>> from the bus boycott in monger, alabama until february 1, 1960, virtually nothing happened in the arena of civil rights. it was dead, absolutely 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 to february 1, 1960. i happened to be there. mcneil happened to be there. ♪ >> when you hear a railroad, the train is coming from far away and it is coming closer and you become increasingly aware of the track the train is rolling on. that track is what divides white from black. that's what separates the white ghetto from the black ghetto. it's the track that heads somewhere but you do not know exactly where. and it is not really for the good of society. and before sit-ins, walked right across the track in the wrong direction, went to the other side. ♪ >> i think greensboro liked to think of itself as polite and being polite and moderate and open to different points of view. >> greensboro is a town that does not like a lot of controversy. life was 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 pretty straightforward. ♪ >> in greensboro, north carolina, ezell blair, jr., was born on the eve of the second world war. >> met my father, she came from a tradition of spiritual people before my mother met my father, she came from a tradition of spiritual people and blues people. time wasl at that small and he was always do things differently. he really embraced people very easily. they loved him. anything he would do was right. >> after the end of world war ii, jibreel's father returned home. >> my mother said he changed and . i saw a picture of my mother and sister about a year and a half . everybody had smiles and what have you. everybody was peaceful. but the guy i saw when eyes for i was four or 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. >> when he was a kid, he had this little doll. he decided he would become a ventriloquist. 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? grown men don't play with dolls. and you are playing with this doll. jibreel: my father, he was aggressive. 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. >> our family dinnertime was a 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. >> throughout the 1950's, the blair children were challenged to look beyond that comfortable the comfortable veneer of their community. >> segregation had ills and some 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 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. >> the greensboro authorities did not see themselves in the same light as a birmingham or bull connor. 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 don't 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. they said because your mouth can either bring you to glory, or it can bring you to hell. ♪ about nine years old, the ku klux klan came to the community and put out a message. we are catching the -- on the street at night and we are going to kill them and burn a cross in front of their house. 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 and kill people. oh yeah? well, let me get in the house. 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. ♪ breel enrolled 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". handsome guy. ladies liked him. franklin: i met ezell at dudley high school. he has not changed much. 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 the jim crow laws had been repealed earlier in the 1950's. what he encountered in greensboro infuriated him. franklin: it did not make me less angry. that's for sure. in fact i was probably more , angry than my parents and grandparents and all the other generations combined. i did not hate anybody but i just thought the system had betrayed me. >> in their junior chemistry class, ezell and frank befriended david richmond, the most popular student at dudley high school. >> when he and i were on the track team, 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. >> david richmond new the true meaning of friendship. tough times and good times and the laughing times and the crying times. ♪ >> martin luther king came to greensboro in 1958 and spoke at bennett college. among those in the overflow jabreel and david 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 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. >> as kids, we were the first watchers of black-and-white television. i liked the news and history. they had on a documentary of mahatma gandhi, and i was glued to the tv set. i couldn't believe it. a little, skinny brown skinned guy out of india, with a diaper around him, led 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 hey maybe i can do something , like that, too. 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. they let that be seen on television at that time. and then they showed him in his casket. i will never forget that. that was chilling, bone chilling, man. >> that sent me some messages. i don't know if you have ever felt suicidal of 14 years of age, but i did. because i concluded rather quickly, if that is all that this life has to offer, then it is not worth living. ♪ >> in the fall of 1959, ezell, frank, and david enrolled in the all-black college of carolina a&t. >> my father said you have to attend a&t college. do i really have to? i wanted to get away. i wanted to explore who ieze ll, junior, was. >> ezell was a scholarship recipient who spent his adolescence in new york city. >> by virtue of them living together, we did have occasion to meet. first, you determine joe is not your typical freshman male student. by and large his conversation was not about people. it was not about things. more of ideals. >> i sensed my family was very a very proud family. 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. any you are a girl from the anytime 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. ♪ group numbered four and they - >> with the addition of joe mcneil the tightknit group numbered four and they quickly became inseparable. >> these are four 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 think it happens too often where four people think a lot alike about the same subjects. in fact, 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 then we would meet in the dormitories at night to have our discussions. >> it was during the dorm bull sessions the forefront first began to consider a public attack on the institution of segregation. >> first of all, we did not trust anybody over 18. we said they have had a lifetime , two lifetimes to do something and what they have done is screwed at up. >> these are guys who are very much aware of what is going on with 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, man. we are tired of going downtown where we cannot get served. >> the inclination to get involved intensified and you get to a point where you have to get up and do things. >> the guy who was kind of a common voice was david richmond, who would sometimes in the heat of battle, one of his greatest strengths was to just 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 experienced. three hours ago, i was a human allg with all access and 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 some type of pariah. ♪ >> joe comes back very distraught, and he says all , right, we have to do something. we have been talking. enough is enough. so frank and david came in on the scene. he began to talk with them. it went back and forth, the conversation, for the next couple of weeks. >> it was very difficult. ordeal. painstaking but finally we said, let's do it. >> i think it was exhaustion more than anything to be honest with you. it was a way of saying, look, let's stop talking and finally do something. >> that was a dare. joe 