty. someone who never dreamed they would be downtown demonstrating. [loud crowd] >> more people gathered. people in the store were mostly observers, not customers. the greensboro store had been a leader in sales and profits in the southeast region. now in this tense atmosphere, the selling of merchandise was hardly possible. woolworth's manager. >> the tension was high and there were three students downtown. 300 students downtown and this was a dangerous thing. no one knew where they were going to go and no one wanted to get sent home. >> my parents were shocked. they said you did what? we sent you to the school to get an education. but you are choosing to do what? and it is in the newspapers? and you might be going to jail? and then we went to jail, by the school the next step was that we were indoctrinated or inducted into the united states army. >> that anxiety was most acute for david richmond who had recently become a father. >> a lot of things were forced on david's life at an early age. >> here's a guy at 18 years of age who is involved with us. who has a son, a marriage, a job, and school. ♪ sit-inshile the four were becoming keenly aware of the normative of the moment they had launched. -- of the and norma t -- enormity of the movement they had launched. >> this call like wildfire more than i or any of the other three had imagined. ♪ [crowd shouting] >> by 9:30 a.m., all seats were occupied and then 1000 people were in woolworth's filling up the aisles and watching to see what would take place. the woolworth's manager. >> i durham ever huge numbers. -- i do remember huge numbers. it has been captured on film and you can see the tension in the air. >> it as not as though we were immune to people resorting to violence. i expect to violence. >> -- i expected violence. , the sit ins had spread to other department stores. >> frankly i wish this would go away because our business was suffering. most people felt stay out of downtown unless you have urgent business. >> we have occupied spaces at the lunch counter. and there was a lot coming from the other side. amid all the shouting and noise, all of a sudden there was this quietness. when we turned to look, at the top of the stairs were the football team and their blue and gold jackets. steps, descended the things got very quiet and at that point i remember the manager getting on the lunch counter declaring this place was closed. ,> meanwhile, at woolworth's the crowd grew more hostile. >> this caucasian guy came up and saw the 6'3" football player and said, nager, i'm going to kick your asked. all of a sudden this football player gave an elbow, wham!. >> i felt my face get tight and then there was the city council saying, you boys need to cool this down a bit, things are getting to dangerous out there and we are afraid there is going to be a race explosion. >> at 1:09 p.m., the information desk relayed an urgent request to the manager to answer the phone. the caller stated there was a bomb set to explode at 1:30 p.m., and hung up. i was asked, what are we going to do? to which i answered, let's close up. >> woolworth's manager. >> around 1:00 today the management said we are closing the store, there is a bomb threat, everyone leave and go home. i have seen these girls running up the step and some were crying. come on, youd said have to come out of here and i said what is going on? and she said is a bomb threat. and i throw things down and i started and i went down the steps, and i looked upstairs, and mr. harris was up there looking out the window. and i thought to myself, if it is a bomb threat, why is he up there looking out the window? >> finally the stores were closed. and the students began to snake dance back to campus. over.s all over.op, it's all ♪ saturday a moratorium was called. officialsget store and city officials an opportunity to work things out. that did not occur. andent back into the stores we occupied the counters at the kress and woolworth's. we refused to leave the area and we were arrested for trespassing. >> the protest continued through spring. when the college students left for summer recess, dudley high school students took their place. 26, 1960, after nearly a half year of protest and negotiation, the store manager decided to integrate woolworth's lunch counter. >> i think he realized when the kids came back to school there would be hell to pay. and that is why think he managed to do it over the summer. >> i think what is remarkable and what makes greensboro distinctive is that this really thenoff in greensboro, and the press comes in and you have tv cameras. haveithin two months you 54 cities in nine states and everyone covering this. within six months you have a four-page segment of the new york times every day, doing nothing but talk about civil rights to most rations. -- civil rights demonstrations. >> that leads to young people in these towns and cities asking themselves, what kind of role should they be playing? a great is obviously drama that is beginning to open up in the society. ♪ >> that simple act of sitting down to eat turned out to be the catalyst that ignited a decade of revolt. the students had discovered the power of direct action protest. their energy and exam was spread quickly in cities in nashville, atlanta and throughout the south. as one protester put it, that dimestore was the birthplace of a whirlwind. ♪ >> what february 1 did was provide a new language, the space, the opportunity for a generation to, live. when that generation came alive, the movement was transformed, and everything else felt into place behind that new movement. ♪ >> that was the beginning of the end of downtown because the department stores left downtown and moved out to the suburbs. >> we have moved our communities to malls and strip malls. this downtown should be the center of attention, and the heart of greensboro. >> greensboro is divided. greensboro has a history of racism that is so institutionalized that sometimes it is difficult for us to see that. >> that to terrier ration of the downtown -- the deterioration of the downtown was a sign of the times that went along with building shopping centers. there was also a media affect that went on as a result of these marches and so forth. maker cafeteria went out of business. greensboro four were facing life after college and one by one to begin leaving greensboro. david richmond stayed behind. probablyrichmond was the gentlest of the four. he had a tendency to quietly weep inside. he was treated like dirt, immediately after the sit-ins here in greensboro. one employer after the next would very quickly find out he was one of those four troublemakers back in 1960. he had difficulty, in fact it was almost impossible to get a job. is now arichmond, soft-spoken janitor at a greensboro nursing home. >> the fact that they were involved and were so as well and were the leaders of this, really set them up to be targets for the community's discussed. >> it had a negative impact on your life? >> yes. >> what kind, how? >> i would prefer not to talk about it. but if you cannot stand heat, do not go near the fire. i am happy. i can live with the abuse. >> where is that abuse coming from? is it coming from the black community, or is it coming from the white community? >> since we were labeled radicals, and i have not outlived that image yet. >> he was even threatened, his life was threatened. that had an impact on him. >> i remember being in a restaurant with him. he had tears rolling down his cheek. in a conversation we were having. the waitress came up and said, excuse me, but is everything all right? and he looked at her and said, not really. everything is all right in here, thank you. but it is out there where everything is not all right. >> he had two marriages that had failed. and those took a toll on him, that he turned to alcohol. ♪ >> he began to show the wear and tear on his mental self and his physical self. then he started talking about he was nobody. i knew something was wrong with david. this is not the david richmond i knew. he started to say i'm nobody and everybody 70 but i am nobody. and i said don't say that, david please. come with me to massachusetts. i can get you a job there. and he said i cannot go, my parents are sick and i have to stay with my parents. so that is the last time i really talked with him about leaving greensboro. >> on december 7, 1990 david richmond died in greensboro. ♪ david's love leads to freedom. love knows no color, knows no inequality. it knows only equality. it knows no injustices, it knows only justice. >> a true believer is one who will just absolutely give up his life for the thing he believes and. you do not meet too many of those people but i think i know three of them. i have met three in this life and david is one of them. >> looking back now, if you had it to do over again, would you? >> definitely. >> i feel pretty good about it. at least i accomplished something, one thing, in my life, that i am proud of. ♪ [crowd cheering] [applause] ♪ this is a proud moment for us. it is a proud moment for greensboro. it is a proud moment for america and the world. a&tre thankful that foou freshman sat down years ago so we may stand today. the three surviving children ofthe david richmond are reunited for the dedication of a monument on the a&t campus. the men, all accompanied by children and ran children, were nearing 60 years of age. frank mccain had retired to concentrate on volunteer work and joe mcknight had stepped down after achieving the rank of major general general in the air force reserves. >> when i think of sculptors and monuments, the ones that really have impacted me in the past are the ones like the vietnam memorial. eyesi have tears in my because i know that it is more than just granite. it represents those who may have lost their lives and gone in harm's way. freshman ort ordinary people and there were lots of ordinary people who made this thing work. >> february 1 in terms of origin and concept, it was triply personal. -- it was strictly personal. there were some good things that came out of for bray first that meant something to the world at large. but it was strictly personal for and josephl blair and david. manhood and dignity. we do not go down to woolworth's to save the world. >> something happens that day and that is where i saw the courage of my friends. you can see it in all of them today. me,atter where we go, for they are some of the greatest human beings on the face of the earth. because we believe in magic. and they performed magic. ♪ >> on september 2, 19 63, nbc program discussing the current state of the civil rights movement. ofnext, a 50-minute portion the special. >> every revolution has its marching units. the american revolution of 1963 forged it into a powerful weapon for unity and inspiration.

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