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 got lit down. not a chicken. he looked at dane and richmond . >> yeah. >> he said you, grasshopper, are you chicken? and david said no, man, i ain't chicken. and they looked at me and said, e, are you chicken? i said, come on, man. i have things to do. and he said we will vote on it in the democratic way. everybody in favor, raise your hand. >> and you raised your hand. >> but there was another vote to be cast. for jibreel, parental approval was essential. >> on the night of the 31st, joe mcneil, frank mccain, david richmond, and my son came to the house and said, 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 guys realize what you are doing is going to affect not only your families, 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 four friends gathered in front of the library on the a&t campus. >> i put on my sunday go to meeting clothes, suit and tie. frank did not have time to change so he wears air force blue uniform. joseph wore his battalion coat and was dressed to kill. and david had his leather cap on and was dressed immaculately. >> i had some anxiety. my anxiety was we did not know what was going to happen. i assumed we would be clubbed 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. ♪ >> from the time we left the 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. it was 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. i bought a notebook and made 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. >> i was trying to breathe slow and heavy so my anxiety would not get too high on me. i felt my temperature increase . my sweat coming off the side of my face. >> i did not 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 manhood by that simple act. joe and i looked at each other without saying a word, absolutely not a word. and it was about maybe 40 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, please. now, you boys know that we do not serve colored people here, why don't you get up? and she pointed her finger to the lunch counter over there. we said, we disagree with you. we 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, please. she said, i'm going to say this to you, you all need to leave right now and go back to the campus because your starting trouble. it is people like you who make our race look bad. you got that? >> i used to wonder why, sometimes, i could not sit and eat meals. 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. that was kind of hard to take. >> the waitress left. she sent out this tall caucasian man who 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 man 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. and i said to myself, you know, 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 hand. that was perhaps unsettling, to say the least. >> meanwhile, tension is going full speed. teeth are chattering and sweat is pouring off me like a river. >> i can imagine he was 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 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, quite reassuring. when that was observed by other folk in the store, there was not much noise anywhere. people stopped talking. for 5 and 10 cent store, it was quiet, it was more like a church service. he goes back to the corner and leans against the wall. won't these guys leave here and please get out of my life, that is the kind of expression he had. a short time later, it was announced the store was going to close early. >> nothing occurred. the police remained. they did not arrest us. we shopped. they closed the store. we said we would be back. ♪ >> i felt relieved. i felt like a great weight had been taken off my shoulder. we had witnessed between ourselves a great transformation. david said, if i do not do anything else in my life, i think this is the peak of my life and i have done my greatest job. >> 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 woolworth's, 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. >> we need to get some help. the way to get help, joe and i concluded, is to summon those people on our campus who had leadership positions. we went to the dudley building as we passed the word that is where the meeting will be. when we started that session, we spent 90% of the meeting trying to convince them this was not a hoax. most agreed they would help us and i can confirm it was in principle only, because the second day, they did not come. ♪ >> long before the students arrived, people gathered and among them were upi and ap reporters and photographers and channel 2 tv crews. it seems from the presence of 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 represents is there happens a point when television news is becoming a major institution. and for significant periods, what is going on in the south with black people becomes a staple of television news. and 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 issue spent that evening preparing to join the fray. >> the next day in high point, north carolina, students were sitting in. [crowd sound] >> at our opening at 9:30 a.m., many people were assembled 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 would be involved and that woolworth's was in the middle lane like the lane about highway in a no-win situation. i knew then the eventual result, woolworth's would serve but it would have to be when the fury subsided. woolworth's manager. >> on day three, we started to get opposition. what they wanted to do is take seats and get them to other white people who would come in and have lunch. >> tempers flaring, people turning red in the face saying, niggers go home, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. >> i believe people had begun to stand up and show their true feelings once they got 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. you know, it just got tough. you had somebody taunting you, you are going to fight back, so we were afraid we were going to have an all out black-white war right there in front of woolworth's. >> they were astonished at the fact we could be nonviolent and do that effectively and take all that crap that was headed our way. >> that was important for them, to adopt the kind of gandhian 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 , 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. then the next day, raleigh and maybe portsmouth, virginia. [crowd murmurs] >> things were more tense. the chancellor of the women's college arranged a meeting of parties involved. it was clear that woolworth's could expect no cooperation from the college officials or students. food services were at a virtual standstill. curly harris, the woolworth's manager. >> we had a president who was liberal and understanding. she did not come forward and say girls, you need to go. was, do what your conscience tells you to do. so several of us went down and just served as observers. >> we had the female students from greensboro college, and a couple of folks from bennett who showed, in my estimation, extraordinary acts of courage, because of the abuse heaped on them for participating was extremely high. >> one made a threat to me. there's a nigger's girlfriend. let's get her. 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. as a matter of fact, after a while, i was told by friends to leave because i was quite angry. i was especially proud when the white students from that women's college came. >> when the three of us walked in, these people occupying so no a&t students could get in turned around and saw us 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. of course, at that moment, the cat, so to speak, was out of the bag. so we sat there for hours, with 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. and by 5:00, they had been started making moves to leave and made a circle around marilyn 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 somebody had called a taxicab. the guys opened it up and put the three of us in the back of the cab 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. >> i was probably quiet and he had come from washington, d.c., where women were a little bit 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, you are nice person, but i do not have time to do what guys who are my age do. you are either with me or you are on the other side. so she saw fit to bring her hips 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 both sales and profits in the southeast region. now in this tense atmosphere, the selling of merchandise was hardly possible. curly harris, woolworth's manager. >> the tension was high and there were 300 students downtown and this was a dangerous thing. nobody knew how they were going to go and no one wanted to get sent home. >> my parents were going to be a little bit shocked. you did what? we sent you to that 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 if 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 a very 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. >> meanwhile, the four sit-ins were becoming keenly aware of the enormity of the movement they had launched. >> i get a sense that 35 or 40 cities were involved. >> this caught on 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 soon after, 1000 people were in woolworth's filling up the aisles and watching to see what would take place. curly harris, woolworth's manager. >> 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 things that caused people to resort to violence. i fully expected violence. yes, indeed. >> by this time, the sit ins had spread to other department stores. bringing downtowns greensboro to a standstill. >> quite honestly, i wished this would go away because our business was suffering. most people felt the same way, stay out of downtown unless you have urgent business. because wes tension had occupied spaces at the lunch counter. and there was a lot of heckling 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 in their blue and gold jackets. as they descended the steps, 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 this 6'3" football player and said, nigger, i'm going to kick your a. all of a sudden, this football player gave an elbow, wham! things are getting tight and then there was the city council saying, you boys need to cool this down a bit, things are getting too 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. curly harris, woolworth's manager. >> around 1:00 that day, 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 steps and some were crying. lisa jones came and said come on, you have to come out of here and i said, what is going on? and she said, it 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. shoop, it's all over. shoop, it's all over. shoop, it's all over. shoop, it's all over. shoop, it's all over. shoop, it's all over. ♪ >> that saturday, a moratorium was called. trying to get store officials and city officials an opportunity to work things out. that did not occur. we went back into the stores and 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 the spring. when the college students left for summer recess, dudley high school students took their place. finally, on july 26, 1960, after nearly a half year of protest and negotiation, store managers 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 took off in greensboro, and then the press comes in and you have tv cameras. 1000 the fifth day. and within two months, you have 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 demonstrations. >> that leads to young people in these towns asking themselves, what kind of role should they be playing in what is obviously a great 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 example 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 in effect, provide a new language, the space, the opportunity for a generation to come alive. when that generation came alive, the movement was transformed, and everything else fell 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. >> the deterioration of downtown was a sign of the times that went along with building and shopping centers. there was also, to some effect, a media affect that went on as a result of these marches and so forth. mayfair cafeteria went out of business. >> by 1964, the greensboro four were facing life after college . one by one, they begin leaving greensboro. but david richmond stayed behind. >> david richmond was probably 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. >> david richmond is now a soft-spoken janitor at a greensboro nursing home. >> the fact that they were involved and were so visible and were the leaders of this really set them up to be targets for the community's disgust. >> any kind of negative impact on your life? >> yes. >> what kind, how? >> i would prefer not to talk about it. but if you cannot stand the 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? >> 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 is somebody 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. he said, i cannot go, my parents are sick and i have to stay with my parents. joke with that, the last time i really talked with him about leaving greensboro. >> on december 7, 1990, david richmond died in greensboro. >> david's memorial reads, 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 in. 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. we are thankful that four a&t freshmen sat down 42 years ago so we may stand today. ♪ >> on february 1, 2002, the three surviving sit-ins and the children of david richmond are reunited for the dedication of a monument on the a&t campus. the men, all accompanied by children and grandchildren, nearing 60 years of age. frank mccain had retired to concentrate on volunteer work and joe mcneil had stepped down after achieving the rank of major 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. when i go to that one, i have tears in my eyes 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. the four a&t freshmen were ordinary people and there were lots of ordinary people who made this thing work. >> february 1, in terms of origin and concept, it was strictly personal. there were some good things that came out of february 1 that meant something to the world at large, and it happened that there were good things for other folks, but it was strip me personal. it was personal for frank, ezell blair and joseph mcneil and david. manhood and dignity. that's what we were trying to get. we did not go down to woolworth's to save the world. >> something happened that day and that was when i saw the courage of my friends. you can see it in all of them today. no matter where we go, for me, they are some of the greatest human beings on the face of the earth. because we believe in magic. and they performed magic. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> you can watch archival films on public affairs in their entirety on our weekly series reel america. saturday and sunday, here on american history tv. >> >> on september 2, 1963, nbc aired a program discussing the current state of the civil rights movement. up next, a 50-minute portion of the special. will bring this sitting movement, the assassination of men forever's the little rock school integration crisis. [chanting] >> every revolution has its marches. the american revolution of 1963 forged it into a powerful weapon for unity and inspiration. ♪ ♪

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